Appearance
The Ollama sidebar is your command center for model lifecycle management. Click the 🦙 icon in the activity bar to open it.
Local Models Panel
Shows all models that have been pulled to your machine.
Model Tree
Models are grouped by family (tree view) by default. Each family node collapses/expands to show its variants (e.g., llama3.2 → 3b, 1b).
Toggle to a flat list with the Show as Flat List button (⊞) in the panel header, or back to grouped with Show as Tree (⊞).
Capability Badges
Each model item shows capability indicators:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🧠 | Thinking / chain-of-thought |
| 🛠 | Tool calling |
| 👁 | Vision (image input) |
| 🧩 | Embedding model |
Status Indicators
- Running — the model is currently loaded in Ollama's memory. Shows VRAM used and how long it has been loaded.
- Stopped — the model is installed but not loaded.
Inline Buttons
Right side of each running or stopped model item:
| Button | When | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ▶ Start | Stopped | Load model into memory |
| ⏹ Stop | Running | Unload model from memory |
| 🗑 Delete | Stopped | Remove model from disk |
Running models cannot be deleted — stop them first.
Panel Toolbar
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| 🔑 | Manage auth token for remote instances |
| 🔍 Filter | Type to filter by model name |
| ✕ Clear filter | Remove active filter |
| ⊞ / ⊟ | Toggle grouped tree / flat list |
| 🔄 Refresh | Reload local model list |
| ⊖ Collapse all | Collapse all family groups |
The list auto-refreshes every 30 seconds (configurable via ollama.localModelRefreshInterval).
Cloud Models Panel
Shows models from Ollama Cloud — premium hosted models that run server-side but appear in the sidebar like local models.
Authentication
Click the Login (👤) button in the panel header to authenticate. This triggers ollama login via the Ollama CLI. Once authenticated, cloud models are fetched automatically.
Inline Buttons
| Button | When | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 🔗 | Always | Open the model's page on ollama.ai |
| ▶ Run | Stopped | Activate the cloud model |
| ⏹ Stop | Running | Deactivate the cloud model |
| 🗑 Delete | Stopped | Remove from your account |
Cloud model names end with :cloud to distinguish them from local variants.
Library Panel
Browses the full Ollama model library. Models are displayed as family nodes with expandable variant children.
Pulling a Model
- Expand a family to see its variants (e.g.,
3b,7b,13b,70b) - Click Pull (⬇) on the variant you want
- A streaming progress notification shows download progress
Variants already installed locally show a ✓ checkmark.
Filtering & Grouping
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| 🔍 Filter | Type to filter by model name |
| ✕ Clear | Remove active filter |
| ⊞ / ⊟ | Toggle grouped / flat view |
| 🔄 Refresh | Re-fetch from ollama.ai |
| ⊖ Collapse | Collapse all families |
| 🔗 | Open model page on ollama.ai |
The library is fetched on startup. Use the refresh button or wait for the scheduled refresh (configurable via ollama.libraryRefreshInterval, default 6 hours).
Modelfiles Panel
See the dedicated Modelfile Manager page.