🧠 Ollama CLI Chat

A clean, minimal CLI application to interact with local Ollama models — featuring session management, chat persistence, and resume functionality.

✨ Features

• 🔁 Start New Chats with any supported local Ollama model.
• 💾 Save Chat Sessions automatically with timestamp and model.
• ♻️ Resume Previous Chats seamlessly — continue from where you left off.
• 🧹 Delete Chats with interactive selection.
• 📜 View Past Chat Messages before resuming sessions.
• ✅ Fully persistent and local – no cloud or external API dependency.
• 🧪 Built with cobra for a user-friendly CLI experience.
• 🌐 Internet-augmented responses using SerpAPI for real-time search within chats
• 🧠 Supports streamed response generation via Ollama API.

📦 Installation

🔨 Option 1: Download Prebuilt Binaries (Recommended)

Available for: Windows, macOS (Intel & ARM), Linux

Go to the Releases directory and download the binary for your OS:

OS Files

• Windows ollama-cli_windows_amd64.exe
• macOS ollama-cli_darwin_amd64 or ollama-cli_darwin_arm64
• Linux ollama-cli_linux_amd64

For macOS

• ollama-cli_darwin_amd64 (Intel)
• ollama-cli_darwin_arm64 (Apple Silicon: M1, M2, M3)

After downloading:

Before running the cli make sure the ollama is running.

# (macOS/Linux)
chmod +x ollama-cli_darwin_amd64 or ollama_cli_darwin_arm64 
or ollama-cli_linux_amd64

./ollama-cli_darwin_amd64 or ./ollama_cli_darwin_arm64 
or ./ollama_cli_linux_amd64

# (Windows)
Open cmd and navigate to Directory where the .exe is.
.\ollama-cli_windows_amd64.exe

⚙️ Option 2: Build from Source

Requirements: Go 1.22+, Ollama installed and running locally.

⚠️ Important: Ollama must be running locally on the default URL (http://localhost:11434) for this CLI to function correctly.

Start Ollama in a separate terminal before using the CLI:

ollama serve

Then build and run the CLI:

git clone https://github.com/Ashank007/ollama-cli.git
cd ollama-cli
go build -o ollama-cli
./ollama-cli

Or run directly:

go run .

🚀 Usage

Start the CLI:

./ollama-cli chat

You'll see an interactive menu:

🧠 What would you like to do?
[1] Start a new chat
[2] Continue a previous chat
[3] Delete a chat
[4] Exit

List saved chats:

./ollama-cli list

🗃️ Chat Storage

• Chats are saved locally in the .chats directory.
• Filenames include session name and timestamp.
• All history is preserved in JSON format.

🔍 Usage

To search within a chat, type:

search: What is the latest update on NVIDIA GPUs?

The CLI will:

• Fetch top search results from SerpAPI
• Display the result in your chat
• Automatically append it into the context

🔐 Set Your API Key

You can set your SerpAPI key in this way:

./ollama-cli set-key keyhere

How to get API Key?

• Go to https://serpapi.com and Register or Sign in
• Go to Api Key Section
• Copy the Private API Key and Done.

💬 Commands Overview

Command Description

chat	Start, resume, or delete chat sessions
list	View all saved chat sessions
set-key Set your SerpAPI key

🔧 Configuration

You can choose the model interactively when starting a chat, or predefine it using:

./ollama-cli chat --model llama3

📁 Project Structure

cmd/
├── api.go                # Api Logic
├── chat.go               # Chat command & interaction
├── chat_handler.go       # Chat loop logic
├── config.go             # Save the SERP Api key
├── list_chats.go         # List command
├── listmodels.go         # List All Local Models
├── model_picker.go       # Model selection logic
├── root.go               # CLI root setup
├── setkey.go             # Setting Key Logic Here
├── storage.go            # Chat persistence (save/load/delete)
├── types.go              # Message and Session struct definitions
├── websearch.go          # Web Search Logic

❓ FAQ

Q: Can I use this without internet?

Yes, all chats run locally if your model is downloaded.

Q: Does this support OpenAI or only Ollama?

It is made for Ollama Only.

🧠 Under the Hood (Tech Stack)

⚙️ Go 1.22
🐍 spf13/cobra for CLI structure
🧠 Ollama API for model interaction
🗂️ JSON-based local chat persistence

📜 License

Licensed under the MIT License.

🙌 Acknowledgments

• Powered by Ollama
• CLI framework: spf13/cobra