Deploying LocalAI Self-Hosted AI Model Management Platform on Ubuntu 24.04

LocalAI is an open-source platform for running Large Language Models locally with an OpenAI-compatible API, so you can swap it in behind existing OpenAI client code without paying per-token or sending data off-server. This guide deploys LocalAI using Docker Compose with Traefik handling automatic HTTPS, persistent model and cache directories, and a working chat-completion test. By the end, you'll have LocalAI serving an OpenAI-compatible API securely at your domain. Set Up the Directory Structure 1. Create the project directories: $ mkdir -p ~/localai/ { models,cache } $ cd ~/localai models/ holds downloaded model files; cache/ persists between restarts. 2. Create the environment file: $ nano .env DOMAIN = localai.example.com LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL = admin@example.com Deploy with Docker Compose 1. Add your user to the Docker group: $ sudo usermod -aG docker $USER $ newgrp docker 2. Create the Compose manifest: $ nano docker-compose.yaml services : traefik : image : traefik:v3.6 container_name : traefik restart : unless-stopped environment : DOCKER_API_VERSION : " 1.44" command : - " --providers.docker=true" - " --providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false" - " --entrypoints.web.address=:80" - " --entrypoints.websecure.address=:443" - " --entrypoints.web.http.redirections.entrypoint.to=websecure" - " --entrypoints.web.http.redirections.entrypoint.scheme=https" - " --certificatesresolvers.le.acme.httpchallenge=true" - " --certificatesresolvers.le.acme.httpchallenge.entrypoint=web" - " --certificatesresolvers.le.acme.email=${LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL}" - " --certificatesresolvers.le.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json" ports : - " 80:80" - " 443:443" volumes : - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro - ./letsencrypt:/letsencrypt localai : image : localai/localai:latest-aio-cpu container_name : localai restart : unless-stopped volumes : - ./models:/models:cached - ./cache:/cache:cached healthcheck : test : [ " CMD" , " curl" , " -f" , " http://localhost:8080/readyz" ] interval :