Local AI Models

SupaSidebar supports two ways to run AI models locally for tag suggestions - no cloud API key required.

Option 1: Built-in Models (MLX)

The simplest option. Models download and run directly inside SupaSidebar using Apple’s MLX framework.

Requirements: Apple Silicon Mac (M1, M2, M3, or M4)

Setup:

1. Open Preferences → AI Tags
2. Set AI Provider to Local AI (MLX)
3. Click Download on your preferred model
4. Once downloaded, click Use This to activate it

Available Models:

RAM Guide:

• 8GB Mac - Use models up to 3B parameters (Gemma 2 2B, Phi-4 Mini)
• 16GB+ Mac - Can use all models including Qwen 2.5 7B

Option 2: Ollama (Any Local Model)

Use any model you want through Ollama. This gives you access to thousands of models and works on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

Step 1: Install Ollama

1. Go to ollama.com  and download the macOS app
2. Open Ollama - it runs quietly in the background

Step 2: Download a Model

Open Terminal and run:

ollama pull qwen2.5:3b

This downloads the Qwen 2.5 3B model, which we recommend for tag suggestions. You can also pull other models - any text generation model works.

Step 3: Configure in SupaSidebar

1. Open Preferences → AI Tags
2. Set AI Provider to Ollama (Local)
3. Click Check to verify the connection
4. Select your model from the dropdown (it auto-populates from Ollama)
5. Enable Auto-suggest tags if you want automatic suggestions

Recommended Ollama Models

You can also use larger models for better accuracy:

ollama pull qwen2.5:7b    # 4.4 GB, very accurate
ollama pull llama3.1:8b   # 4.7 GB, excellent quality

Tips

• Model names are not case sensitive - qwen2.5:3b and Qwen2.5:3B both work
• Any text generation model works - if you already have models in Ollama, they’ll appear in the dropdown
• The endpoint defaults to http://localhost:11434 - only change this if you’re running Ollama on another machine
• You can use different models for Voice (in Voice settings) and Tags (in AI Tags settings)

MLX vs Ollama

Our recommendation: Start with MLX + Phi-4 Mini for the easiest setup. Switch to Ollama if you want more model choices or have an Intel Mac.