Download, use, and remove models¶

You download, use, and remove models with pasture's own commands. Apps that work with Ollama see the same models, as Use your models in other apps shows.

Download a model¶

pasture add gpt-oss:20b

Before the download starts, pasture makes room for it within your budget: it moves away the models you used least recently. When there is no room, the download stops before it begins and says why. Choose how much space models use shows what to do.

To find a model that fits your computer, run pasture onboard, as Get started shows.

Use a model¶

pasture run gpt-oss:20b

pasture run starts a chat with the model. Type a message and press Return, and type /bye to end the chat. To ask one question, put it after the model's name:

pasture run gpt-oss:20b "Explain what a disk budget is."

A model that pasture moved away still shows in pasture status and in your apps. When you use it, pasture brings it back first, and pasture run shows how far it has come. The first answer then waits while the model returns: a few seconds from an archive folder, or as long as a download.

See your models¶

pasture status

MODEL              SIZE      WHERE    LAST USED
all-minilm:latest  46.0 MB   archive  never
gpt-oss:20b        13.8 GB   disk     now        in memory
qwen2.5-coder:14b  10.0 GB   away     3 days ago

Get started explains each word in the WHERE column.

Keep a model on disk¶

To keep a model you use every day on the disk, pin it:

pasture pin gpt-oss:20b

pasture never moves a pinned model. pasture unpin gpt-oss:20b lets it move again. Pinned models still count toward your budget, so pasture refuses a pin that would leave the pinned models over the budget.

Move a model away now¶

pasture evict qwen2.5-coder:14b

The model leaves the disk now, rather than when pasture needs the room. When Ollama has the model loaded, pasture says so: run pasture stop qwen2.5-coder:14b first.

Bring a model back now¶

pasture restore qwen2.5-coder:14b

pasture shows how far the model has come as it goes. Bring a model back before you need it, such as before you go offline, so your first question does not wait. Get ready to work offline shows more.

Remove a model¶

pasture remove qwen2.5-coder:14b

The model leaves the disk and the list, wherever it is, and pasture deletes its copy in your archive folder too.

Models you built yourself¶

pasture moves a model away only when it can bring the model back exactly as it was. A model you built with ollama create exists only on your computer, so it stays on the disk, unless you set an archive folder to hold a copy.