Tools

Essential tools, platforms, and utilities for local LLM development. This curated list includes everything from LLM runtime platforms to development integrations and monitoring tools.

LLM Runtime Platforms

Primary Platforms

• LM Studio: The most popular GUI application for running LLMs locally. Features model discovery, easy downloads, and optimized inference.
• Ollama: Command-line tool for running LLMs locally with simple model management. Excellent for scripting and automation.
• GPT4All: Open-source ecosystem with both GUI and Python bindings for local LLM deployment.
• Jan: Open-source alternative to LM Studio with a focus on privacy and customization.

Advanced/Specialized Platforms

• LocalAI: OpenAI API-compatible server for running local models. Great for API integration.
• Oobabooga Text Generation WebUI: Gradio-based web interface with extensive customization options.
• llama.cpp: Low-level C++ implementation for maximum performance and customization.
• Kobold.cpp: Easy-to-use version of llama.cpp with a web interface.

Development Integrations

IDE Extensions

• Continue: VS Code extension for AI-powered code completion using local or remote models.
• Hugging Face VS Code Extension: Direct integration with Hugging Face models and datasets.
• Codeium: Free AI coding assistant with local model support.
• Tabnine: AI code completion with local deployment options for enterprises.

Command Line Tools

• Aider: AI pair programming tool that works with local LLMs via API.
• GitHub Copilot CLI: GitHub’s AI-powered command line assistant.
• AI Shell: Transform natural language into shell commands.

Model Management

Model Discovery & Download

• Hugging Face Hub: Primary repository for open-source models with filtering for local deployment.
• Ollama Model Library: Curated collection of models optimized for Ollama.
• LM Studio Model Browser: Built-in model discovery with performance indicators.

Model Conversion & Optimization

• llama.cpp Model Converter: Convert models to GGML/GGUF format for efficient inference.
• AutoGPTQ: Quantization toolkit for reducing model size.
• Optimum: Hugging Face’s optimization toolkit for various hardware accelerators.

Performance & Monitoring

Benchmarking Tools

• Geekbench AI: Detailed AI performance benchmarking across devices.
• MLPerf: Industry-standard ML performance benchmarks.
• AI-Benchmark: Mobile and desktop AI performance testing.

System Monitoring

• nvidia-smi: NVIDIA GPU monitoring and management.
• htop: Enhanced system process monitoring (Linux/macOS).
• GPU-Z: Detailed GPU information and monitoring (Windows).
• HWiNFO: Detailed hardware monitoring (Windows).

Development Frameworks

Python Libraries

• Transformers: Hugging Face’s transformer library for model deployment.
• LangChain: Framework for developing LLM-powered applications.
• LlamaIndex: Data framework for connecting LLMs with external data.
• Guidance: Programming paradigm for controlling language models.

API & Server Tools

• FastAPI: Modern web framework for building LLM APIs.
• Llama Stack: Standardized APIs for generative AI applications.
• vLLM: High-throughput and memory-efficient inference engine.
• TensorRT-LLM: NVIDIA’s optimized inference library.

Hardware & Infrastructure

Container & Deployment

• Docker: Containerization platform with GPU support for LLM deployment.
• NVIDIA Container Toolkit: GPU access in containers.
• Docker Compose: Multi-container application deployment.

Cloud Alternatives

• Runpod: GPU cloud computing for model inference.
• Vast.ai: Decentralized GPU marketplace for affordable compute.
• Lambda Labs: Cloud GPU instances optimized for ML workloads.

Utilities & Quality of Life

File Management

• 7-Zip: Archive utility for compressed model downloads.
• rclone: Cloud storage sync tool for model backup and sharing.
• rsync: File synchronization for model management (Linux/macOS).

Text Processing

• jq: Command-line JSON processor for API responses.
• Pandoc: Document converter for various text formats.
• ripgrep: Fast text search tool for code analysis.

Network Tools

• curl: Command-line tool for API testing and file downloads.
• Postman: API development and testing platform.
• HTTPie: User-friendly command-line HTTP client.

Specialized Tools

Model Fine-tuning

• Axolotl: Tool for fine-tuning various LLM architectures.
• Unsloth: Efficient fine-tuning framework.
• LoRA: Low-rank adaptation for efficient model fine-tuning.

Data Preparation

• datasets: Hugging Face dataset library.
• tiktoken: Tokenizer library for counting tokens.
• sentencepiece: Tokenization library used by many LLMs.

Tool recommendations updated as of July 2025. Check project websites for the latest versions and features.