Control Panel
Run a local model on your Mac with a compressed memory footprint, using a point-and-click web app — no Python required.
:::info Runs on your Mac, not in your browser alone This app starts a real local server on your own machine, using your Mac's own chip. There's no hosted version — install VeloxQuant-MLX first, then run the command below. :::
Install
pip install veloxquant-mlx
Start the panel
veloxquant panel
Your browser opens automatically at http://127.0.0.1:7860.
Set it up
- Model — paste a model name, e.g.
mlx-community/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-4bit. (Don't have one yet? Any model from mlx-community on Hugging Face works.) - Compression method — leave it on the default if you're not sure. It's a safe, broadly-compatible choice.
- Click Start Server. The status pill goes
Starting→Running. - Copy the Base URL shown on the page.
That's it — you now have a local, OpenAI-compatible endpoint running on your Mac.
Chat with it
Paste the Base URL into any tool that supports a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint — Cursor, a chat UI, or your own script.
With Python:
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1", api_key="not-needed")
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="default_model",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Say hi"}],
max_tokens=50,
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)
Or from the terminal:
curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"model":"default_model","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Say hi"}],"max_tokens":50}'
When you're done, click Stop Server in the panel to shut it down and free the port.
What "compression" means here
VeloxQuant shrinks the memory a model's conversation history takes up (its "KV cache"), so you can hold longer conversations or run bigger models on the same Mac.
One honest caveat: the compression ratio shown in the panel today describes how well the data compresses, not how much memory your Mac actually saves while running — that part is still on our roadmap. So don't expect your Mac's memory usage to drop by the ratio shown; think of it as a preview of where we're headed, not a live memory saving yet.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| "port already in use" | Something else is using that port — try a different one, or stop the other program. |
| "cannot be served" for a method | That method isn't supported by the server yet — pick a different one from the list. |
| "model not found" | Double check the model name, or make sure you're online the first time (it needs to download). |
| "ran out of memory loading the model" | The model is too big for your Mac's RAM — try a smaller one. |
Status flips to Error while running | The server crashed. Scroll the log at the bottom of the page to see why. |
Prefer the command line?
Everything the panel does, you can also run directly:
veloxquant serve \
--model mlx-community/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-4bit \
--host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000