Enumerate Ollama models on the server pointed to by :host directive

[vick08]

Presently, I have to add/remove all Ollama models manually modifying the ":models" string.
Would it be possible for GPTEL to enumerate the existing models on the fly when the transient menu opens, just like it is done for Anthropic, Gemini and OpenAI models?
Thanks for considering my request and apologies if I am missing something.

[karthink]

This has come up before, see #394. Fetching it easy enough, the question is when it should be done.

We don't want gptel to be making network request at the time that (gptel-make-ollama ...) is evaluated, because this code lives in the user's configuration. I would be quite annoyed if evaluating my settings for a package in a use-package block caused network requests to be created.

[vick08]

I understand. Perhaps in the Transient menu there could be an option under the "models" submenu to populate the Ollama list?
The way things stand now, as I am sure you understand, we have to modify the :models every time a model is added or removed. Therefore, some kind of dynamic polling for Ollama models would make this a consistent behavior with how other services are enumerated (Anthropic, Gemini, Open AI, etc).
Thank you for considering this request.

[karthink]

as I am sure you understand, we have to modify the :models every time a model is added or removed.

Do you add and remove models from Ollama often enough that this is a concern? I'm curious. I can't run Ollama right now, but back when I had an Ollama-capable PC, I changed models maybe twice in three months.

there could be an option under the "models" submenu to populate the Ollama list

There is no "models" submenu.

Therefore, some kind of dynamic polling for Ollama models would make this a consistent behavior with how other services are enumerated

True. I just don't know where to put this code in the usual course of using gptel.

There is one additional concern. How should conflicts between the :models field of the backend definition and the polled list of models be resolved? A simple merge will not work, here's an example of why:

Models explicitly defined for gptel:

:models
'(model1
  (model2
   :capabilities (media nosystem)
   :description "description2"
   :mime-types ("image/jpeg" "image/png"))
  model3)

Models returned from API call, after processing:

:models
'((model1
   :description "description1"
   :context-window 32)
  (model2
   :capabilities (media)
   :description "description2_alternate"
   :mime-types ("image/png" "image/heic")))

It's clear how to update model1 here. But the other differences are not simple to resolve:

• Should model3 be removed?
• model2 includes a plist with arbitrary metadata attached. How should the two plists be merged?

[karthink]

In the branch feature-ollama-auto-update, I've added a function to fetch and merge the available Ollama models into the list of the active backend, assuming the Ollama backend is the active one. It can be used as follows:

(gptel--ollama-fetch-models) ;; Update active backend if it's of type Ollama

(gptel--ollama-fetch-models "Ollama") ;; Update backend named "Ollama"
;; OR
(gptel--ollama-fetch-models some-backend) ;; Update backend "some-backend"

You can test it out. The merge strategy is non-destructive, and when there is a conflict it prioritizes provided metadata over metadata returned by Ollama.

The problem, as discussed, is where/when this code should run.