learning_ai_common_plat/__LOCAL_LLMs/docs/09-environment-variables.md

09 — Environment Variables Reference

All configuration variables for Ollama, Whisper, dashboard, and evals.

---

Ollama Server

Variable	Default	Purpose
OLLAMA_HOST	http://127.0.0.1:11434	Server bind address
OLLAMA_MODELS	~/.ollama/models	Model storage path
OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE	5m	How long to keep model loaded after last request
OLLAMA_FLASH_ATTENTION	false	Enable flash attention (faster, less RAM)
OLLAMA_KV_CACHE_TYPE	(none)	KV cache quantization (q8_0 = smaller RAM footprint)
OLLAMA_NUM_PARALLEL	1	Number of concurrent requests
OLLAMA_MAX_LOADED_MODELS	1	Max models loaded in RAM simultaneously
OLLAMA_GPU_OVERHEAD	(auto)	Reserved GPU memory (bytes)
OLLAMA_ORIGINS	*	Allowed CORS origins
OLLAMA_DEBUG	false	Enable debug logging
HTTP_PROXY	(system)	HTTP proxy for model downloads
HTTPS_PROXY	(system)	HTTPS proxy for model downloads
NO_PROXY	(none)	Hosts to bypass proxy

Performance Tuning Combo

OLLAMA_FLASH_ATTENTION=1 \
OLLAMA_KV_CACHE_TYPE=q8_0 \
OLLAMA_NUM_PARALLEL=2 \
OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE=10m \
ollama serve

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Extraction Service Evals (promptfoo)

Variable	Default	Purpose
OLLAMA_MODEL	llama3.1:8b	Model used by pnpm eval:ollama
OLLAMA_BASE_URL	http://localhost:11434/v1	OpenAI-compat endpoint for promptfoo
EXTRACTION_EVAL_TOKEN	(none)	Auth token for extraction-service evals

Usage

# Run evals with a different model
OLLAMA_MODEL=qwen2.5:7b pnpm eval:ollama

# Compare Gemini vs Ollama
EXTRACTION_EVAL_TOKEN=your-token pnpm eval:compare

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Python Sidecar (LangExtract)

Variable	Default	Purpose
LANGEXTRACT_PROVIDER	gemini	Switch to openai_compat for Ollama
LANGEXTRACT_BASE_URL	(Gemini)	Set to http://localhost:11434/v1 for Ollama
LANGEXTRACT_API_KEY	(Gemini key)	Set to ollama for local
LANGEXTRACT_MODEL	(Gemini model)	Set to llama3.1:8b or preferred model

Switch to Ollama

export LANGEXTRACT_PROVIDER=openai_compat
export LANGEXTRACT_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434/v1
export LANGEXTRACT_API_KEY=ollama
export LANGEXTRACT_MODEL=llama3.1:8b

---

Mission Control Dashboard

Variable	Default	Purpose
OLLAMA_URL	http://localhost:11434	Ollama server URL (used by API routes)
PORT	3100	Dashboard dev server port

Start with Custom Ollama URL

OLLAMA_URL=http://192.168.1.100:11434 npm run dev -- -p 3100

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Whisper.cpp

Whisper.cpp uses CLI flags rather than environment variables:

Flag	Purpose	Example
--model	Path to GGML model file	--model ~/whisper-models/ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin
--language	Input language	--language en
--file	Audio file path	--file recording.wav
--output-json	Output in JSON format	--output-json
--output-srt	Output as SRT subtitles	--output-srt
--output-vtt	Output as VTT subtitles	--output-vtt
--translate	Translate to English	--translate
--threads	Number of CPU threads	--threads 8
--processors	Number of processors	--processors 1
--print-colors	Colorize output by confidence	--print-colors
--no-timestamps	Omit timestamps	--no-timestamps
--port	Server port (whisper-server)	--port 8080

---

Proxy / Network (Corporate)

Variable	Value on This Machine	Purpose
HTTP_PROXY	http://cso.proxy.att.com:8080/	Corporate HTTP proxy
HTTPS_PROXY	http://cso.proxy.att.com:8080/	Corporate HTTPS proxy
NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED	0	Bypass Forcepoint SSL interception for Node.js
NO_PROXY	(not set by default)	Add ollama.com,registry.ollama.ai if pulls fail

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All Paths

Path	Content
~/.ollama/models/	Downloaded Ollama models
~/whisper-models/	Whisper GGML model files
/opt/homebrew/bin/ollama	Ollama binary
/opt/homebrew/bin/whisper-cli	Whisper CLI binary
/opt/homebrew/bin/ffmpeg	FFmpeg binary
__LOCAL_LLMs/dashboard/	Mission Control Next.js app
__LOCAL_LLMs/docs/	This documentation
services/extraction-service/evals/	Promptfoo eval configs