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The demo repo ships an OpenAI-compatible server. Start it once and every tool in these docs (OpenClaw, Open WebUI, Hermes, your own code) connects to the same endpoint.

Start the server

The server loads whichever model 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:
Both speak the same API. The llama.cpp server is the default; the MLX server is usually faster on M-series Macs.

The endpoint

The scripts bind to 0.0.0.0, so the server is reachable from other machines on your network, and there is no authentication. On an untrusted network, restrict it (for llama-server, edit the script’s HOST to 127.0.0.1) or firewall the port.

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.
Extra arguments pass straight through to llama-server, e.g. ./scripts/start_llama_server.sh -c 32768 to pin the context size.

Call it

Any client that accepts a custom base URL works the same way.

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.