Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop can use Ollama Cloud, including Claude Cowork and Claude Code inside the app.

Requirements

• Claude Desktop for macOS or Windows
• An Ollama API key

Set the key in your shell before launching:

export OLLAMA_API_KEY=your_api_key

Quick setup

ollama launch claude-desktop

To bring back the usual Anthropic Claude profile later, run:

ollama launch claude-desktop --restore

Using Ollama Cloud models

After setup, Claude Desktop discovers your available Ollama Cloud models automatically. For example, kimi-k2.6 appears inside Claude Cowork.

The same models are also available to Claude Code inside Claude Desktop:

Configure without launching

ollama launch claude-desktop --config

Restore normal Claude

Switch Claude Desktop back to its usual profile:

ollama launch claude-desktop --restore

If Claude Desktop is running, use --yes to approve the restart automatically:

ollama launch claude-desktop --restore --yes

Supported with Ollama

Claude Desktop with Ollama currently supports:

• Ollama Cloud as the third-party inference gateway
• Automatic model discovery from Ollama Cloud
• Claude Cowork with Ollama Cloud models
• Claude Code inside Claude Desktop with the same cloud models
• subagents (tell Claude to have subagents inherit the current model)

Claude Desktop with Ollama does not support yet:

• Web search
• Extensions