Gollama.cpp

A high-performance Go binding for llama.cpp using purego and libffi for cross-platform compatibility without CGO.

Features

• Pure Go: No CGO required, uses purego and libffi for C interop
• Cross-Platform: Supports macOS (CPU/Metal), Linux (CPU/NVIDIA/AMD), Windows (CPU/NVIDIA/AMD)
• Struct Support: Uses libffi for calling C functions with struct parameters/returns on all platforms
• Performance: Direct bindings to llama.cpp shared libraries
• Compatibility: Version-synchronized with llama.cpp releases
• Easy Integration: Simple Go API for LLM inference
• GPU Acceleration: Supports Metal, CUDA, HIP, Vulkan, OpenCL, SYCL, and other backends
• Embedded Runtime Libraries: Optional go:embed bundle for all supported platforms
• GGML Bindings: Low-level GGML tensor library bindings for advanced use cases

Supported Platforms

Gollama.cpp uses a platform-specific architecture with build tags to ensure optimal compatibility and performance across all operating systems.

✅ Fully Supported Platforms

macOS

• CPU: Intel x64, Apple Silicon (ARM64)
• GPU: Metal (Apple Silicon)
• Status: Full feature support with purego
• Build Tags: Uses !windows build tag

Linux

• CPU: x86_64, ARM64
• GPU: NVIDIA (CUDA/Vulkan), AMD (HIP/ROCm/Vulkan), Intel (SYCL/Vulkan)
• Status: Full feature support with purego and libffi
• Build Tags: Uses !windows build tag

Windows

• CPU: x86_64, ARM64
• GPU: NVIDIA (CUDA/Vulkan), AMD (HIP/Vulkan), Intel (SYCL/Vulkan), Qualcomm Adreno (OpenCL)
• Status: Full feature support with libffi
• Build Tags: Uses windows build tag with syscall-based library loading
• Current State:
  • ✅ Compiles without errors on Windows
  • ✅ Cross-compilation from other platforms works
  • ✅ Runtime functionality fully enabled via libffi and GetProcAddress
  • ✅ Full struct parameter/return support through function registration
  • 🚧 GPU acceleration being tested

Windows runtime notes

• The loader now adds the DLL's directory to the Windows DLL search path and uses LoadLibraryExW with safe search flags to reliably resolve sibling dependencies (ggml, libomp, libcurl, etc.).
• If you see “The specified module could not be found.” while loading llama.dll, it often indicates a missing system runtime (e.g., Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2015–2022). Installing the latest x64/x86 redistributable typically resolves it.
• CI runners set PATH for later steps, but the downloader verifies loading immediately after download; the improved loader handles dependency resolution without relying on PATH.

Platform-Specific Implementation Details

Our platform abstraction layer uses Go build tags to provide:

• Unix-like systems (!windows): Uses purego for dynamic library loading
• Windows (windows): Uses native Windows syscalls (LoadLibraryW, FreeLibrary, GetProcAddress)
• All platforms: Uses libffi for calling C functions with struct parameters/returns
• Cross-compilation: Supports building for any platform from any platform
• Automatic detection: Runtime platform capability detection

Installation

go get github.com/dianlight/gollama.cpp

The Go module automatically downloads pre-built llama.cpp libraries from the official ggml-org/llama.cpp releases on first use. No manual compilation required!

Embedding Libraries

For reproducible builds you can embed the pre-built libraries directly into the Go module. A helper Makefile target downloads the configured llama.cpp build (LLAMA_CPP_BUILD) for every supported platform and synchronises the ./libs directory which is picked up by go:embed:

# Download all platform builds for the configured llama.cpp version and populate ./libs
make populate-libs

# Alternatively, use the CLI directly
go run ./cmd/gollama-download -download-all -version b6862 -copy-libs

Only a single llama.cpp version is stored in ./libs at a time. Running populate-libs removes outdated directories automatically. Subsequent go build invocations embed the freshly synchronised libraries and LoadLibraryWithVersion("") will prefer the embedded bundle.

Cross-Platform Development

Build Compatibility Matrix

Our CI system tests compilation across all platforms:

Target Platform	Build From Linux	Build From macOS	Build From Windows
Linux (amd64)	✅	✅	✅
Linux (arm64)	✅	✅	✅
macOS (amd64)	✅	✅	✅
macOS (arm64)	✅	✅	✅
Windows (amd64)	✅	✅	✅
Windows (arm64)	✅	✅	✅

Development Workflow

# Test cross-compilation for all platforms
make test-cross-compile

# Build for specific platform
GOOS=windows GOARCH=amd64 go build ./...
GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build ./...
GOOS=darwin GOARCH=arm64 go build ./...

# Run platform-specific tests
go test -v -run TestPlatformSpecific ./...

Quick Start

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "log"

    "github.com/dianlight/gollama.cpp"
)

func main() {
    // Initialize the library
    gollama.Backend_init()
    defer gollama.Backend_free()

    // Load model
    params := gollama.Model_default_params()
    model, err := gollama.Model_load_from_file("path/to/model.gguf", params)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer gollama.Model_free(model)

    // Create context
    ctxParams := gollama.Context_default_params()
    ctx, err := gollama.Init_from_model(model, ctxParams)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer gollama.Free(ctx)

    // Tokenize and generate
    prompt := "The future of AI is"
    tokens, err := gollama.Tokenize(model, prompt, true, false)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    // Create batch and decode
    batch := gollama.Batch_init(len(tokens), 0, 1)
    defer gollama.Batch_free(batch)

    for i, token := range tokens {
        gollama.Batch_add(batch, token, int32(i), []int32{0}, false)
    }

    if err := gollama.Decode(ctx, batch); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    // Sample next token
    logits := gollama.Get_logits_ith(ctx, -1)
    candidates := gollama.Token_data_array_init(model)
    
    sampler := gollama.Sampler_init_greedy()
    defer gollama.Sampler_free(sampler)
    
    newToken := gollama.Sampler_sample(sampler, ctx, candidates)
    
    // Convert token to text
    text := gollama.Token_to_piece(model, newToken, false)
    fmt.Printf("Generated: %s\n", text)
}

Advanced Usage

GGML Low-Level API

For advanced use cases, gollama.cpp provides direct access to GGML (the tensor library powering llama.cpp):

// Check GGML type information
typeSize, err := gollama.Ggml_type_size(gollama.GGML_TYPE_F32)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Printf("F32 type size: %d bytes\n", typeSize)

// Check if a type is quantized
isQuantized, err := gollama.Ggml_type_is_quantized(gollama.GGML_TYPE_Q4_0)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Printf("Q4_0 is quantized: %v\n", isQuantized)

// Enumerate backend devices
devCount, err := gollama.Ggml_backend_dev_count()
if err == nil && devCount > 0 {
    for i := uint64(0); i < devCount; i++ {
        dev, _ := gollama.Ggml_backend_dev_get(i)
        name, _ := gollama.Ggml_backend_dev_name(dev)
        fmt.Printf("Device %d: %s\n", i, name)
    }
}

Supported GGML Features:

• 31 tensor type definitions (F32, F16, Q4_0, Q8_0, BF16, etc.)
• Type size and quantization utilities
• Backend device enumeration and management
• Buffer allocation and management
• Type information queries

Note: GGML functions may not be exported in all llama.cpp builds. The library gracefully handles missing functions without errors.

GPU Configuration

Gollama.cpp automatically downloads the appropriate pre-built binaries with GPU support and configures the optimal backend:

// Automatic GPU detection and configuration
params := gollama.Context_default_params()
params.n_gpu_layers = 32 // Offload layers to GPU (if available)

// Detect available GPU backend
backend := gollama.DetectGpuBackend()
fmt.Printf("Using GPU backend: %s\n", backend.String())

// Platform-specific optimizations:
// - macOS: Uses Metal when available  
// - Linux: Supports CUDA, HIP, Vulkan, and SYCL
// - Windows: Supports CUDA, HIP, Vulkan, OpenCL, and SYCL
params.split_mode = gollama.LLAMA_SPLIT_MODE_LAYER

GPU Support Matrix

Platform	GPU Type	Backend	Status
macOS	Apple Silicon	Metal	✅ Supported
macOS	Intel/AMD	CPU only	✅ Supported
Linux	NVIDIA	CUDA	✅ Available in releases
Linux	NVIDIA	Vulkan	✅ Available in releases
Linux	AMD	HIP/ROCm	✅ Available in releases
Linux	AMD	Vulkan	✅ Available in releases
Linux	Intel	SYCL	✅ Available in releases
Linux	Intel/Other	Vulkan	✅ Available in releases
Linux	Intel/Other	CPU	✅ Fallback
Windows	NVIDIA	CUDA	✅ Available in releases
Windows	NVIDIA	Vulkan	✅ Available in releases
Windows	AMD	HIP	✅ Available in releases
Windows	AMD	Vulkan	✅ Available in releases
Windows	Intel	SYCL	✅ Available in releases
Windows	Qualcomm Adreno	OpenCL	✅ Available in releases
Windows	Intel/Other	Vulkan	✅ Available in releases
Windows	Intel/Other	CPU	✅ Fallback

The library automatically downloads pre-built binaries from the official llama.cpp releases with the appropriate GPU support for your platform. The download happens automatically on first use!

Model Loading Options

params := gollama.Model_default_params()
params.n_ctx = 4096           // Context size
params.use_mmap = true        // Memory mapping
params.use_mlock = true       // Memory locking
params.vocab_only = false     // Load full model

Library Management

Gollama.cpp automatically downloads pre-built binaries from the official llama.cpp releases. You can also manage libraries manually:

// Load a specific version
err := gollama.LoadLibraryWithVersion("b6862")

// Clean cache to force re-download
err := gollama.CleanLibraryCache()

Command Line Tools

# Download libraries for current platform
make download-libs

# Download libraries for all platforms  
make download-libs-all

# Test download functionality
make test-download

# Test GPU detection and functionality
make test-gpu

# Detect available GPU backends
make detect-gpu

# Clean library cache
make clean-libs

Available Library Variants

The downloader automatically selects the best variant for your platform:

• macOS: Metal-enabled binaries (arm64/x64)
• Linux: CPU-optimized binaries (CUDA/HIP/Vulkan/SYCL versions available)
• Windows: CPU-optimized binaries (CUDA/HIP/Vulkan/OpenCL/SYCL versions available)

Cache Location

Downloaded libraries are cached in platform-specific locations:

• Linux/macOS: ~/.cache/gollama/libs/
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%/gollama/libs/

You can customize the cache directory in several ways:

Environment Variable:

export GOLLAMA_CACHE_DIR=/custom/path/to/cache

Configuration File:

{
  "cache_dir": "/custom/path/to/cache"
}

Programmatically:

config := gollama.DefaultConfig()
config.CacheDir = "/custom/path/to/cache"
gollama.SetGlobalConfig(config)

To get the current cache directory:

cacheDir, err := gollama.GetLibraryCacheDir()
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Printf("Using cache directory: %s\n", cacheDir)

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21 or later
• Make

Quick Start

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/dianlight/gollama.cpp
cd gollama.cpp

# Build for current platform
make build

# Run tests (downloads libraries automatically)
make test

# Build examples
make build-examples

# Run tests
make test

# Generate release packages
make release

Running Tests

make test

Tests use github.com/stretchr/testify/suite along with a shared BaseSuite (see test_base_suite_test.go) that automatically snapshots/restores configuration and environment variables and unloads the llama library after each test. See the Contributing guide for details.

GPU Detection Logic

The Makefile implements intelligent GPU detection:

1. CUDA Detection: Checks for nvcc compiler and CUDA toolkit
2. HIP Detection: Checks for hipconfig and ROCm installation
3. Priority Order: CUDA > HIP > CPU (on Linux/Windows)
4. Metal: Always enabled on macOS when Xcode is available

No manual configuration or environment variables required!

Version Compatibility

This library tracks llama.cpp versions. The version number format is:

vX.Y.Z-llamacpp.ABCD

Where:

• X.Y.Z is the gollama.cpp semantic version
• ABCD is the corresponding llama.cpp build number

For example: v0.2.0-llamacpp.b6862 uses llama.cpp build b6862.

Documentation

• API Reference
  • High-Level API: gollama.go - Complete llama.cpp bindings
  • Low-Level API: goggml.go - GGML tensor library bindings
• GGML Low-Level API Guide - Detailed GGML bindings documentation
• Examples
• Build Guide
• GPU Setup

Examples

See the examples directory for complete examples:

• Simple Chat
• Chat with History
• Embedding Generation
• Model Quantization
• Batch Processing
• GPU Acceleration

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide for details.

Funding

If you find this project helpful and would like to support its development, you can:

• ⭐ Star this repository on GitHub
• 🐛 Report bugs and suggest improvements
• 📖 Improve documentation

Your support helps maintain and improve this project for the entire community!

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

This license is compatible with llama.cpp's MIT license.

Acknowledgments

• llama.cpp - The underlying C++ library
• purego - Pure Go C interop library
• ggml - Machine learning tensor library

Support

• Issues - Bug reports and feature requests
• Discussions - Questions and community support