# Connecting clients to the llama.cpp server

This guide covers wiring the Qwen3.8-27B llama.cpp server (OpenAI-compatible
API on `:8080`) into Open WebUI, opencode, Claude Code, and other tools.

Server: `http://<HOST>:8080`
Base URL: `http://<HOST>:8080/v1`  ← use this for OpenAI-style clients

> Note: llama.cpp exposes an **OpenAI-compatible** API. It is *not* an
> Ollama-protocol server (no `GET /api/tags`, `/api/chat`, etc.). Most tools
> accept OpenAI-style endpoints, so that's fine. If you need a true Ollama
> clone API, see §6.

---

## 0. Quick reference — endpoints

| Endpoint | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `GET /v1/models` | list models |
| `POST /v1/chat/completions` | chat (reasoning model: returns `reasoning_content`) |
| `POST /v1/completions` | raw completions |
| `POST /v1/embeddings` | embeddings |
| `GET /health` | liveness |
| `GET /props` | server params (context size, etc.) |

Auth is optional (no `--api-key` set). If you set one later, pass it as
`Authorization: Bearer <key>`.

---

## 1. Open WebUI

Open WebUI (openwebui.com) connects fine via its **OpenAI API** connection.

### 1.1 Docker (recommended)
```bash
docker run -d -p 3000:8080 \
  -v open-webui:/app/backend/data \
  --name open-webui \
  --restart always \
  ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main
```

### 1.2 Point it at the llama.cpp server
1. Open `http://<HOST>:3000` and create an admin account.
2. **Admin panel → Settings → Connections → OpenAI API.**
   - **API Base URL:** `http://<HOST>:8080/v1`
   - **API Key:** anything non-empty, e.g. `local`
   - Enable if you want: "Enable Reasoning Content" (shows `thinking` blocks).
3. Click refresh/save. The model `Qwen3.8-27B-Uncensored-...` should appear in
   the model picker.

Notes:
- Open WebUI's **Ollama** connection type will *not* see this server (different
  protocol). Use the **OpenAI API** connection type.
- Optional: set `OPENAI_API_BASE_URL` / `OPENAI_API_KEY` env vars instead of the
  UI form.

---

## 2. opencode

opencode supports arbitrary OpenAI-compatible providers via the
`@ai-sdk/openai-compatible` driver.

### 2.1 `opencode.json` in your project
```json
{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "provider": {
    "qwenlocal": {
      "npm": "@ai-sdk/openai-compatible",
      "name": "Qwen3.8-27B (local)",
      "options": {
        "baseURL": "http://<HOST>:8080/v1",
        "apiKey": "local"
      },
      "models": {
        "Qwen3.8-27B-Uncensored": {
          "name": "Qwen3.8-27B Uncensored"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
```
Then start with:
```bash
opencode
# model picker -> qwenlocal/Qwen3.8-27B-Uncensored
```
or force it per run:
```bash
opencode --model qwenlocal/Qwen3.8-27B-Uncensored
```

### 2.2 Global config (optional)
Put the same `provider` block in `~/.config/opencode/opencode.json` to make it
available in every project.

Note: the model is a **reasoning** model — opencode will show the
`reasoning_content` stream as thinking output.

---

## 3. Claude Code

Claude Code speaks the Anthropic Messages protocol, so it needs a small
translation layer to talk to llama.cpp's OpenAI API.

### 3.1 Use claude-code-router (CCR)
```bash
npm install -g @musistudio/claude-code-router
ccr --set-base-url http://<HOST>:8080/v1
ccr --set-provider openai
ccr
```
Point `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` at the router and run Claude Code as usual.

### 3.2 Alternative: a generic OpenAI→Anthropic proxy
Any tool that translates `/v1/chat/completions` (OpenAI) to the Anthropic
Messages shape, e.g. LiteLLM, works:
```bash
pip install litellm[proxy]
litellm --model openai/qwen3.8-27b --api_base http://<HOST>:8080/v1 --port 4000
# then: export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:4000
```

Caveat: the uncensored Q4_K_P model has no tools/functions baked in beyond
basic chat — agentic tool-calling may be unreliable.

---

## 4. Other OpenAI-compatible clients

### 4.1 curl
```bash
curl http://<HOST>:8080/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "qwen",
    "messages": [{"role":"user","content":"Hello"}],
    "max_tokens": 200
  }'
```

### 4.2 Python (openai SDK)
```bash
pip install openai
```
```python
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="http://<HOST>:8080/v1", api_key="local")

resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="qwen",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
    max_tokens=200,
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)
# reasoning available as: resp.choices[0].message.reasoning_content
```

### 4.3 Node.js
```bash
npm i openai
```
```js
import OpenAI from "openai";
const client = new OpenAI({ baseURL: "http://<HOST>:8080/v1", apiKey: "local" });
const r = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "qwen",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello" }],
});
console.log(r.choices[0].message.content);
```

### 4.4 Local web UIs that accept an OpenAI endpoint
- **AnythingLLM** — Settings → LLM → "OpenAI" → custom base URL.
- **LM Studio / Jan** — treat the llama.cpp server as a remote OpenAI endpoint.
- **SillyTavern** — Chat Completion → Custom OpenAI → set base URL.
- **Continue.dev (VS Code)** — `models.yaml` with an openai provider + base URL.

---

## 5. Using the reasoning model properly

Qwen3.8-27B emits `thinking` internally before its `response`.

- OpenAI-compatible clients that surface `reasoning_content` (Open WebUI,
  opencode) will show it automatically.
- To disable/trim reasoning (lower latency, shorter answers), the chat template
  supports `reasoning_effort`: `"low"` | `"medium"` | `"xhigh"` (default).
  Most clients pass extra `chat_template_kwargs`; alternatively send it via the
  `chat_template_kwargs` field or set `enable_thinking: false`:
  ```json
  "chat_template_kwargs": {"reasoning_effort": "low"}
  ```
- If a client shows raw `<thinking>` / `<response>` tags, strip them, e.g. in
  Python: `re.sub(r"</?thinking>", "", text)`.

---

## 6. "I want an Ollama clone API"

**Done — a built-in proxy provides one.** `/opt/llama-server/ollama-proxy.py`
fakes both the **Ollama API** (`/api/chat`, `/api/generate`, `/api/tags`,
`/api/ps`, `/api/show`, `/api/embed`, …) **and the Anthropic Messages API**
(`/v1/messages`, `/v1/messages/count_tokens`) on port **11434**, translating
every request to the llama.cpp OpenAI backend on `:8080`. It runs as a systemd
service (`ollama-proxy.service`), pure Python stdlib, no third-party deps.

### 6.1 What the proxy exposes

| Endpoint | Purpose | Status |
|---|---|---|
| `GET /api/version` | version string | ✅ |
| `GET /api/tags` | list models (`Qwen3.8-Uncensored`) | ✅ |
| `GET /api/ps` | running models | ✅ |
| `GET /api/status` | cloud status (launcher) | ✅ |
| `GET /api/experimental/model-recommendations` | launcher hint | ✅ |
| `POST /api/show` | model details | ✅ |
| `POST /api/chat` | chat (stream + non-stream) | ✅ |
| `POST /api/generate` | single-prompt completion | ✅ |
| `POST /api/embed` / `/api/embeddings` | embeddings | ✅ |
| `POST /v1/messages` | **Anthropic Messages API** (Claude Code) | ✅ |
| `POST /v1/messages/count_tokens` | rough token estimate | ✅ |
| `GET /v1/models` | OpenAI-style model list | ✅ |
| `POST /v1/chat/completions` | OpenAI passthrough | ✅ |

Reasoning output from Qwen is exposed as `reasoning_content` on the Ollama
shape and `thinking`/`text` blocks on the Anthropic shape.

**Context length:** all four discovery endpoints (`/api/tags`, `/api/ps`,
`/api/show`, `/v1/models`) report `context_length: 262144` so tools don't
down-scale to a default (e.g. 128k).

### 6.2 Usage

```bash
# any Ollama-native client, point it at this box
OLLAMA_HOST=http://192.168.1.198:11434 ollama run Qwen3.8-Uncensored

curl http://192.168.1.198:11434/api/chat -d '{
  "model": "Qwen3.8-Uncensored",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "hi"}]
}'
```

### 6.3 Claude Code via `ollama launch claude`

`ollama launch claude` makes Claude Code talk to the **Anthropic `/v1/messages`**
endpoint at `OLLAMA_HOST`. The proxy implements it, so:

```bash
OLLAMA_HOST="http://192.168.1.198:11434" \
CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_CONTEXT_TOKENS=65536 \
ollama launch claude --model Qwen3.8-Uncensored
```

Important:
- **Use `192.168.1.198`**, this box's LAN IP — not a different address. Earlier
  guidance referenced `.165`, which is not this host.
- The proxy presents `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` = `OLLAMA_HOST`, so Claude Code talks
  directly to `:11434/v1/messages`.
- If you don't use `ollama launch`, the equivalent manual setup is:
  ```bash
  export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=ollama
  export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=
  export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://192.168.1.198:11434
  claude --model Qwen3.8-Uncensored
  ```
- **Tool calling: supported.** Anthropic `tools`, `tool_use`, and `tool_result`
  blocks translate to/from llama.cpp OpenAI function calls (verified: the model
  returns proper `tool_use` blocks, and multi-turn tool results are answered
  correctly). Streaming emits `input_json_delta` events for tool_use blocks.

### 6.4 Service management

```bash
systemctl status llama-server    # backend (llama.cpp, :8080)
systemctl status ollama-proxy    # API faker (:11434)
journalctl -u ollama-proxy -f    # proxy logs
```

Both are enabled at boot. The proxy needs the backend up; the unit has
`After=llama-server.service`.

---

## 7. Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Connection refused | Server stopped (`systemctl start llama-server`); wrong host/port |
| `401` | A `--api-key` was set; add `Authorization: Bearer <key>` |
| Model not in client list | Client cached models; hit refresh, or `curl /v1/models` to confirm |
| Slow first token | Reasoning model thinking; set `reasoning_effort: "low"` |
| OOM / VRAM errors | Reduce `-c`, or drop `--cache-type-k/v q4_0` trade-offs (see README §11) |
| Client needs Ollama API | Use the built-in proxy on `:11434` (§6) |
| `ollama launch <tool>` fails "something went wrong" | Check `journalctl -u ollama-proxy -f`; the launcher does `HEAD /` (heartbeat) + `GET /api/tags` first — both must return 200 |
| Tool calls return empty / no tool_use | Confirm the model supports tools via `POST /api/chat` with a `tools` array; the Q4_K_P GGUF does |