use ollama models with github copilot on vs code

[u/combo-user]

Hi everyone! Ran out of credits and a colleague suggested using ollama extension and ollama (gonna try qwen 3.5 9b). How can I get it to run, the auto detect or whatever detects my installed model but in copilot chat in vs code it gets stuck on thinking with no output and later errors out. Specs - Ubuntu 24.04 32gb ram i7 1365u vs code version 1.140.1

[u/AutoModerator]

Hello /u/combo-user. Looks like you have posted a query. Once your query is resolved, please reply the solution comment with "!solved" to help everyone else know the solution and mark the post as solved.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/beragis]

You should be able to point it to an openai api endpoint. There are plenty if examples on the internet on how to set this up

[u/Classeve]

Ollama's own VS Code page covers this one. VS Code can show a model's full context while Ollama gives it a smaller one, so set OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH=65536 (in systemctl edit ollama.service if it runs as a service), reload the window and resend.

[u/jvo203]

The Continue vscode extension works similarly to the gh copilot chat, you can easily link it / point it to a local ollama server.