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Docker with External Ollama

Use this setup when Ollama already runs on your host, another server, or a Tailscale/LAN machine.

Work Availability​

This Compose setup changes where Ollama runs; it does not give the Libre WebUI container access to a Work runtime. The standard image has no Docker CLI and does not mount the host Docker socket, so Work reports Runtime unavailable while Chat and the rest of the application continue normally.

To use the currently supported Work runtime with the same external Ollama endpoint, run the Libre WebUI backend natively with npx libre-webui or from source on a host where that backend process can invoke Docker. Mounting the host Docker socket into the WebUI container grants root-equivalent host control and is not a safe drop-in configuration.

Prerequisites​

Confirm Ollama is reachable:

curl http://localhost:11434/api/version

Pull a model if the instance is new:

ollama pull gemma3:4b

Start Libre WebUI​

From the repository root:

docker compose -f docker-compose.external-ollama.yml up -d

Open http://localhost:8080.

The compose file points OLLAMA_BASE_URL to http://host.docker.internal:11434 by default.

Custom Ollama URL​

For a different host:

OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://192.168.1.100:11434 docker compose -f docker-compose.external-ollama.yml up -d

For Linux hosts that do not resolve host.docker.internal, add this to the service:

extra_hosts:
  - 'host.docker.internal:host-gateway'

Data Persistence​

The compose file stores Libre WebUI data in Docker volumes:

  • libre_webui_data
  • libre_webui_temp

Set stable secrets for production:

JWT_SECRET=replace-with-a-long-random-secret
ENCRYPTION_KEY=replace-with-64-hex-characters

Back up the data volume and encryption key together.

Network Access​

The repository Compose file currently sets CORS_ORIGIN directly. A value in your shell or .env file does not replace that literal. Edit the libre-webui.environment entry or add an explicit Compose override, for example compose.origin.yml:

services:
  libre-webui:
    environment:
      CORS_ORIGIN: http://localhost:8080,http://192.168.1.50:8080
      BASE_URL: http://192.168.1.50:8080

Apply both files:

docker compose \
  -f docker-compose.external-ollama.yml \
  -f compose.origin.yml \
  up -d

For a public domain, use the exact HTTPS origin for both values and terminate traffic with HTTPS.

Useful Commands​

docker compose -f docker-compose.external-ollama.yml ps
docker compose -f docker-compose.external-ollama.yml logs -f libre-webui
docker compose -f docker-compose.external-ollama.yml restart
docker compose -f docker-compose.external-ollama.yml pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.external-ollama.yml up -d

Troubleshooting​

Libre WebUI cannot reach Ollama

docker compose -f docker-compose.external-ollama.yml exec libre-webui \
  wget -O- http://host.docker.internal:11434/api/version

If that fails, use an explicit LAN/Tailscale IP in OLLAMA_BASE_URL.

Models do not appear

Check the Ollama host:

ollama list

The Model Manager reads from the configured Ollama instance.

CORS errors

Make sure CORS_ORIGIN matches the exact browser origin, including scheme and port.