Running local models for coding — what's your actual context strategy for large codebases?

This r/ollama community thread discusses practical strategies for managing context windows when using locally-run LLMs (via Ollama) for coding assistance on large codebases, where context limitations are a central challenge. Key topics likely include techniques such as RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) to selectively feed relevant code chunks, manually tuning num_ctx settings, and being deliberate about scoping model input to specific functions or files rather than entire projects. Users also likely share experiences with hardware constraints, model selection trade-offs, and hybrid approaches that combine local models for routine tasks with cloud models for complex, multi-file reasoning.

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Source: r/ollama | 2026-04-14