llamafile
Distribute and run LLMs as a single executable file — no install needed.
About
llamafile is a Mozilla project that packs llama.cpp and a model into one executable file using Cosmopolitan libc. You download a single file, make it executable, and run it — you get a local LLM with a chat UI and an OpenAI-compatible API server, on Linux, macOS, Windows and several CPU architectures.
It also ships whisperfile, the same single-file idea applied to speech-to-text via whisper.cpp. Since v0.10 it uses a new build system tracking recent llama.cpp, so newer models work, though a few older features are still catching up.
What it can do
- Single-file LLM executables
- Built-in chat web UI
- OpenAI-compatible API server mode
- whisperfile single-file speech-to-text
- CPU and GPU (CUDA/Metal) inference
Setup
- Download a llamafile for the model you want from the releases page.
- Make it executable (
chmod +x model.llamafile). - Run it (
./model.llamafile) — a chat UI opens in your browser. - For API access, run with
--server --v2and point any OpenAI client at it.
Prerequisites
A 64-bit OS (Linux, macOS, Windows); enough RAM/disk for the model file.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (verified tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: 26.2k stars — solid adoption for a distribution format; Mozilla Builders/ai project, revamped by Mozilla.ai. Manual review: single-file LLM distribution is genuinely novel; v0.10 build-system rewrite means some older features still catching up. License: Apache-2.0.
★ 26,230 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 7.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 8.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 8.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · 26.2k stars — solid adoption for a distribution format
- · Mozilla Builders/ai project, revamped by Mozilla.ai
- · manual review: single-file LLM distribution is genuinely novel; v0.10 build-system rewrite means some older features still catching up
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.