Desktop app

The desktop app under app/ wraps the Ollama daemon in a native UI for macOS and Windows. It runs ollama serve as a background process, surfaces a tray icon, and opens the launcher in a webview.

Purpose

Lower the barrier to using Ollama on a personal machine: no terminal required to start the daemon, see what's running, sign in to Ollama Cloud, or trigger an ollama launch flow. The app is optional — power users can still use the CLI directly.

Directory layout

app/
├── README.md
├── ollama.iss              # Inno Setup script (Windows installer)
├── ollama.rc               # Windows resource file
├── assets/                 # icons and platform images
├── auth/                   # cred storage helpers
├── cmd/                    # entry points for the GUI binary
├── darwin/                 # macOS-specific code
├── dialog/                 # cross-platform dialog helpers
├── format/                 # human-readable formatters used by the UI
├── logrotate/              # log file rotation
├── server/                 # spawn / health-check the daemon
├── store/                  # local key/value config store
├── tools/                  # build and packaging helpers
├── types/                  # shared types between Go and the webview
├── ui/                     # UI assets bundled into the webview
├── updater/                # in-app updater
├── version/                # build-stamped version info
├── webview/                # WKWebView / WebView2 host
└── wintray/                # Windows tray icon and menu

Key abstractions

Symbol	Location	Purpose
Tray menu	app/wintray/ (Windows), app/darwin/ (macOS)	Status icon, menu items, notifications.
Daemon supervisor	app/server/	Spawns ollama serve, monitors its PID, restarts on crash.
Updater	app/updater/	Self-update by downloading new installers.
Webview host	app/webview/	Hosts the launcher UI assets in a native webview.
Local store	app/store/	Persists user preferences (start at login, telemetry opt-out, etc.).

How it works

graph TD
    User[user clicks tray icon] --> Tray[wintray / darwin tray]
    Tray --> Menu[menu actions]
    Menu -->|open launcher| Webview[webview window]
    Menu -->|quit| Stop[stop daemon]
    Tray --> Supervisor[daemon supervisor]
    Supervisor -->|spawn| Daemon[ollama serve]
    Supervisor -->|HTTP /api/version| Daemon
    Daemon --> Sched[scheduler / runners]
    Updater[in-app updater] -.poll.-> Releases[github releases]

The supervisor in app/server/ starts the daemon as a child process and monitors /api/version. The webview is launched from the tray menu and points at the launch UI bundled under app/ui/.

Integration with the CLI

A recent commit history entry, app: align the app launch page with ollama launch (#15753), calls out the convergence: the desktop launcher and the CLI's ollama launch flow share the same set of integrations. Another commit, app/server: fix desktop app startup killing active ollama launch sessions (#15657), fixed a race where the desktop daemon supervisor was killing CLI-managed sessions.

Packaging

• Windows: Inno Setup script at app/ollama.iss drives the installer; app/ollama.rc provides resources for the executable. Released as OllamaSetup.exe.
• macOS: app/darwin/ carries the App bundle; signing/notarization happens in CI. Released as Ollama.dmg.
• Linux: no first-party desktop app. Linux users run ollama serve directly from the install script.

Integration points

• Talks to the daemon through the same HTTP API as the CLI.
• Reads/writes the same model store under ~/.ollama/models/.
• Shares signing keys with the CLI (auth.GetPublicKey() from auth/auth.go).

Entry points for modification

• Tray menu items: app/wintray/ or app/darwin/.
• Webview UI: app/ui/ (assets) and app/webview/ (host).
• Updater logic: app/updater/.

Key source files

File	Purpose
app/cmd/	The desktop binary's main package(s).
app/server/	Daemon supervisor.
app/wintray/	Windows tray icon.
app/darwin/	macOS-specific surface.
app/updater/	In-app updater.
app/store/	Persistent user preferences.
app/ollama.iss	Windows installer script.