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First Model

Load your first model with ModelDock in three steps.

Step 1: Ensure Ollama is Running

ModelDock orchestrates Ollama — it needs the daemon running:

ollama serve

Check it's working:

ollama list

Step 2: Load a Model

import modeldock as md

# This auto-installs if missing, then returns a ready client
client = md.load("llama3")

On first run, ModelDock will:

  1. Check if llama3 is installed locally
  2. If not, download it from ollama.com (with progress bar)
  3. Verify the installation
  4. Return a ready-to-use client

Step 3: Use It

The returned client is the native Ollama client — use it directly:

# Chat
response = client.chat(
    model="llama3",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain Python decorators in one sentence."}]
)
print(response["message"]["content"])

# Or use md.run() for quick completions
result = md.run("llama3", prompt="What is a package manager for LLMs?")
print(result.text)

That's It

load() is idempotent — calling it again for an installed model is instant.

# First time: downloads (~4.7 GB for llama3:8b)
client = md.load("llama3")

# Second time: instant (already installed)
client = md.load("llama3")

Next Steps