Run Fully Offline

Run PraisonAI agents on a model on your own computer, with no internet connection and no cloud API key.

Run an agent on a model that lives on your own computer. No internet connection and no cloud API key are needed. With the default local setup, your prompts stay on the machine.

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(instructions="You are a helpful assistant", model="ollama/llama3.2")
print(agent.start("Summarise this note in one sentence: ..."))

The agent sends your prompt to the model on the same computer, and the answer comes back the same way. Your prompt never goes over the internet. The model connector may still try to fetch a price list at startup; see Turn off telemetry to stop that.

Quick Start

1. Install Ollama and download a model

   Do this once, while you are still online. Get Ollama from ollama.com, then download a model:

   ollama pull llama3.2

   The model is saved on your computer. After this, Ollama does not need the internet.

2. Install PraisonAI

   pip install "praisonaiagents[llm]"

   The [llm] extra adds the connector PraisonAI uses to talk to Ollama.

3. Create the agent

   Save this as agent.py:

   from praisonaiagents import Agent
   
   agent = Agent(instructions="You are a helpful assistant", model="ollama/llama3.2")
   print(agent.start("In one sentence, why might a hospital keep patient data on its own computers?"))

4. Run it

   python agent.py

   A hospital might keep patient data on its own computers to maintain control over access, security, and confidentiality of sensitive patient information.

   No OPENAI_API_KEY is needed. The ollama/ prefix tells PraisonAI to use the local model.

Ollama on another computer

If Ollama runs on a different machine in your network, or on a port other than 11434, tell the agent where it is.

On the other computer, make Ollama listen on the network (not just localhost), then restart it:

OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0:11434 ollama serve

Do not expose this port to the internet.

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant",
    model="ollama/llama3.2",
    base_url="http://192.168.1.10:11434",
)
print(agent.start("Reply with the single word: ready"))

export OLLAMA_API_BASE="http://192.168.1.10:11434"
python agent.py

Check it is really offline

The simplest test: turn off Wi-Fi or unplug the network cable, then run python agent.py again. If you get an answer, the agent did not need the internet. This only works when Ollama is on the same computer: going offline also cuts you off from a remote Ollama host.

cat > nonet.sb <<'EOF'
(version 1)
(allow default)
(deny network-outbound)
(allow network-outbound (remote ip "localhost:11434"))
EOF

# Should fail: the internet is blocked
sandbox-exec -f nonet.sb curl -s -m 5 https://pypi.org || echo "internet blocked"

# Should answer: only the local model is reachable
sandbox-exec -f nonet.sb python agent.py

Turn off telemetry

Telemetry is off by default in praisonaiagents. It only turns on if someone sets PRAISONAI_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=true. To make sure it stays off on a machine, set:

export PRAISONAI_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=true

This wins over PRAISONAI_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=true and over enable_telemetry() in code. DO_NOT_TRACK=true and PRAISONAI_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=true work too. Each accepts true, 1 or yes.

The model connector also checks online for an updated model price list when it starts. If it cannot connect it uses the copy it ships with. To skip the check entirely:

export LITELLM_LOCAL_MODEL_COST_MAP=True

Other local model servers

Ollama is the simplest start. PraisonAI also works with LM Studio, llama.cpp and vLLM running on your own hardware. These pages cover them:

Best Practices

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