Model name

A model name is a structured string like gemma3 or library/gemma3:latest or registry.ollama.ai/library/gemma3:latest. The parsed form is model.Name in types/model/.

Purpose

Be the single canonical type for a model identifier. Every API call, every CLI subcommand, and every storage path uses it.

Components

[host/][namespace/]model[:tag][@digest]

Field	Default	Notes
Host	registry.ollama.ai	Where to pull/push.
Namespace	library	The collection.
Model	required	The specific model.
Tag	latest	Variant.
Digest	empty	Pin to a content-addressed manifest digest.

model.ParseName(s) (types/model/) returns a Name and Name.IsValid() checks the result. Used everywhere the user can supply a model name (Server.scheduleRunner, CreateHandler, every CLI handler).

Capabilities

A model's declared capabilities are in types/model/capabilities.go:

• chat
• tools
• embedding
• vision
• thinking
• completion
• insert

Model.CheckCapabilities(...) (server/model.go) refuses requests asking for capabilities the model doesn't advertise. The ollama show <name> output exposes them via /api/show.

Resolution

server/model_resolver.go decides whether a name resolves to a local model, a cloud-hosted model, or neither. It's used at the very top of every handler that needs a model.

Errors

• model.ErrUnqualifiedName — name failed to parse.
• errConflictingModelSource — request supplied both model and name fields with different values.
• errtypes.InvalidModelNameErrMsg — public-facing message used in writeModelRefParseError (server/routes.go).

Key source files

File	Purpose
types/model/	Name type and parser.
types/model/capabilities.go	Capability enum.
server/model.go	Model type with capability checks.
server/model_resolver.go	Local-vs-cloud resolution.