Pull your first model
Ekorbia doesn’t ship with any models. You pull them yourself, one at a time, from Ollama’s library. Picking a good first model depends on what you have in mind.
A quick model-picking primer
Models come in different sizes (1b, 7b, 26b, …) and capabilities (chat-only, vision, tool use). Bigger models are smarter but slower and need more RAM. Roughly:
| Class | Examples | RAM needed | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiny | llama3.2:1b | 4 GB | Fast responses, simple tasks, embedding |
| Small | llama3:8b, qwen2.5:7b | 8 GB | Day-to-day chat, drafts |
| Medium | qwen2.5:14b, gemma3:12b | 16 GB | Better reasoning and writing |
| Large | gemma4:26b, llama3.1:70b | 32–64 GB | Long-form, complex analysis, vision |
If you’re not sure, llama3 is a solid all-rounder that fits comfortably on most machines.
Pull a chat model
Open your terminal and run:
ollama pull llama3
The first pull will download several gigabytes — keep the terminal open and wait. Subsequent pulls of other models reuse shared layers and are usually faster.
You can pull as many models as you want; they all live side-by-side. Switch between them inside Ekorbia using the model picker in the bottom-right of the composer (covered in The chat window).
Pull a vision model (optional, but recommended)
If you want to drop images and screenshots into chats, you need a vision-capable model. Two good choices:
ollama pull gemma3:4b # small, fast, can see images
ollama pull gemma4:26b # larger, smarter, also sees images
If you have a vision model installed, Ekorbia will automatically switch to it when you attach an image — see Images and vision models.
Pull an embedding model (for attachments and search)
To attach files or folders and have Ekorbia find relevant chunks when you ask questions, you need an embedding model. The default Ekorbia expects is:
ollama pull nomic-embed-text
nomic-embed-text is small (about 270 MB), fast, and produces high-quality embeddings. You can use any other Ollama embedding model — change it in Settings → Attachments → Embedding model.
You only need this if you plan to attach files or folders. Pure text chats don’t use embeddings.
Checking what you have
Anytime you want to see what’s installed:
ollama list
You’ll get a table of models with their sizes and modified dates.
Removing a model
ollama rm <model-name>
Ekorbia is fine with you removing a model that’s set as the active one — at the next launch it falls back to the first installed model so you’re never stranded.