# Your first local model

Your prompt stays on this computer; this guide does not send it to a hosted inference service.

## Desktop app on Apple silicon Mac

1. [Download Hugging Bay Desktop](https://huggingbay.xyz/desktop), install it, and open it.
2. Follow the first-run prompt to pick a chat model marked ready for this computer. Depending on the app version, choose **Chat with an AI** or **Pick a model to start with**, then **Download & start chatting** when shown.
3. Type or send a question. The app downloads the model, checks the file, and shows a local reply when it is ready.

## Terminal on macOS or Linux

This uses the published native `hbay` CLI and one exact, currently ready file from the public catalog. The verified file is about 469 MiB. The catalog labels its license Apache-2.0; read the source terms before using it. Check that `hbay info` still lists this file and SHA-256 before downloading.
The installer needs `curl` and OpenSSL 3 or newer. On macOS, if `openssl version` reports LibreSSL or an older version, install OpenSSL 3 with `brew install openssl@3` first.

### 1. Install and find the model

```sh
if command -v brew >/dev/null 2>&1 && [ -x "$(brew --prefix openssl@3 2>/dev/null)/bin/openssl" ]; then export PATH="$(brew --prefix openssl@3)/bin:$PATH"; fi
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
curl -fsSL 'https://huggingbay.xyz/cli/install.sh' | sh
hbay --version
hbay catalog 'Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct-GGUF'
```

### 2. Download and verify the exact file

```sh
set -eu
hbay info hf-model-qwen-qwen2-5-0-5b-instruct-gguf
hbay download hf-model-qwen-qwen2-5-0-5b-instruct-gguf
```

If the download gets HTTP 429 or 503, wait for the service's retry window and run the same download command again; hbay can resume saved bytes.

### 3. Run it on this computer

```sh
MODEL="$HOME/.local/share/xyz.huggingbay.desktop/headless/models/qwen2.5-0.5b-instruct-q4_k_m.gguf"
hbay prompt "$MODEL" --sha256 "74a4da8c9fdbcd15bd1f6d01d621410d31c6fc00986f5eb687824e7b93d7a9db" --prompt 'In one sentence, explain why the sky looks blue.' --max-tokens 96
```

The download command prints the saved path and SHA-256. The prompt command hashes the file again and refuses inference if it differs. It succeeds when it prints a short answer. The selected file is `qwen2.5-0.5b-instruct-q4_k_m.gguf` from `hf-model-qwen-qwen2-5-0-5b-instruct-gguf`; SHA-256: `74a4da8c9fdbcd15bd1f6d01d621410d31c6fc00986f5eb687824e7b93d7a9db`. [Open the catalog record](https://huggingbay.xyz/artifact/hf-model-qwen-qwen2-5-0-5b-instruct-gguf) · [Check the live download plan](https://huggingbay.xyz/api/v1/artifacts/hf-model-qwen-qwen2-5-0-5b-instruct-gguf/download-plan). If `hbay info` shows a different file or SHA-256, stop and update the filename and hash before running the prompt.

[Open the HTML guide](https://huggingbay.xyz/docs/first-model) · [CLI details](https://huggingbay.xyz/developers/cli) · [Desktop app](https://huggingbay.xyz/desktop)