Your first local model

Desktop app on Apple silicon Mac

1. Download Hugging Bay 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

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

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

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 prints the saved path and SHA-256. The prompt hashes the file again and refuses inference if it differs. It succeeds when it prints a short answer. Open the catalog record · Check the live download plan. If hbay info shows a different file or SHA-256, stop and update the filename and hash before running the prompt.

CLI details · Desktop app · Markdown guide