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pasture lets you keep more local AI models than fit on your computer's disk. You use your models the way you always do. When they need more space than you allow, pasture moves the ones you have not used lately off the disk, and brings one back as soon as you ask for it.

This page takes about ten minutes. You install pasture, choose a model, download it, and use it.

What you need

  • A Mac, or a computer that runs Linux.
  • The Terminal app. On a Mac, press Command-Space, type Terminal, and press Return. You paste each command on this page into Terminal and press Return.
  • Room for a model. A small model takes 2 to 10 GB of disk space, and a large one takes 20 to 70 GB.

You do not need Ollama, the program that runs the models. pasture downloads it when you do not have it.

If you use the Ollama app on a Mac, quit it, and remove it from your login items in System Settings > General > Login Items. pasture runs Ollama for you, and the app would take the address that pasture uses.

1. Install pasture

Paste this command into Terminal:

curl -fsSL https://packages.cinchapi.com/public/downloads/raw/names/pasture/versions/latest/install.sh | sh

By running it, you agree to the Cinchapi Terms of Use, which govern pasture. The command downloads pasture, checks that the download arrived whole, and sets pasture to start each time you log in. When you have no Ollama, it downloads Ollama too, which takes a few minutes. Then it asks one question:

Pair this machine with your Cinchapi account, so Cinchapi can use its models? [Y/n]

Type n and press Return for now. You can pair at any time, as Use your models with Cinchapi shows.

The command also adds the folder that holds pasture to your PATH, the list of folders where Terminal looks for commands, and says so. Only a new Terminal window reads the change, so open one before the next step. On a Mac, press Command-N.

2. Check that pasture runs

pasture status

pasture answers with what it knows. A new install has no models yet:

MODEL  SIZE  WHERE  LAST USED

Models use 0 B. There is no budget.
The disk has 412.6 GB free, and pasture keeps 20.0 GB free.
Models that move away come back by download.
Ollama 0.40.13 runs behind pasture.
This machine is not paired with a Cinchapi account. Run pasture pair to use its models from Cinchapi.

pasture keeps 10% of your disk free, up to 20 GB, unless you choose another amount. When your disk has less free space than that, pasture cannot download any model. Choose how much space models use shows how to change it.

3. Choose a model

Models have names such as qwen2.5-coder:14b. The part after the colon is the size or variant. To find models that fit your computer, run:

pasture onboard

pasture measures your computer, asks what you want to do, such as coding or writing, and suggests models:

qwen2.5-coder:14b (coding)
  About 10.0 GB of disk, and 15.0 GB of memory while it runs
  pasture add qwen2.5-coder:14b

It changes nothing and downloads nothing. You can also browse every model at ollama.com/library. Choose models with pasture onboard explains its choices.

4. Download the model

pasture add qwen2.5-coder:14b

pasture add shows the download as it goes and ends with success.

5. Use the model

pasture run qwen2.5-coder:14b "Write a haiku about pastures."

pasture run with a question answers it. Without one, it starts a chat: type a message and press Return, and type /bye to end the chat.

When your computer has no GPU, some models, such as qwen3.5, reason for minutes before they answer. For such a model, pasture onboard shows the command that answers at once, with --think=false at the end.

Every app that works with Ollama works with pasture, with no change: apps reach Ollama at its usual address, and pasture answers there. Use your models in other apps lists some.

6. Choose how much space models may use

pasture budget 100G

pasture now keeps your models within 100 GB. Choose an amount that leaves room for your own files.

What happens from now on

You can forget about pasture. Say your models grow to 120 GB, past your 100 GB budget. pasture moves the model you used least recently off the disk. That model still shows in pasture status and in your apps. The next time you use it, pasture brings it back first, then answers. Bringing a model back takes as long as downloading it, unless you keep copies on an external drive, as Keep models on an external drive shows.

pasture status says where each model is:

  • disk: on your disk and ready.
  • away: moved off the disk. It comes back by download.
  • archive: moved to your archive folder. It comes back by copy, which is fast and needs no internet.

A row can also say pinned, a model you told pasture to keep, or in memory, a model Ollama has loaded. pasture never moves those.

Next steps