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Quickstart

From zero to a real answer from your own model in about five minutes.

Five steps from nothing to a real answer from a model you run yourself. No GPU needed: a small model runs on an ordinary CPU.

1. Run a node#

You need Node.js 20 or newer. There is no build step and one runtime dependency.

bash
git clone https://github.com/ART3MISCLOUD/elyra.git
cd elyra
npm ci --omit=dev
npm start

Open http://localhost:8545/app/. That is your control panel. The node also serves an OpenAI-compatible endpoint at http://localhost:8545/v1.

Good to know: until you attach a real model, every answer comes from a simulated demo peer and is labelled SIM. That is on purpose, so a fresh install has something to show. The next two steps replace it with a real model.

2. Attach a model with Ollama#

bash
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh -o ollama-install.sh   # read it first
sh ollama-install.sh
ollama pull llama3.2:1b                                          # about 1.3 GB

Pick the model by free RAM: about 1B for 4 GB free, 3B for 8 GB, 7-8B for 16 GB or more. Details and sizing in Run a real model.

3. Connect it in the panel#

On the Overview page click Detect Ollama, then Add. The panel jumps to Connect, finds Ollama on port 11434 and shows a card saying it is ready. From now on, auto goes to your live model first, never to simulated peers.

Prefer the command line? Set ELYRA_UPSTREAM_URL=http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1 before starting the node (Configuration).

4. Send a request#

In the panel open Playground and say something, or:

bash
curl -i http://localhost:8545/v1/chat/completions \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"model":"auto","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Say hi in 3 words"}],"max_tokens":16}'

Check the response headers:

text
x-elyra-route: self:SELF - Ollama
x-elyra-model: llama3.2:1b
x-elyra-simulated: false

x-elyra-simulated: false is your proof the answer came from your model. The very first request after a model has been idle can take up to a minute while it loads into memory (it did here); later ones take about a second.

5. Point your tools at it#

Any client that speaks Chat Completions works unchanged:

bash
export OPENAI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8545/v1
export OPENAI_API_KEY=anything        # not checked: the endpoint is local only

Where next#

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