Connect Ollama

Connect to your Ollama local server. Add it from Workspace Settings > Models.

Base URL

Choose the URL from where the SurfSense backend runs.

SurfSense Runs in Docker

Use this when SurfSense is running from Docker and Ollama is running on your computer.

http://host.docker.internal:11434

Ollama Runs in Docker

Use this only when Ollama is a service in the same Compose stack as SurfSense.

http://ollama:11434

SurfSense Runs Without Docker

Use this when SurfSense and Ollama both run directly on the same computer.

http://localhost:11434

Ollama Runs on Another Computer

Use this when Ollama is running on another machine in your network.

http://<host>:11434

Replace <host> with the LAN IP or domain for that machine.

Embeddings on a Separate Ollama Server

Search-space model connections configure chat and completion models. The global embedding model is configured in the backend environment.

Use Chonkie's LiteLLM embedding provider when embeddings run on Ollama:

EMBEDDING_MODEL=litellm://ollama/nomic-embed-text
EMBEDDING_BASE_URL=http://host.docker.internal:11434

If chat and embeddings run on different Ollama instances, keep the chat model connection pointed at the chat server and set EMBEDDING_BASE_URL to the embedding server. OLLAMA_EMBEDDING_BASE_URL is also supported as an Ollama-specific fallback when EMBEDDING_BASE_URL is not set.

Add the Connection

1. Open Workspace Settings.
2. Go to Models.
3. Select Ollama.
4. Set API Base URL.
5. Leave API Key empty unless your endpoint needs one.
6. Select the models you want to enable.
7. Save the connection.

Do not add /v1 to the URL. SurfSense uses Ollama native routes such as /api/version and /api/tags.

Verify

From the host:

curl http://localhost:11434/api/version

From the SurfSense backend container:

docker compose exec backend curl http://host.docker.internal:11434/api/version
docker compose exec backend curl http://host.docker.internal:11434/api/tags

Troubleshooting

Name or service not known

The backend cannot resolve the host name.

Use http://host.docker.internal:11434 unless you run Ollama as a Compose service named ollama.

Connection refused

Ollama is not reachable from the backend.

Start Ollama and confirm that port 11434 is open.

No models found

Pull at least one model:

ollama pull llama3.2

Then refresh model discovery in SurfSense.