Local AI on Coderrob

Building a Fully Local, Privacy-First AI Chat with Ollama and Open WebUI

Wed, 14 May 2025 05:14:13 -0500

Sometimes I want full control, not most, but total, end-to-end control over the tools I use to think, build, and create.

That’s where Ollama and Open WebUI comes in. This is my go-to local AI chat setup: a fully local, OpenAI-style interface that runs quietly on your machine without whispering a word to the cloud.

What I Use This For

This isn’t just an academic exercise in privacy. I use this:

Local LLMs as a Code Assistant in Visual Studio Code

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 10:00:17 -0600

I have been using a Visual Studio Code extension called Continue, and it has become one of my favorite ways to work with local LLMs.

The short version:

Continue lets you bring AI-assisted coding into VS Code while keeping the model, prompts, and workflow under your control.

That matters more than it sounds like it does.

Why Local Matters

Local models are not always the strongest models.

They are not always the fastest models.