llama-cpp✓ Pass

SKILL.md Content

---
name: llama-cpp
description: Runs LLM inference on CPU, Apple Silicon, and consumer GPUs without NVIDIA hardware. Use for edge deployment, M1/M2/M3 Macs, AMD/Intel GPUs, or when CUDA is unavailable. Supports GGUF quantization (1.5-8 bit) for reduced memory and 4-10× speedup vs PyTorch on CPU.
version: 1.0.0
author: Orchestra Research
license: MIT
tags: [Inference Serving, Llama.cpp, CPU Inference, Apple Silicon, Edge Deployment, GGUF, Quantization, Non-NVIDIA, AMD GPUs, Intel GPUs, Embedded]
dependencies: [llama-cpp-python]
---

# llama.cpp

Pure C/C++ LLM inference with minimal dependencies, optimized for CPUs and non-NVIDIA hardware.

## When to use llama.cpp

**Use llama.cpp when:**
- Running on CPU-only machines
- Deploying on Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)
- Using AMD or Intel GPUs (no CUDA)
- Edge deployment (Raspberry Pi, embedded systems)
- Need simple deployment without Docker/Python

**Use TensorRT-LLM instead when:**
- Have NVIDIA GPUs (A100/H100)
- Need maximum throughput (100K+ tok/s)
- Running in datacenter with CUDA

**Use vLLM instead when:**
- Have NVIDIA GPUs
- Need Python-first API
- Want PagedAttention

## Quick start

### Installation

```bash
# macOS/Linux
brew install llama.cpp

# Or build from source
git clone https://github.com/ggerganov/llama.cpp
cd llama.cpp
make

# With Metal (Apple Silicon)
make LLAMA_METAL=1

# With CUDA (NVIDIA)
make LLAMA_CUDA=1

# With ROCm (AMD)
make LLAMA_HIP=1
```

### Download model

```bash
# Download from HuggingFace (GGUF format)
huggingface-cli download \
    TheBloke/Llama-2-7B-Chat-GGUF \
    llama-2-7b-chat.Q4_K_M.gguf \
    --local-dir models/

# Or convert from HuggingFace
python convert_hf_to_gguf.py models/llama-2-7b-chat/
```

### Run inference

```bash
# Simple chat
./llama-cli \
    -m models/llama-2-7b-chat.Q4_K_M.gguf \
    -p "Explain quantum computing" \
    -n 256  # Max tokens

# Interactive chat
./llama-cli \
    -m models/llama-2-7b-chat.Q4_K_M.gguf \
    --interactive
```

### Server mode

```bash
# Start OpenAI-compatible server
./llama-server \
    -m models/llama-2-7b-chat.Q4_K_M.gguf \
    --host 0.0.0.0 \
    --port 8080 \
    -ngl 32  # Offload 32 layers to GPU

# Client request
curl http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "llama-2-7b-chat",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
    "temperature": 0.7,
    "max_tokens": 100
  }'
```

## Quantization formats

### GGUF format overview

| Format | Bits | Size (7B) | Speed | Quality | Use Case |
|--------|------|-----------|-------|---------|----------|
| **Q4_K_M** | 4.5 | 4.1 GB | Fast | Good | **Recommended default** |
| Q4_K_S | 4.3 | 3.9 GB | Faster | Lower | Speed critical |
| Q5_K_M | 5.5 | 4.8 GB | Medium | Better | Quality critical |
| Q6_K | 6.5 | 5.5 GB | Slower | Best | Maximum quality |
| Q8_0 | 8.0 | 7.0 GB | Slow | Excellent | Minimal degradation |
| Q2_K | 2.5 | 2.7 GB | Fastest | Poor | Testing only |

### Choosing quantization

```bash
# General use (balanced)
Q4_K_M  # 4-bit, medium quality

# Maximum speed (more degradation)
Q2_K or Q3_K_M

# Maximum quality (slower)
Q6_K or Q8_0

# Very large models (70B, 405B)
Q3_K_M or Q4_K_S  # Lower bits to fit in memory
```

## Hardware acceleration

### Apple Silicon (Metal)

```bash
# Build with Metal
make LLAMA_METAL=1

# Run with GPU acceleration (automatic)
./llama-cli -m model.gguf -ngl 999  # Offload all layers

# Performance: M3 Max 40-60 tokens/sec (Llama 2-7B Q4_K_M)
```

### NVIDIA GPUs (CUDA)

```bash
# Build with CUDA
make LLAMA_CUDA=1

# Offload layers to GPU
./llama-cli -m model.gguf -ngl 35  # Offload 35/40 layers

# Hybrid CPU+GPU for large models
./llama-cli -m llama-70b.Q4_K_M.gguf -ngl 20  # GPU: 20 layers, CPU: rest
```

### AMD GPUs (ROCm)

```bash
# Build with ROCm
make LLAMA_HIP=1

# Run with AMD GPU
./llama-cli -m model.gguf -ngl 999
```

## Common patterns

### Batch processing

```bash
# Process multiple prompts from file
cat prompts.txt | ./llama-cli \
    -m model.gguf \
    --batch-size 512 \
    -n 100
```

### Constrained generation

```bash
# JSON output with grammar
./llama-cli \
    -m model.gguf \
    -p "Generate a person: " \
    --grammar-file grammars/json.gbnf

# Outputs valid JSON only
```

### Context size

```bash
# Increase context (default 512)
./llama-cli \
    -m model.gguf \
    -c 4096  # 4K context window

# Very long context (if model supports)
./llama-cli -m model.gguf -c 32768  # 32K context
```

## Performance benchmarks

### CPU performance (Llama 2-7B Q4_K_M)

| CPU | Threads | Speed | Cost |
|-----|---------|-------|------|
| Apple M3 Max | 16 | 50 tok/s | $0 (local) |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7950X | 32 | 35 tok/s | $0.50/hour |
| Intel i9-13900K | 32 | 30 tok/s | $0.40/hour |
| AWS c7i.16xlarge | 64 | 40 tok/s | $2.88/hour |

### GPU acceleration (Llama 2-7B Q4_K_M)

| GPU | Speed | vs CPU | Cost |
|-----|-------|--------|------|
| NVIDIA RTX 4090 | 120 tok/s | 3-4× | $0 (local) |
| NVIDIA A10 | 80 tok/s | 2-3× | $1.00/hour |
| AMD MI250 | 70 tok/s | 2× | $2.00/hour |
| Apple M3 Max (Metal) | 50 tok/s | ~Same | $0 (local) |

## Supported models

**LLaMA family**:
- Llama 2 (7B, 13B, 70B)
- Llama 3 (8B, 70B, 405B)
- Code Llama

**Mistral family**:
- Mistral 7B
- Mixtral 8x7B, 8x22B

**Other**:
- Falcon, BLOOM, GPT-J
- Phi-3, Gemma, Qwen
- LLaVA (vision), Whisper (audio)

**Find models**: https://huggingface.co/models?library=gguf

## References

- **[Quantization Guide](references/quantization.md)** - GGUF formats, conversion, quality comparison
- **[Server Deployment](references/server.md)** - API endpoints, Docker, monitoring
- **[Optimization](references/optimization.md)** - Performance tuning, hybrid CPU+GPU

## Resources

- **GitHub**: https://github.com/ggerganov/llama.cpp
- **Models**: https://huggingface.co/models?library=gguf
- **Discord**: https://discord.gg/llama-cpp

License

Declared license: MIT

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Orchestra Research

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

View the license in the source repository — the version published there is authoritative.