Ollama Intern

The local intern for Claude Code. 41 job-shaped tools, evidence-first briefs, durable artifacts.

An MCP server that gives Claude Code a local intern with rules, tiers, a desk, and a filing cabinet. Claude picks the tool; the tool picks the tier (Instant / Workhorse / Deep / Embed); the tier writes a file you can open next week.

Also drives Hermes Agent on hermes3:8b — validated end-to-end 2026-04-19. The default ladder is hermes3:8b; qwen3:* is the alternate rail. See Use with Hermes below.

Hardware requirements: ~6 GB VRAM for hermes3:8b, or ~16 GB RAM for CPU inference. See handbook/getting-started for the full breakdown.

Not using Claude? The examples/ directory has a minimal Node.js and Python MCP client you can spawn over stdio. See also handbook/with-hermes.

No cloud. No telemetry. No "autonomous" anything. Every call shows its work.

New in v2.1.0

Feature pass extends existing tiers — no new tier class, atoms+briefs freeze at 18 stays intact.

• ollama_log_tail — read the NDJSON call log from inside an MCP session. handbook/observability.
• ollama_batch_proof_check — run tsc / eslint / pytest across a set of paths; single envelope with per-check pass/fail. New execution surface; see SECURITY.md.
• ollama_code_map — structural map of a code tree (exports, call-graph sketches, TODOs).
• ollama_code_citation — given a symbol, return the defining file + line + surrounding context.
• ollama_corpus_amend — additive in-place edits to an existing corpus; later answers surface has_amended_content: true.
• ollama_artifact_prune — age-based deletion with dry-run default. handbook/artifacts.
• Enhancements — summarize_deep now accepts source_path; corpus_answer surfaces amended-content state; new observability events documented end-to-end.
• New handbook pages — Observability (NDJSON log + jq recipes) and Comparison (honest matrix vs alternatives).

Lead example — one call, one artifact

// Claude → ollama-intern-mcp
{
  "tool": "ollama_incident_pack",
  "arguments": {
    "title": "sprite pipeline 5 AM paging regression",
    "logs": "[2026-04-16 05:07] worker-3 OOM killed\n[2026-04-16 05:07] ollama /api/ps reports evicted=true size=8.1GB\n...",
    "source_paths": ["F:/AI/sprite-foundry/src/worker.ts", "memory/sprite-foundry-visual-mastery.md"]
  }
}

Returns an envelope pointing at a file on disk:

{
  "result": {
    "pack": "incident",
    "slug": "2026-04-16-sprite-pipeline-5-am-paging-regression",
    "artifact_md":   "~/.ollama-intern/artifacts/incident/2026-04-16-sprite-pipeline-5-am-paging-regression.md",
    "artifact_json": "~/.ollama-intern/artifacts/incident/2026-04-16-sprite-pipeline-5-am-paging-regression.json",
    "weak": false,
    "evidence_count": 6,
    "next_checks": ["residency.evicted across last 24h", "OLLAMA_MAX_LOADED_MODELS vs loaded size"]
  },
  "tier_used": "deep",
  "model": "hermes3:8b",
  "hardware_profile": "dev-rtx5080",
  "tokens_in": 4180, "tokens_out": 612,
  "elapsed_ms": 8410,
  "residency": { "in_vram": true, "evicted": false }
}

That markdown file is the intern's desk output — headings, evidence block with cited ids, investigative next_checks, weak: true banner if evidence is thin. It's deterministic: the renderer is code, not a prompt. Open it tomorrow, diff it next week, export it into a handbook with ollama_artifact_export_to_path.

Every competitor in this category leads with "save tokens." We lead with here is the file the intern wrote.

Second example — build a corpus, then ask it

// 1. Build a persistent, searchable corpus over your project.
{ "tool": "ollama_corpus_index",
  "arguments": { "name": "sprite-foundry",
                 "paths": ["F:/AI/sprite-foundry/src"],
                 "embed_model": "nomic-embed-text" } }
// → { chunks_written: 1204, paths_indexed: 312, failed_paths: [] }

// 2. Ask an evidence-bound question against it.
{ "tool": "ollama_corpus_answer",
  "arguments": { "name": "sprite-foundry",
                 "query": "how does the worker handle OOM eviction?",
                 "top_k": 8 } }
// → { answer: "...", citations: [{chunk_id, path}...], weak: false }

Every claim in answer cites a chunk id validated server-side. Full walkthrough in handbook/corpora.

What's in here — four tiers, 41 tools

Job-shaped means each tool names a job you'd hand to an intern — classify this, extract that, triage these logs, draft this release note, pack this incident. The tool's input is the job spec; the output is the deliverable. No generic run_model / chat_with_llm primitive at the top.

Total: 18 primitives + 3 packs + 7 artifact tools = 28.

Freeze lines:

• Atoms frozen at 18 (atoms + briefs). No new atom tools.
• Packs frozen at 3. No new pack types.
• Artifact tier frozen at 7.

The full tool reference lives in the handbook.

Install

Requires Ollama running locally and the tier models pulled (see Model pulls below).

Claude Code (recommended)

Most users install this by adding it to their Claude Code MCP server config — no global install required. Claude Code runs the server on demand via npx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ollama-intern": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "ollama-intern-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OLLAMA_HOST": "http://127.0.0.1:11434",
        "INTERN_PROFILE": "dev-rtx5080"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Same block, written to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows).

Global install (advanced)

Only needed if you want the binary on your PATH for ad-hoc use outside Claude Code:

npm install -g ollama-intern-mcp

Use with Hermes

This MCP was validated end-to-end with Hermes Agent against hermes3:8b on Ollama (2026-04-19). Hermes is an external agent that calls into this MCP's frozen primitive surface — it does the planning, we do the work.

Reference config (hermes.config.example.yaml in this repo):

model:
  provider: custom
  base_url: http://localhost:11434/v1
  default: hermes3:8b
  context_length: 65536    # Hermes requires 64K floor under model.*

providers:
  local-ollama:
    name: local-ollama
    base_url: http://localhost:11434/v1
    api_mode: openai_chat
    api_key: ollama
    model: hermes3:8b

mcp_servers:
  ollama-intern:
    command: npx
    args: ["-y", "ollama-intern-mcp"]
    env:
      OLLAMA_HOST: http://localhost:11434
      INTERN_PROFILE: dev-rtx5080
      # hermes3:8b is the default ladder in v2.0.0, so tier overrides are
      # only needed if you're pinning a different local model.

Prompt shape matters. Imperative tool-invocation prompts ("Call X with args …") are the integration test — they give an 8B local model enough scaffolding to emit clean tool_calls. List-form multi-task prompts ("do A, then B, then C") are capability benchmarks for larger models; don't interpret a list-form failure on 8B as "the wiring is broken." See handbook/with-hermes for the full integration walkthrough + known transport caveats (Ollama /v1 streaming + openai-SDK non-streaming shim).

Model pulls

Default dev profile (RTX 5080 16GB and similar):

ollama pull hermes3:8b
ollama pull nomic-embed-text
export OLLAMA_MAX_LOADED_MODELS=2
export OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE=-1

Qwen 3 alternate rail (same hardware, for Qwen tooling):

ollama pull qwen3:8b
ollama pull qwen3:14b
ollama pull nomic-embed-text
export INTERN_PROFILE=dev-rtx5080-qwen3

M5 Max profile (128GB unified):

ollama pull qwen3:14b
ollama pull qwen3:32b
ollama pull nomic-embed-text
export INTERN_PROFILE=m5-max

Per-tier env vars (INTERN_TIER_INSTANT, INTERN_TIER_WORKHORSE, INTERN_TIER_DEEP, INTERN_EMBED_MODEL) still override profile picks for one-offs.

Uniform envelope

Every tool returns the same shape:

{
  result: <tool-specific>,
  tier_used: "instant" | "workhorse" | "deep" | "embed",
  model: string,
  hardware_profile: string,     // "dev-rtx5080" | "dev-rtx5080-qwen3" | "m5-max"
  tokens_in: number,
  tokens_out: number,
  elapsed_ms: number,
  residency: {
    in_vram: boolean,
    size_bytes: number,
    size_vram_bytes: number,
    evicted: boolean
  } | null
}

residency comes from Ollama's /api/ps. When evicted: true or size_vram < size, the model paged to disk and inference dropped 5–10× — surface this to the user so they know to restart Ollama or trim loaded-model count.

Every call is logged as one NDJSON line to ~/.ollama-intern/log.ndjson. Filter by hardware_profile to keep dev numbers out of publishable benchmarks.

Hardware profiles

Default dev collapses all three work tiers onto hermes3:8b — the validated Hermes Agent integration path. Same model top to bottom means there is one thing to pull, one residency cost, one set of behavior to understand. Users who prefer Qwen 3 (with its THINK_BY_SHAPE plumbing) opt into dev-rtx5080-qwen3. m5-max is the Qwen 3 ladder sized for unified memory.

Evidence laws

These are enforced in the server, not the prompt:

• Citations required. Every brief claim cites an evidence id.
• Unknowns stripped server-side. Models that cite ids not in the evidence bundle have those ids dropped with a warning before the result returns.
• Weak is weak. Thin evidence flags weak: true with coverage notes. Never smoothed into fake narrative.
• Investigative, not prescriptive. next_checks / read_next / likely_breakpoints only. Prompts forbid "apply this fix."
• Deterministic renderers. Artifact markdown shape is code, not a prompt. draft stays reserved for prose where model wording matters.
• Same-pack diffs only. Cross-pack artifact_diff is refused loudly; payloads stay distinct.

Artifacts & continuity

Packs write to ~/.ollama-intern/artifacts/{incident,repo,change}/<slug>.(md|json). The artifact tier gives you a continuity surface without turning this into a file-management tool:

• artifact_list — metadata-only index, filterable by pack, date, slug glob
• artifact_read — typed read by {pack, slug} or {json_path}
• artifact_diff — structured same-pack comparison; weak-flip surfaced
• artifact_export_to_path — writes an existing artifact (with provenance header) to a caller-declared allowed_roots. Refuses existing files unless overwrite: true.
• artifact_incident_note_snippet — operator-note fragment
• artifact_onboarding_section_snippet — handbook fragment
• artifact_release_note_snippet — DRAFT release-note fragment

No model calls in this tier. All render from stored content.

Threat model & telemetry

Data touched: file paths the caller explicitly hands in (ollama_research, corpus tools), inline text, and artifacts the caller asks to be written under ~/.ollama-intern/artifacts/ or a caller-declared allowed_roots.

Data NOT touched: anything outside source_paths / allowed_roots. .. is rejected before normalize. artifact_export_to_path refuses existing files unless overwrite: true. Drafts targeting protected paths (memory/, .claude/, docs/canon/, etc.) require explicit confirm_write: true, enforced server-side.

Network egress: off by default. The only outbound traffic is to the local Ollama HTTP endpoint. No cloud calls, no update pings, no crash reporting.

Telemetry: none. Every call is logged as one NDJSON line to ~/.ollama-intern/log.ndjson on your machine. Nothing leaves the box.

Errors: structured shape { code, message, hint, retryable }. Stack traces are never exposed through tool results.

Full policy: SECURITY.md.

Standards

Built to the Shipcheck bar. Hard gates A–D pass; see SHIP_GATE.md and SCORECARD.md.

• A. Security — SECURITY.md, threat model, no telemetry, path-safety, confirm_write on protected paths
• B. Errors — structured shape across all tool results; no raw stacks
• C. Docs — README current, CHANGELOG, LICENSE; tool schemas self-document
• D. Hygiene — npm run verify (full vitest suite), CI with dep scanning, Dependabot, lockfile, engines.node

Roadmap (hardening, not scope creep)

• Phase 1 — Delegation Spine ✓ shipped: atom surface, uniform envelope, tiered routing, guardrails
• Phase 2 — Truth Spine ✓ shipped: schema v2 chunking, BM25 + RRF, living corpora, evidence-backed briefs, retrieval eval pack
• Phase 3 — Pack & Artifact Spine ✓ shipped: fixed-pipeline packs with durable artifacts + continuity tier
• Phase 4 — Adoption Spine ✓ v2.0.1: three-stage health pass hardened corpus (TOCTOU, 50 MB file cap, symlink rejection, atomic writes, per-file failure capture), tool path traversal, observability (semaphore wait events, timeout error context, profile env-override logging, prewarm cold-start signal), test safety (module-load env snapshot across 10 files, tools/call E2E). Troubleshooting handbook + hardware minimums added for operators.
• Phase 5 — M5 Max benchmarks — publishable numbers once the hardware lands (~2026-04-24)

Phase by hardening layer. The atom/pack/artifact surface stays frozen.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.