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‎docs/use-cases/AI_ML/MCP/ollama.md

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---
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slug: /use-cases/AI/MCP/ollama
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sidebar_label: 'Ollama and ClickHouse MCP'
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title: 'Set Up ClickHouse MCP Server with Ollama'
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pagination_prev: null
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pagination_next: null
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description: 'This guide explains how to set up Ollama with a ClickHouse MCP server.'
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keywords: ['AI', 'Ollama', 'MCP']
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show_related_blogs: true
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---
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import {CardHorizontal} from '@clickhouse/click-ui/bundled'
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import Link from '@docusaurus/Link';
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import Image from '@theme/IdealImage';
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# Using ClickHouse MCP server with Ollama
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> This guide explains how to use the ClickHouse MCP Server with Ollama.
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<VerticalStepper headerLevel="h2" />
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## Install Ollama {#install-ollama}
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Ollama is a library for running Large Language Models (LLMs) on your own machine.
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It has a [wide range of models available](https://ollama.com/library) and is easy to use.
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You can download Ollama for Mac, Windows, or Linux from the [download page](https://ollama.com/download).
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Once you run Ollama, it will start a local server in the background that you can use to run models.
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Alternatively, you can run the server manually by running `ollama serve`.
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Once installed, you can pull a model down to your machine like this:
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```bash
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ollama pull qwen3:8b
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```
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This will pull the model to your local machine if it is not present.
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Once it's downloaded, you can run the model like this:
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```bash
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ollama run qwen3:8b
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```
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:::note
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Only [models that have tool support](https://ollama.com/search?c=tools) will work with MCP Servers.
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:::
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We can list the models that we have downloaded like this:
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```bash
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ollama ls
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```
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```text
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NAME ID SIZE MODIFIED
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qwen3:latest 500a1f067a9f 5.2 GB 3 days ago
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```
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## Install MCPHost {#install-mcphost}
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At the time of writing (July 2025) there is no native functionality for using Ollama with MCP Servers.
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However, we can use [MCPHost](https://github.com/mark3labs/mcphost) to run Ollama models with MCP Servers.
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MCPHost is a Go application, so you'll need to make sure that you have [Go installed](https://go.dev/doc/install) on your machine.
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You can then install MCPHost by running the following command:
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```bash
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go install github.com/mark3labs/mcphost@latest
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```
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The binary will be installed under `~/go/bin` so we need to make sure that directory is on our path.
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## Configuring ClickHouse MCP Server {#configure-clickhouse-mcp-server}
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We can configure MCP Servers with MCPHost in YAML or JSON files.
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MCPHost will look for config files in your home directory the following order:
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1. `.mcphost.yml` or `.mcphost.json` (preferred)
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2. `.mcp.yml` or `.mcp.json` (backwards compatibility)
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It uses a syntax that's similar to that used in the standard MCP configuration file.
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Here's an example of a ClickHouse MCP server configuration, which we'll save to the `~/.mcphost.json` file:
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```json
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{
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"mcpServers": {
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"mcp-ch": {
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"type": "local",
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"command": ["uv",
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"run",
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"--with",
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"mcp-clickhouse",
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"--python",
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"3.10",
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"mcp-clickhouse"
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]
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}
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}
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}
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```
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The main difference from the standard MCP configuration file is that we need to specify a `type`.
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The type is used to indicate the transport type used by the MCP Server.
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* `local` → stdio transport
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* `remote` → streamable transport
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* `builtin` → inprocess transport
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We'll also need to configure the following environment variables:
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```bash
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export CLICKHOUSE_HOST=sql-clickhouse.clickhouse.com
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export CLICKHOUSE_USER=demo
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export CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD=""
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```
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:::note
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In theory, you should be able to provide these variables under the `environment` key in the MCP configuration file, but we've found that this doesn't work.
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:::
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## Running MCPHost {#running-mcphost}
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Once you've configured the ClickHouse MCP server, you can run MCPHost by running the following command:
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```bash
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mcphost --model ollama:qwen3
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```
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Or, if you want to have it use a specific config file:
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```bash
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mcphost --model ollama:qwen3 --config ~/.mcphost.json
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```
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:::warning
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If you don't provide `--model`, MCPHost will look in the environment variables for `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` and will use the `anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-20250514` model.
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:::
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We should see the following output:
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```text
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┃ ┃
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┃ Model loaded: ollama (qwen3) ┃
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┃ MCPHost System (09:52) ┃
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┃ ┃
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┃ ┃
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┃ Model loaded successfully on GPU ┃
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┃ MCPHost System (09:52) ┃
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┃ ┃
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┃ ┃
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┃ Loaded 3 tools from MCP servers ┃
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┃ MCPHost System (09:52) ┃
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┃ ┃
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Enter your prompt (Type /help for commands, Ctrl+C to quit, ESC to cancel generation)
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```
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We can use the `/servers` command to list the MCP Servers:
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```text
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┃ ┃
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┃ ## Configured MCP Servers ┃
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┃ ┃
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┃ 1. mcp-ch ┃
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┃ MCPHost System (10:00) ┃
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┃
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```
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And `/tools` to list the tools available:
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```text
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┃ ## Available Tools ┃
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┃ ┃
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┃ 1. mcp-ch__list_databases ┃
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┃ 2. mcp-ch__list_tables ┃
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┃ 3. mcp-ch__run_select_query
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```
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We can then ask the model questions about the databases/tables available in the ClickHouse SQL playground.
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In our experience when using smaller models (the default qwen3 model has 8 billion parameters), you'll need to be more specific about what you'd like it to do.
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For example, you'll need to explicitly ask it to list the databases and tables rather than straight away asking it to query a certain table.

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