Start the server
BONSAI_MODEL / BONSAI_FAMILY select (see Quickstart) and also serves a built-in web chat at http://localhost:8080.
On Apple Silicon there is a second option, an MLX-backed server on its own port:
The endpoint
What the script configures
start_llama_server.sh doesn’t just launch llama-server; it applies Bonsai’s recommended settings:
Use the same sampling values when you call the API directly or configure a third-party tool; they are what the published benchmarks assume. ‹TODO: confirm benchmark sampling settings match the demo defaults›
Thinking mode defaults differ by size. Bonsai 27B is a reasoning model and serves with thinking on by default; toggle it per request with
thinking_budget_tokens (0 disables it, -1 is unlimited), cap it server-wide with --reasoning-budget N, or disable it entirely with BONSAI_THINKING=0. The 8B/4B/1.7B demo scripts still disable thinking (enable_thinking: false) by default for faster responses.llama-server, e.g. ./scripts/start_llama_server.sh -c 32768 to pin the context size.
Call it
Connect a tool
Open WebUI
A ChatGPT-style interface; one script starts everything.
OpenClaw
Bridge Bonsai into a personal AI agent gateway.
Hermes
Run the Hermes terminal agent on local Bonsai.
All integrations
Everything that speaks OpenAI-compatible.