# Zactonz AI Connector for Ollama: Installation & setup

> Ollama connector for the WordPress AI Client. Run local, self-hosted or Ollama Cloud models for text, images, embeddings and tool calling.

Page: https://developers.zactonz.com/wordpress/plugins/zactonz-ai-provider-ollama/installation/

Complete documentation for this product: https://developers.zactonz.com/wordpress/plugins/zactonz-ai-provider-ollama.md

## Install the plugin

From the dashboard, go to **Plugins › Add New**, search for **Zactonz AI Connector for Ollama** and click **Install Now**, then **Activate**. WordPress also links here directly from **Settings › Connectors** when it needs a connector that is not installed yet.

With WP-CLI:

```bash
wp plugin install zactonz-ai-provider-ollama --activate
```

To install manually, download the zip from the Download button above, upload the folder to `/wp-content/plugins/zactonz-ai-provider-ollama/` and activate it from the **Plugins** menu.

## Connect to Ollama

1. Go to **Settings › Connectors** and choose **Ollama Cloud** or **Self-hosted**.
2. For Ollama Cloud, enter your API key.
3. For self-hosted, enter the host URL or IP and the port (the default is `http://localhost:11434`). Add the optional self-hosted API key only if your endpoint is protected.
4. Go to **Settings › Ollama** to review the models discovered on that endpoint, then pick a default model, a thinking mode and a text request timeout.

Cloud and self-hosted keys are stored separately and applied to requests for whichever connection mode is active.

![The Ollama connector on the WordPress Connectors screen](https://developers.zactonz.com/assets/images/wordpress/zactonz-ai-provider-ollama-connector.webp)

*Settings › Connectors: the Ollama connector, which WordPress lists beside its own connectors.*

## Environment overrides

Two settings can also come from the environment, which is useful on managed hosts and in containers:

| Setting | Variable | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Host URL | `OLLAMA_HOST` | Takes precedence over the value saved in the admin. |
| API key | `OLLAMA_API_KEY` | Environment variable or PHP constant; takes priority over saved admin keys. |

## Install Ollama itself

If you do not have Ollama yet, download it from [ollama.com](https://ollama.com) and pull a model:

```bash
ollama pull llama3.2
```

The connector discovers pulled models automatically the next time you open **Settings › Ollama**.

## Check the connection

**Tools › Site Health** includes a connectivity test for the configured Ollama endpoint, and **Settings › Ollama** shows a redacted diagnostics panel with endpoint status, latency, model availability, version, embeddings and streaming readiness.