Llm Checker

Intelligent Ollama Model Selector

AI-powered CLI that analyzes your hardware and recommends optimal LLM models.
Deterministic scoring across 200+ Ollama models and 7k+ variants with a packaged SQLite catalog, live sync, and hardware-calibrated memory estimation.

npm version npm downloads License Discord Node.js

Start Here • Installation • Quick Start • Calibration Quick Start • Docs • Claude MCP • Commands • Scoring • Hardware • Discord

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Why LLM Checker?

Choosing the right LLM for your hardware is complex. With thousands of model variants, quantization levels, and hardware configurations, finding the optimal model requires understanding memory bandwidth, VRAM limits, and performance characteristics.

LLM Checker solves this. It analyzes your system, scores every compatible model across four dimensions (Quality, Speed, Fit, Context), and delivers actionable recommendations in seconds.

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Features

	Feature	Description
200+	Packaged Model Catalog	Ships with a synced Ollama SQLite catalog and can refresh from Ollama on demand
4D	Scoring Engine	Quality, Speed, Fit, Context — weighted by use case
Multi-GPU	Hardware Detection	Apple Silicon, NVIDIA CUDA, AMD ROCm, Intel Arc, CPU, integrated/dedicated inventory visibility
Calibrated	Memory Estimation	Bytes-per-parameter formula validated against real Ollama sizes
Zero	Native Dependencies	Pure JavaScript — works on any Node.js 16+ system
Live	AI Run Metrics	ai-run shows response speed in tokens/sec next to model output

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Documentation

• Docs Hub
• Usage Guide
• Advanced Usage
• Technical Reference
• Changelog
• Calibration Fixtures

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Comparison with Other Tooling (e.g. llmfit)

LLM Checker and llmfit solve related but different problems:

Tool	Primary Focus	Typical Output
LLM Checker	Hardware-aware model selection for local inference	Ranked recommendations, compatibility scores, pull/run commands
llmfit	LLM workflow support and model-fit evaluation from another angle	Different optimization workflow and selection heuristics

If your goal is: "What should I run on this exact machine right now?", use LLM Checker first.
If your goal is broader experimentation across custom pipelines, using both tools can be complementary.

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Installation

# Install globally
npm install -g llm-checker

# Or run directly with npx
npx llm-checker hw-detect

Termux (Android):

pkg update
pkg install ollama
npm install -g llm-checker

Requirements:

• Node.js 16+ (any version: 16, 18, 20, 22, 24)
• Ollama installed for running models

The package includes a prebuilt model catalog and declares sql.js as an optional dependency for SQLite-powered commands. If your package manager skips optional dependencies and database commands report sql.js missing, reinstall with optional dependencies enabled:

npm install -g llm-checker --include=optional

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Start Here (2 Minutes)

If you are new, use this exact flow:

# 1) Install
npm install -g llm-checker

# 2) Detect your hardware
llm-checker hw-detect

# 3) Get recommendations by category
llm-checker recommend --category coding

# 4) Refresh the catalog when you want current Ollama references
llm-checker sync

# 5) Run with auto-selection and tokens/sec metrics
llm-checker ai-run --category coding --prompt "Write a hello world in Python"

If you already calibrated routing:

llm-checker ai-run --calibrated --category coding --prompt "Refactor this function"

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Distribution

LLM Checker is published in all primary channels:

• npm (latest, recommended): llm-checker@latest
• GitHub Releases: Release history
• GitHub Packages (legacy mirror, may lag): @pavelevich/llm-checker

Important: Use npm for Latest Builds

If you need the newest release, install from npm (llm-checker), not the scoped GitHub Packages mirror.

If you installed @pavelevich/llm-checker and version looks old:

npm uninstall -g @pavelevich/llm-checker
npm install -g llm-checker@latest
hash -r
llm-checker --version

v3.5.13 Highlights

• Ships npm packages with a ready-to-use SQLite model catalog:
  • 229 Ollama models
  • 7176 variants
  • real pull counts and last_updated metadata
• sync refreshes the local SQLite catalog from Ollama; recommend, list-models, ai-run, and ai-check now prefer that synced catalog instead of stale scraper cache data.
• Recommendation normalization was hardened:
  • no more pulls: 0 for the full catalog after sync
  • 335m style tags are treated as millions, not billions
  • ambiguous aliases like latest, small, medium, and large are not guessed into fake parameter counts
  • cloud variants are filtered out of local recommendations
• ai-run streams model responses through Ollama and appends measured tokens/sec so users can compare installed models by real local speed.
• The interactive panel no longer asks for optional parameters before every command.

v3.3.0 Highlights

• Calibrated routing is now first-class in recommend and ai-run:
  • --calibrated [file] support with default discovery path.
  • clear precedence: --policy > --calibrated > deterministic fallback.
  • routing provenance output (source, route, selected model).
• New calibration fixtures and end-to-end tests for:
  • calibrate --policy-out ... → recommend --calibrated ...
• Hardened Jetson CUDA detection to avoid false CPU-only fallback.
• Documentation reorganized under docs/ with clearer onboarding paths.

Optional (Legacy): Install from GitHub Packages

Use this only if you explicitly need GitHub Packages. It may not match npm latest.

# 1) Configure registry + token (PAT with read:packages)
echo "@pavelevich:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com" >> ~/.npmrc
echo "//npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=${GITHUB_TOKEN}" >> ~/.npmrc

# 2) Install
npm install -g @pavelevich/llm-checker@latest

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Quick Start

# 1. Detect your hardware capabilities
llm-checker hw-detect

# 2. Get full analysis with compatible models
llm-checker check

# 3. Get intelligent recommendations by category
llm-checker recommend

# 4. Refresh the catalog when you want current Ollama metadata
llm-checker sync
llm-checker search qwen --use-case coding

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Calibration Quick Start (10 Minutes)

This path produces both calibration artifacts and verifies calibrated routing in one pass.

1) Use the sample prompt suite

cp ./docs/fixtures/calibration/sample-suite.jsonl ./sample-suite.jsonl

2) Generate calibration artifacts (dry-run)

mkdir -p ./artifacts
llm-checker calibrate \
  --suite ./sample-suite.jsonl \
  --models qwen2.5-coder:7b llama3.2:3b \
  --runtime ollama \
  --objective balanced \
  --dry-run \
  --output ./artifacts/calibration-result.json \
  --policy-out ./artifacts/calibration-policy.yaml

Artifacts created:

• ./artifacts/calibration-result.json (calibration contract)
• ./artifacts/calibration-policy.yaml (routing policy for runtime commands)

3) Apply calibrated routing

llm-checker recommend --calibrated ./artifacts/calibration-policy.yaml --category coding
llm-checker ai-run --calibrated ./artifacts/calibration-policy.yaml --category coding --prompt "Refactor this function"

Notes:

• --policy <file> has precedence over --calibrated [file].
• If --calibrated has no path, discovery uses ~/.llm-checker/calibration-policy.{yaml,yml,json}.
• --mode full currently requires --runtime ollama.
• ./docs/fixtures/calibration/sample-generated-policy.yaml shows the expected policy structure.

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Claude Code MCP

LLM Checker includes a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, allowing Claude Code and other MCP-compatible AI assistants to analyze your hardware and manage local models directly.

Setup (One Command)

# Install globally first
npm install -g llm-checker

# Add to Claude Code
claude mcp add llm-checker -- llm-checker-mcp

Or generate the exact command directly from the CLI:

llm-checker mcp-setup

Or with npx (no global install needed):

claude mcp add llm-checker -- npx llm-checker-mcp

Restart Claude Code and you're done.

Available MCP Tools

Once connected, Claude can use these tools:

Core Analysis:

Tool	Description
hw_detect	Detect your hardware (CPU, GPU, RAM, acceleration backend)
check	Full compatibility analysis with all models ranked by score
recommend	Top model picks by category (coding, reasoning, multimodal, etc.)
installed	Rank your already-downloaded Ollama models
search	Search the Ollama model catalog with filters
smart_recommend	Advanced recommendations using the full scoring engine
ollama_plan	Build a capacity plan for local models with recommended context/parallel/memory settings
ollama_plan_env	Return ready-to-paste export ... env vars from the recommended or fallback plan profile
policy_validate	Validate a policy file against the v1 schema and return structured validation output
audit_export	Run policy compliance export (json/csv/sarif/all) for check or recommend flows
calibrate	Generate calibration artifacts from a prompt suite with typed MCP inputs

Ollama Management:

Tool	Description
ollama_list	List all downloaded models with params, quant, family, and size
ollama_pull	Download a model from the Ollama registry
ollama_run	Run a prompt against a local model (with tok/s metrics)
ollama_remove	Delete a model to free disk space

Advanced (MCP-exclusive):

Tool	Description
ollama_optimize	Generate optimal Ollama env vars for your hardware (NUM_GPU, PARALLEL, FLASH_ATTENTION, etc.)
benchmark	Benchmark a model with 3 standardized prompts — measures tok/s, load time, prompt eval
compare_models	Head-to-head comparison of two models on the same prompt with speed + response side-by-side
cleanup_models	Analyze installed models — find redundancies, cloud-only models, oversized models, and upgrade candidates
project_recommend	Scan a project directory (languages, frameworks, size) and recommend the best model for that codebase
ollama_monitor	Real-time system status: RAM usage, loaded models, memory headroom analysis
cli_help	List all allowlisted CLI commands exposed through MCP
cli_exec	Execute any allowlisted llm-checker CLI command with custom args (policy/audit/calibrate/sync/ai-run/etc.)

Example Prompts

After setup, you can ask Claude things like:

• "What's the best coding model for my hardware?"
• "Benchmark qwen2.5-coder and show me the tok/s"
• "Compare llama3.2 vs codellama for coding tasks"
• "Clean up my Ollama — what should I remove?"
• "What model should I use for this Rust project?"
• "Optimize my Ollama config for maximum performance"
• "How much RAM is Ollama using right now?"

Claude will automatically call the right tools and give you actionable results.

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Interactive CLI Panel

Running llm-checker with no arguments now opens an interactive panel (TTY terminals):

• animated startup banner
• main command list with descriptions
• type / to open all commands
• use up/down arrows to select a command
• press Enter to execute
• add optional extra flags before run (example: --json --limit 5)

For scripting and automation, direct command invocation remains unchanged:

llm-checker check --use-case coding --limit 3
llm-checker search "qwen coder" --json

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Commands

Core Commands

Command	Description
hw-detect	Detect GPU/CPU capabilities, memory, backends
check	Full system analysis with compatible models and recommendations
recommend	Intelligent recommendations by category (coding, reasoning, multimodal, etc.)
calibrate	Generate calibration result + routing policy artifacts from a JSONL prompt suite
installed	Rank your installed Ollama models by compatibility
list-models	List the synced Ollama catalog by popularity, category, size, or JSON output
ollama-plan	Compute safe Ollama runtime env vars (NUM_CTX, NUM_PARALLEL, MAX_LOADED_MODELS) for selected local models
mcp-setup	Print/apply Claude MCP setup command and config snippet (--apply, --json, --npx)
gpu-plan	Multi-GPU placement advisor with single/pooled model-size envelopes
verify-context	Verify practical context-window limits for a local model
amd-guard	AMD/Windows reliability guard with mitigation hints
toolcheck	Test tool-calling compatibility for local models

Database Commands

Command	Description
sync	Refresh the local SQLite model catalog from Ollama
search <query>	Search the synced catalog with filters and intelligent scoring
smart-recommend	Advanced recommendations using the full scoring engine

Enterprise Policy Commands

Command	Description
policy init	Generate a policy.yaml template for enterprise governance
policy validate	Validate a policy file and return non-zero on schema errors
audit export	Evaluate policy outcomes and export compliance reports (json, csv, sarif)

Policy Enforcement in check and recommend

Both check and recommend support --policy <file>.

• In audit mode, policy violations are reported but the command exits with 0.
• In enforce mode, blocking violations return non-zero (default 1).
• You can override the non-zero code with enforcement.exit_code in policy.yaml.

Examples:

llm-checker check --policy ./policy.yaml
llm-checker check --policy ./policy.yaml --use-case coding --runtime vllm
llm-checker recommend --policy ./policy.yaml --category coding

Calibrated Routing in recommend and ai-run

recommend and ai-run now support calibration routing policies generated by calibrate --policy-out.

• --calibrated [file]:
  • If file is omitted, discovery defaults to ~/.llm-checker/calibration-policy.{yaml,yml,json}.
• --policy <file> takes precedence over --calibrated for routing resolution.
• Resolution precedence:
  • --policy (explicit)
  • --calibrated (explicit file or default discovery)
  • deterministic selector fallback
• CLI output includes routing provenance (--policy, --calibrated, or default discovery) and the selected route/model.

Examples:

llm-checker recommend --calibrated --category coding
llm-checker recommend --calibrated ./calibration-policy.yaml --category reasoning
llm-checker ai-run --calibrated --category coding --prompt "Refactor this function"
llm-checker ai-run --policy ./calibration-policy.yaml --prompt "Summarize this report"

Policy Audit Export

Use audit export when you need machine-readable compliance evidence for CI/CD gates, governance reviews, or security tooling.

# Single report format
llm-checker audit export --policy ./policy.yaml --command check --format json --out ./reports/check-policy.json

# Export all configured formats (json, csv, sarif)
llm-checker audit export --policy ./policy.yaml --command check --format all --out-dir ./reports

• --command check|recommend chooses the candidate source.
• --format all honors reporting.formats in your policy (falls back to json,csv,sarif).
• In enforce mode with blocking violations, reports are still written before non-zero exit.

Integration Examples (SIEM / CI Artifacts)

# CI artifact (JSON) for post-processing in pipeline jobs
llm-checker audit export --policy ./policy.yaml --command check --format json --out ./reports/policy-report.json

# Flat CSV for SIEM ingestion (Splunk/ELK/DataDog pipelines)
llm-checker audit export --policy ./policy.yaml --command check --format csv --out ./reports/policy-report.csv

# SARIF for security/code-scanning tooling integrations
llm-checker audit export --policy ./policy.yaml --command check --format sarif --out ./reports/policy-report.sarif

GitHub Actions Policy Gate (Copy-Paste)

name: Policy Gate
on: [pull_request]

jobs:
  policy-gate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
      - run: npm ci
      - run: node bin/enhanced_cli.js check --policy ./policy.yaml --runtime ollama --no-verbose
      - if: always()
        run: node bin/enhanced_cli.js audit export --policy ./policy.yaml --command check --format all --runtime ollama --no-verbose --out-dir ./policy-reports
      - if: always()
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: policy-audit-reports
          path: ./policy-reports

Provenance Fields in Reports

check, recommend, and audit export outputs include normalized model provenance fields:

• source
• registry
• version
• license
• digest

If a field is unavailable from model metadata, outputs use "unknown" instead of omitting the field. This keeps downstream parsers deterministic. License values are canonicalized for policy checks (for example MIT License -> mit, Apache 2.0 -> apache-2.0).

AI Commands

Command	Description
ai-check	AI-powered model evaluation with meta-analysis
ai-run	AI-powered model selection and execution with live tokens/sec output

---

ai-run — Auto-Select and Run

llm-checker ai-run --category coding --prompt "Write a file parser in Node.js"
llm-checker ai-run --benchmark --category general
llm-checker ai-run --reference-only --category reasoning

ai-run chooses the best installed model for the requested category, falls back to the best local alternative when the top catalog pick is not installed, and streams through Ollama directly.

When a response completes, the CLI appends measured local speed:

>>> hi
Hello! How can I help you today?
[42.8 tokens/sec]

Use --reference-only when you only want the recommendation card and pull command without starting a chat. Use --benchmark for a quick measured speed check on the selected local model.

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hw-detect — Hardware Analysis

llm-checker hw-detect

Summary:
  Apple M4 Pro (24GB Unified Memory)
  Tier: MEDIUM HIGH
  Max model size: 15GB
  Best backend: metal

CPU:
  Apple M4 Pro
  Cores: 12 (12 physical)
  SIMD: NEON

Metal:
  GPU Cores: 16
  Unified Memory: 24GB
  Memory Bandwidth: 273GB/s

On hybrid or integrated-only systems, hw-detect now also surfaces GPU topology explicitly:

Dedicated GPUs: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060
Integrated GPUs: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Assist path: Integrated/shared-memory GPU detected, runtime remains CPU

This makes integrated GPUs visible even when the selected runtime backend is still CPU.

recommend — Category Recommendations

llm-checker recommend

Use recommend as the canonical model-picking command. Other recommendation-like commands have narrower roles:

Command	Role	Expected to match recommend?
recommend	Canonical deterministic model recommendations by category	Yes, this is the reference output
check	Hardware compatibility report with a compatibility-oriented recommendation card	Not exactly; it prioritizes fit/reporting context
smart-recommend	Experimental alternate scoring engine used while scoring ideas are evaluated	No; it may differ until it is unified or retired

Use optimization profiles to steer ranking by intent:

llm-checker recommend --optimize balanced
llm-checker recommend --optimize speed
llm-checker recommend --optimize quality
llm-checker recommend --optimize context
llm-checker recommend --optimize coding

INTELLIGENT RECOMMENDATIONS BY CATEGORY
Hardware Tier: HIGH | Models Analyzed: 205

Coding:
   qwen2.5-coder:14b (14B)
   Score: 78/100
   Fine-tuning: LoRA+QLoRA
   Command: ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:14b

Reasoning:
   deepseek-r1:14b (14B)
   Score: 86/100
   Fine-tuning: QLoRA
   Command: ollama pull deepseek-r1:14b

Multimodal:
   llama3.2-vision:11b (11B)
   Score: 83/100
   Fine-tuning: LoRA+QLoRA
   Command: ollama pull llama3.2-vision:11b

check, recommend, and ai-check include a fine-tuning suitability label in output to help choose between Full FT, LoRA, and QLoRA paths.

search — Model Search

llm-checker search llama -l 5
llm-checker search coding --use-case coding
llm-checker search qwen --quant Q4_K_M --max-size 8

Option	Description
-l, --limit <n>	Number of results (default: 10)
-u, --use-case <type>	Optimize for: general, coding, chat, reasoning, creative, fast
--max-size <gb>	Maximum model size in GB
--quant <type>	Filter by quantization: Q4_K_M, Q8_0, FP16, etc.
--family <name>	Filter by model family

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Model Catalog

LLM Checker ships with a pre-synced SQLite snapshot of the Ollama catalog. On first run, that snapshot is copied to ~/.llm-checker/models.db, so recommendations and catalog search work immediately after npm install.

The packaged snapshot currently includes:

• 229 Ollama models
• 7176 variants
• pull counts
• tag counts
• last-updated metadata
• variant params, quantization, size, context, and input type fields when available

Refresh it any time:

llm-checker sync

For release maintainers, the packaged seed can be regenerated from the synced local DB:

npm run sync:seed

recommend, list-models, ai-run, and ai-check prefer the synced SQLite catalog. If the SQLite catalog is unavailable, LLM Checker falls back to the scraped cache and then to the curated catalog.

The curated fallback catalog includes 35+ models from the most popular Ollama families:

Family	Models	Best For
Qwen 2.5/3	7B, 14B, Coder 7B/14B/32B, VL 3B/7B	Coding, general, vision
Llama 3.x	1B, 3B, 8B, Vision 11B	General, chat, multimodal
DeepSeek	R1 8B/14B/32B, Coder V2 16B	Reasoning, coding
Phi-4	14B	Reasoning, math
Gemma 2	2B, 9B	General, efficient
Mistral	7B, Nemo 12B	Creative, chat
CodeLlama	7B, 13B	Coding
LLaVA	7B, 13B	Vision
Embeddings	nomic-embed-text, mxbai-embed-large, bge-m3, all-minilm	RAG, search

All available models are automatically combined with locally installed Ollama models for scoring. Ambiguous tags such as latest, cloud-only variants, and aliases without reliable size metadata are kept out of local recommendations unless they can be resolved to concrete parameters or artifact sizes.

---

Scoring System

Models are evaluated across four dimensions, weighted by use case:

Dimension	Description
Q Quality	Model family reputation + parameter count + quantization penalty
S Speed	Estimated tokens/sec based on hardware backend and model size
F Fit	Memory utilization efficiency (how well it fits in available RAM)
C Context	Context window capability vs. target context length

Scoring Weights by Use Case

Three scoring systems are available, each optimized for different workflows:

Deterministic Selector (primary — used by check and recommend):

Category	Quality	Speed	Fit	Context
general	45%	35%	15%	5%
coding	55%	20%	15%	10%
reasoning	60%	10%	20%	10%
multimodal	50%	15%	20%	15%

Scoring Engine (experimental — used by smart-recommend and search):

Use Case	Quality	Speed	Fit	Context
general	40%	35%	15%	10%
coding	55%	20%	15%	10%
reasoning	60%	15%	10%	15%
chat	40%	40%	15%	5%
fast	25%	55%	15%	5%
quality	65%	10%	15%	10%

All weights are centralized in src/models/scoring-config.js.

Memory Estimation

Memory requirements are calculated using calibrated bytes-per-parameter values:

Quantization	Bytes/Param	7B Model	14B Model	32B Model
Q8_0	1.05	~8 GB	~16 GB	~35 GB
Q4_K_M	0.58	~5 GB	~9 GB	~20 GB
Q3_K	0.48	~4 GB	~8 GB	~17 GB

The selector automatically picks the best quantization that fits your available memory.

For MoE models, deterministic memory estimation supports explicit sparse metadata when present:

• total_params_b
• active_params_b
• expert_count
• experts_active_per_token

Normalized recommendation variants expose both snake_case and camelCase metadata aliases (for example: total_params_b + totalParamsB) when available.

MoE parameter path selection is deterministic and uses this fallback order:

1. active_params_b (assumption source: moe_active_metadata)
2. total_params_b * (experts_active_per_token / expert_count) (assumption source: moe_derived_expert_ratio)
3. total_params_b (assumption source: moe_fallback_total_params)
4. Model paramsB fallback (assumption source: moe_fallback_model_params)

Dense models continue to use the dense parameter path (dense_params) unchanged.

When active_params_b (or a derived active-ratio path) is available, inference memory uses the sparse-active parameter estimate even if artifact size metadata is present.

Runtime-Aware MoE Speed Estimation

MoE speed estimates now include runtime-specific overhead assumptions (routing, communication, offload), instead of using a single fixed MoE boost.

• Canonical helper: src/models/moe-assumptions.js
• Applied in both:
  • src/models/deterministic-selector.js
  • src/models/scoring-engine.js

Current runtime profiles:

Runtime	Routing	Communication	Offload	Max Effective Gain
ollama	18%	13%	8%	2.35x
vllm	12%	8%	4%	2.65x
mlx	16%	10%	5%	2.45x
llama.cpp	20%	14%	9%	2.30x

Recommendation outputs now expose these assumptions through runtime metadata and MoE speed diagnostics.

---

Supported Hardware

Apple Silicon

• M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra
• M2, M2 Pro, M2 Max, M2 Ultra
• M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max
• M4, M4 Pro, M4 Max

NVIDIA (CUDA)

• RTX 50 Series (5090, 5080, 5070 Ti, 5070)
• RTX 40 Series (4090, 4080, 4070 Ti, 4070, 4060 Ti, 4060)
• RTX 30 Series (3090 Ti, 3090, 3080 Ti, 3080, 3070 Ti, 3070, 3060 Ti, 3060)
• Data Center (H100, A100, A10, L40, T4)

AMD (ROCm)

• RX 7900 XTX, 7900 XT, 7800 XT, 7700 XT
• RX 6900 XT, 6800 XT, 6800
• Instinct MI300X, MI300A, MI250X, MI210

Intel

• Arc A770, A750, A580, A380
• Integrated Iris Xe, UHD Graphics

CPU Backends

• AVX-512 + AMX (Intel Sapphire Rapids, Emerald Rapids)
• AVX-512 (Intel Ice Lake+, AMD Zen 4)
• AVX2 (Most modern x86 CPUs)
• ARM NEON (Apple Silicon, AWS Graviton, Ampere Altra)

---

Architecture

LLM Checker uses a deterministic pipeline so the same inputs produce the same ranked output, with explicit policy outcomes for governance workflows.

flowchart LR
  subgraph Inputs
    HW["Hardware detector<br/>CPU/GPU/RAM/backend"]
    REG["Synced SQLite Ollama catalog<br/>(packaged seed + live sync)"]
    LOCAL["Installed local models"]
    FLAGS["CLI options<br/>use-case/runtime/limits/policy"]
  end

  subgraph Pipeline["Selection Pipeline"]
    NORMALIZE["Normalize and deduplicate model pool"]
    PROFILE["Hardware profile and memory budget"]
    FILTER["Use-case/category filtering"]
    QUANT["Quantization fit selection"]
    SCORE["Deterministic 4D scoring<br/>Q/S/F/C"]
    POLICY["Policy evaluation (optional)<br/>audit or enforce"]
    RANK["Rank and explain candidates"]
  end

  subgraph Outputs
    REC["check / recommend output"]
    AUDIT["audit export<br/>JSON / CSV / SARIF"]
    RUN["pull/run-ready commands"]
  end

  REG --> NORMALIZE
  LOCAL --> NORMALIZE
  HW --> PROFILE
  FLAGS --> FILTER
  FLAGS --> POLICY
  NORMALIZE --> FILTER
  PROFILE --> QUANT
  FILTER --> QUANT
  QUANT --> SCORE
  SCORE --> POLICY
  SCORE --> RANK
  POLICY --> RANK
  RANK --> REC
  POLICY --> AUDIT
  RANK --> RUN

Component Responsibilities

• Input layer: Collects runtime constraints from hardware detection, local inventory, dynamic registry data, and CLI flags.
• Normalization layer: Deduplicates identifiers/tags and builds a canonical candidate set.
• Selection layer: Filters by use case, selects the best fitting quantization, and computes deterministic Q/S/F/C scores.
• Governance layer: Applies policy rules in audit or enforce mode and records explicit violation metadata.
• Output layer: Returns ranked recommendations plus machine-readable compliance artifacts when requested.

Execution Stages

1. Hardware profiling: Detect CPU/GPU/RAM and effective backend capabilities.
2. Model pool assembly: Merge the synced SQLite catalog (or fallback cache/catalog) with locally installed models.
3. Candidate filtering: Keep only relevant models for the requested use case.
4. Fit selection: Choose the best quantization for available memory budget.
5. Deterministic scoring: Score each candidate across quality, speed, fit, and context.
6. Policy + ranking: Apply optional policy checks, then rank and return actionable commands.

---

Examples

Detect your hardware:

llm-checker hw-detect

Get recommendations for all categories:

llm-checker recommend

Full system analysis with compatible models:

llm-checker check

Find the best coding model:

llm-checker recommend --category coding

Search for small, fast models under 5GB:

llm-checker search "7b" --max-size 5 --use-case fast

Get high-quality reasoning models:

llm-checker smart-recommend --use-case reasoning

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Development

git clone https://github.com/Pavelevich/llm-checker.git
cd llm-checker
npm install
node bin/enhanced_cli.js hw-detect

Project Structure

src/
  models/
    deterministic-selector.js  # Primary selection algorithm
    scoring-config.js          # Centralized scoring weights
    scoring-engine.js          # Advanced scoring (smart-recommend)
    catalog.json               # Curated fallback catalog (35+ models, only if dynamic pool unavailable)
  ai/
    multi-objective-selector.js  # Multi-objective optimization
    ai-check-selector.js        # LLM-based evaluation
  hardware/
    detector.js                # Hardware detection
    unified-detector.js        # Cross-platform detection
  data/
    model-database.js          # SQLite storage and packaged seed loading
    seed/models.db             # npm-packaged Ollama catalog snapshot
    sync-manager.js            # Database sync from Ollama registry
bin/
  enhanced_cli.js              # CLI entry point

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License

LLM Checker is licensed under NPDL-1.0 (No Paid Distribution License).

• Free use, modification, and redistribution are allowed.
• Selling the software or offering it as a paid hosted/API service is not allowed without a separate commercial license.

See LICENSE for full terms.

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