How to Run AI Workflows Locally on a Mac Using n8n and Ollama
Developers can set up fully local AI workflows on a Mac by combining n8n for automation and Ollama for running large language models, with no data sent to external servers. The setup relies on Docker and n8n's official Self-Hosted AI Starter Kit, a Docker Compose template that bundles n8n, Ollama, Qdrant, and PostgreSQL. Because Docker on Apple Silicon cannot access the Mac's GPU, Ollama should be installed natively on the host machine and connected to the containers via the host.docker.internal address. Once running, users can access n8n at localhost:5678, configure an Ollama credential pointing to the local API, and wire models like Gemma4 or Llama3.1 into chat triggers and AI agent workflows. Agents can also be extended with tool nodes such as HTTP requests or vector store lookups, provided the chosen model supports tool use.
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