Use Ollama to Enhance Claude — Two-Engine Setup

Pair Claude Desktop on Anthropic with Claude Code routed through Ollama in your terminal. Strategy stays on Pro. Heavy footwork runs on a free open-source model. Cut your Claude Code bill ~90%.

What this is

A 21-slide visual walkthrough that pairs your Anthropic Claude Desktop app with an Ollama-backed Claude Code terminal session — so the strategic work stays on Pro while the heavy lifting runs on a free open-source model (Gemma, Qwen, DeepSeek, your pick).

Auto-detects your OS — macOS, Windows + WSL2, Linux

— macOS, Windows + WSL2, Linux Copy-paste prompt — drop one block into Claude and it does ~98% of the setup for you

— drop one block into Claude and it does ~98% of the setup for you Verifies both engines side-by-side at the end so you know it actually worked

at the end so you know it actually worked Self-contained HTML — no build step, opens in any browser

Why this exists

Claude Pro on the Desktop app is great for thinking, planning, and architecture. Claude Code in the terminal eats quota fast — context-heavy tasks like lints, refactors, file batch ops, and grep-and-replace can burn through your monthly limit in days.

The fix: route Claude Code through Ollama (local or cloud-hosted free model). Two engines, same UX, one bill cut by an order of magnitude.

Quick start

1) Open the live tutorial (recommended)

The hosted version has the full visual deck, OS-aware steps, and the copy-paste prompt:

→ coherencedaddy.com/tutorials/use-ollama-to-enhance-claude

2) Or use the copy-paste prompt directly

If you want to skip the visuals and let Claude do it all for you:

Open prompts/copy-paste-prompt.md Copy the entire file contents Paste into a fresh Claude Desktop / Claude.ai conversation Follow along — it auto-detects your OS, installs everything, configures the router, and verifies both engines

3) Or run the presentation locally

git clone https://github.com/Coherence-Daddy/use-ollama-to-enhance-claude.git cd use-ollama-to-enhance-claude/presentation open index.html # macOS # or just drag index.html into a browser

What you'll have when you're done

Engine Where it runs What it's for Claude Desktop (Anthropic) Native app Strategy, architecture, code review, tricky bugs Claude Code → Ollama Your terminal Lints, refactors, repetitive edits, file batch ops

Two side-by-side panes. Same UX. One of them is free.

What's in this repo

. ├── README.md ← this file ├── LICENSE ← MIT ├── prompts/ │ └── copy-paste-prompt.md ← the canonical setup prompt └── presentation/ ├── index.html ← 21-slide visual walkthrough ├── cd-face-coral.png ← brand asset └── copy-paste-prompt.md ← (mirror of /prompts version, kept beside the deck)

The presentation is the same exact HTML served at coherencedaddy.com/tutorials/use-ollama-to-enhance-claude. Open it locally, host it yourself, or fork it for your own walkthroughs.

Topics

claude-code ollama gemma llm-tools cost-optimization agentic-coding anthropic open-source-llm

License

MIT — see LICENSE . Use it, fork it, ship a YouTube walkthrough of it. No attribution required, but if you do credit it, link to coherencedaddy.com.

About Coherence Daddy

Coherence Daddy is a 508(c)(1)(A) faith-driven technology organization on a mission to help humanity be more coherent. We build private, secure self-help tools — and the occasional tutorial that saves you a few hundred bucks on AI bills.

If this saved you a real chunk of money, the kindest thing you can do is ⭐ this repo and share the tutorial link.