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---
title: Testing Local LLMs Used to Be a Chore. Crustly’s New...
description: Crustly v0.5.2 is a Rust-based terminal AI assistant that now integrates natively with Ollama, enabling developers to download, switch, and tune local LLMs...
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og:title: Testing Local LLMs Used to Be a Chore. Crustly’s New Ollama Integration Changes Everything. | daily.dev
og:description: Crustly v0.5.2 is a Rust-based terminal AI assistant that now integrates natively with Ollama, enabling developers to download, switch, and tune local LLMs...
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> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Testing Local LLMs Used to Be a Chore. Crustly’s New Ollama Integration Changes Everything.

**[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Crustly v0.5.2 is a Rust-based terminal AI assistant that now integrates natively with Ollama, enabling developers to download, switch, and tune local LLMs entirely within a TUI. Key features include Ctrl+D to pull models with a live progress bar, Ctrl+W to switch models mid-session while preserving per-model configuration, real-time performance metrics (tokens/sec, generation time, cold/warm start), and a 22-tool agentic system for file operations and shell commands with approval gating. Per-model config overrides let users set context window size and temperature independently for each model. Version 0.5.2 also fixes several reliability bugs including a database race condition, a false-positive loop detector, and broken config persistence on model switch.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://medium.com/@jyjeanne/testing-local-llms-used-to-be-a-chore-crustlys-new-ollama-integration-changes-everything-976880b51e58>

## Questions this post answers

### How do I switch between different Ollama models mid-conversation in Crustly without losing my configuration?

Press Ctrl+W in Crustly, pick any installed model, and press Enter — the next message runs on that model. As of version 0.5.2, the switch carries the model's full configuration with it, including per-model overrides like context window and temperature, so a switched-to model behaves exactly as if you had started the session with it.

_daily.dev surfaces practical workflow notes like this for developers comparing local LLM tooling._

### Why does Crustly show tokens per second and cold start time under each response when using Ollama?

Crustly's native Ollama provider speaks Ollama's own /api/chat protocol rather than the OpenAI compatibility shim, which lets it report tokens per second, generation time, and whether the reply was a warm or cold start under every response. This gives real performance data for comparing local models on your own hardware rather than relying on estimates.

_developers benchmarking local models on their own hardware can find breakdowns like this on daily.dev._

### What bugs did Crustly version 0.5.2 fix for its agentic terminal AI assistant?

Version 0.5.2 fixed a database race that crashed every non-interactive crustly run invocation with a Message not found error, a false-positive loop detector that silently aborted legitimate consecutive file edits, Ctrl+W dropping configuration when rebuilding the provider, and tool calls printed as raw JSON text by some model templates not being recovered and executed.

_track reliability fixes like these for agentic coding tools on daily.dev before upgrading._

## Similar posts on daily.dev

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- [Don’t Use Ollama for Local LLMs](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-use-ollama-for-local-llms-szl4snpls) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments
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- [How to Run and Customize LLMs Locally with Ollama](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-run-and-customize-llms-locally-with-ollama-cixkmhbqh) · freeCodeCamp · 2 upvotes · 0 comments

---

Tags: [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust), [#local-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/local-ai), [#ollama](https://daily.dev/tags/ollama)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/testing-local-llms-used-to-be-a-chore-crustly-s-new-ollama-integration-changes-everything--n93qkerhw)

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