Run DeepSeek Locally: A Practical Setup Guide

This guide walks you through pulling DeepSeek locally, connecting it to your workflows, and keeping your data off third-party servers. Whether you are automating tasks with n8n or just want a private AI assistant, this setup gives you full control.

Step 1: Install Ollama on Your Machine

Download and install Ollama for your operating system (macOS, Linux, or Windows). Ollama acts as the local runtime that downloads and serves open-weight models through a simple API.

bash
# macOS / Linux one-liner
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

Once installed, confirm it is running:

bash
ollama --version

Step 2: Pull the DeepSeek Model

Choose the model size that fits your hardware. A good starting point for most machines with 8 GB+ VRAM or 16 GB+ RAM is the 7B variant.

bash
ollama pull deepseek-r1:7b

Ollama streams the download and automatically quantizes for your hardware. Wait until the pull completes before moving on.

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