A ChRIS plugin to run an ollama server

pl-ollama_infer is a ChRIS plugin that starts a local Ollama server, runs model inference using a provided prompt, and optionally keeps the server running for service mode usage.

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Abstract

This plugin launches an Ollama server inside a ChRIS container environment, executes inference using a specified model and prompt, and optionally keeps the server active for continued interaction.

It is intended for workflows requiring lightweight LLM inference within containerized pipelines, including structured text generation and data interpretation tasks.

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Features

• Starts ollama serve inside the container
• Executes inference using configurable model and prompt
• Supports persistent server mode via --serviceMode
• Logs runtime environment for debugging and reproducibility

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Installation

pl-ollama_infer is a ChRIS plugin and can be executed either within the ChRIS platform or via container runtimes.

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Local Usage

Using Apptainer:

apptainer exec docker://fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer ollama_infer [--args values...] input/ output/
To print its available options, run:

```shell
apptainer exec docker://fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer ollama_infer --help

Argument	Default	Description
--prompt	test	Input prompt for the model
--model	llama3	Ollama model to use
--serviceMode	False	Keep Ollama server running after inference
--version	-	Show plugin version

Examples

ollama_infer requires two positional arguments: a directory containing input data, and a directory where to create output data. First, create the input directory and move input data into it.

mkdir incoming/ outgoing/
mv some.dat other.dat incoming/
apptainer exec docker://fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer ollama_infer \
    --prompt "Explain pulmonary embolism briefly" \
    --model llama3 \
    incoming/ outgoing/

Using a larger model

apptainer exec docker://fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer ollama_infer \
    --prompt "Summarize CT chest findings" \
    --model llama3:70b \
    incoming/ outgoing/

Service mode

apptainer exec docker://fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer ollama_infer \
    --serviceMode \
    incoming/ outgoing/

Development

Instructions for developers.

Building

Build a local container image:

docker build -t localhost/fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer .

Running

Mount the source code ollama_infer.py into a container to try out changes without rebuild.

docker run --rm -it --userns=host -u $(id -u):$(id -g) \
    -v $PWD/ollama_infer.py:/usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ollama_infer.py:ro \
    -v $PWD/in:/incoming:ro -v $PWD/out:/outgoing:rw -w /outgoing \
    localhost/fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer ollama_infer /incoming /outgoing

Testing

Run unit tests using pytest. It's recommended to rebuild the image to ensure that sources are up-to-date. Use the option --build-arg extras_require=dev to install extra dependencies for testing.

docker build -t localhost/fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer:dev --build-arg extras_require=dev .
docker run --rm -it localhost/fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer:dev pytest

Release

Steps for release can be automated by Github Actions. This section is about how to do those steps manually.

Increase Version Number

Increase the version number in setup.py and commit this file.

Push Container Image

Build and push an image tagged by the version. For example, for version 1.2.3:

docker build -t docker.io/fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer:1.2.3 .
docker push docker.io/fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer:1.2.3

Get JSON Representation

Run chris_plugin_info to produce a JSON description of this plugin, which can be uploaded to ChRIS.

docker run --rm docker.io/fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer:1.2.3 chris_plugin_info -d docker.io/fnndsc/pl-ollama_infer:1.2.3 > chris_plugin_info.json

Intructions on how to upload the plugin to ChRIS can be found here: https://chrisproject.org/docs/tutorials/upload_plugin