Hoglah is a lightweight, local-first job queue for Ollama. It lets an application submit LLM inference work — text generation, chat, or embeddings — asynchronously: you get a job ID immediately, the work runs on a durable background queue, and you collect the result by polling, an in-process callback, an HTTP callback, or a written output file.
It is built for resource-constrained, single-machine setups where the hardware can only run one (or very few) model inferences at a time, but scales out to multiple workers and machines when you point it at a shared backend.
- Submit and forget —
submit()returns a job ID instantly; the work runs on a background worker. - Generate, chat, and embeddings — one queue for all three job kinds.
- Durable and restart-safe — jobs and results persist; interrupted jobs and undelivered callbacks are recovered on restart.
- Configurable concurrency — default 1, tune for your hardware.
- Context-aware — auto-detects a model's context window and reports truncation rather than failing.
- Four result-delivery paths — poll/
wait(), in-process callbacks (including a named registry that survives restarts), per-job HTTP callbacks, and an output-folder drop. - Pluggable storage — SQLite by default (zero setup), MongoDB for multi-worker / multi-machine queues.
- Messaging bridges — consume job requests from / publish results to Kafka, RabbitMQ, or Redis Streams, all crash-safe.
- Safe by default — ships with a deterministic stub adapter; real Ollama inference is explicitly opt-in.
- Rich CLI — submit, inspect, wait, prune, diagnose, run a worker, and a live
monitor(auto-refreshing status counts, throughput, and recent jobs).
pip install hoglah # library
pip install "hoglah[cli]" # + command-line interfaceOptional backends and transports are separate extras (all lazy-imported, so the base install stays dependency-light):
pip install "hoglah[mongo]" # MongoDB backend (pymongo)
pip install "hoglah[kafka]" # Kafka bridge (confluent-kafka)
pip install "hoglah[rabbitmq]" # RabbitMQ bridge (pika)
pip install "hoglah[redis]" # Redis Streams bridge (redis)Published on PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/hoglah/. Requires Python 3.11+.
from hoglah import Hoglah
# Context manager cleans up the background worker on exit.
with Hoglah(use_real=True) as h: # omit use_real for the safe stub adapter
job_id = h.submit(
prompt="Explain context windows in one sentence.",
model="gemma3:1b",
tags=["demo"],
)
print("submitted:", job_id)
result = h.wait(job_id, timeout=120)
print(result.status, "->", result.output)Prefer callbacks over blocking? Pass one to submit():
h.submit(
prompt="...", model="gemma3:1b",
callback=lambda r: print("done:", r.job_id, r.output[:80]),
)hoglah submit "Explain Hoglah" --model gemma3:1b --wait --real
hoglah ps --json # list jobs (machine-readable)
hoglah status <job-id> --json
hoglah wait <job-id> --timeout 60
hoglah stats # queue overview (counts by status)
hoglah models --real # available models
hoglah show gemma3:1b # model details (context size, template, ...)
hoglah clear --status completed --older-than 7 --yes
hoglah rm <job-id> --yes
hoglah run --real # run a foreground worker (dedicated processor)
hoglah doctor --real # diagnose setup, backend, transport, connectivityBy default both Hoglah() and the CLI use a safe stub adapter that makes no
model calls — handy for tests and shared environments. Opt into real inference
with use_real=True (library), --real (CLI), or HOGLAH_USE_REAL_ADAPTER=1.
h.submit(prompt="Summarise this paragraph: ...", model="gemma3:1b")
h.submit(
messages=[ # OpenAI-style chat history
{"role": "system", "content": "You are concise."},
{"role": "user", "content": "Define entropy."},
],
model="gemma3:1b",
)job_id = h.submit_embedding("text to embed", model="bge-m3")
result = h.wait(job_id)
print(result.embedding_dim, len(result.embedding)) # e.g. 1024 1024A terminal result can reach you four ways — use whichever fits, or several at once:
- Poll / wait —
h.status(job_id)orh.wait(job_id, timeout=...). - In-process callback —
submit(..., callback=fn). For delivery that survives a restart, register a named callback and passcallback_key=.... - HTTP callback —
submit(..., callback_url="https://...")POSTs theJobResultJSON when the job finishes, on a background thread with retries and backoff (a slow or dead endpoint never blocks the worker). - Output folder — set
output_dir(orHOGLAH_OUTPUT_DIR) and each terminal job is written atomically to<output_dir>/<job_id>.json.
Hoglah stores jobs through a pluggable JobStore. Two are built in; the default
needs no setup.
A single file (~/.hoglah/hoglah.db by default), zero extra dependencies. Best
for one machine. The store uses write-ahead logging + a busy timeout so a
submitter and the worker can share the file without "database is locked" errors.
h = Hoglah() # SQLite at ~/.hoglah/hoglah.db
h = Hoglah(config={"db_path": "/data/queue.db"})Point Hoglah at a MongoDB server instead (pip install "hoglah[mongo]"):
h = Hoglah(config={
"backend": "mongo",
"mongo_uri": "mongodb://localhost:27017", # default
"mongo_db": "hoglah", # default
"mongo_collection": "jobs", # default
})
# env equivalent: HOGLAH_BACKEND=mongo HOGLAH_MONGO_URI=mongodb://host:27017Everything else — submit, wait, the CLI, callbacks, recovery — works
identically. Use Mongo when you want:
- No single-file lock. Job claiming is atomic server-side
(
find_one_and_update), so multiple workers, even on different machines, can drain one shared queue and still run each job exactly once. - External visibility. Jobs are native documents (request, result and tags are
sub-documents, not opaque JSON blobs), so you can watch the queue live from
mongoshor Compass.
Hoglah can bridge an existing message broker without owning it: it consumes job-request messages from an input topic/queue/stream into the durable queue, processes them with the normal serial worker, and publishes result messages back. A bridge is a transport adapter, not a storage backend — the SQLite/Mongo store remains the source of truth.
All three bridges share one message contract and the same crash-safety design:
-
Input (JSON): a unique
correlation_idis required and doubles as the idempotency key. Optionalreply_tooverrides the result destination per-message.{ "correlation_id": "9b1c…", "model": "gemma3:1b", "prompt": "…", "options": { "temperature": 0.7 }, "reply_to": "team-x-replies" } -
Output echoes the
correlation_idso async callers can match results:{ "correlation_id": "9b1c…", "job_id": "…", "status": "completed", "output": "…", "error": null } -
Crash safety: ingress commits the broker offset only after a durable, idempotent enqueue (a redelivery after a crash is a harmless no-op); egress uses a transactional outbox (a result is marked published only after the broker acks, and unpublished results are re-emitted on restart); poison (un-parseable) messages are routed to a dead-letter destination so they never block the queue.
Enable at most one bridge per instance (precedence kafka > rabbitmq > redis).
pip install "hoglah[kafka]"
hoglah kafka-bridge --bootstrap-servers localhost:9092 \
--input-topic hoglah-jobs --results-topic hoglah-resultsh = Hoglah(config={
"kafka_enabled": True,
"kafka_bootstrap_servers": "localhost:9092",
"kafka_input_topic": "hoglah-jobs",
"kafka_results_topic": "hoglah-results",
})Scale horizontally by running several hoglah kafka-bridge processes in one
consumer group; sharing one MongoDB store gives fleet-wide exactly-once execution
via the server-side atomic claim.
pip install "hoglah[rabbitmq]"
hoglah rabbitmq-bridge --url amqp://guest:guest@localhost:5672/ \
--input-queue hoglah-jobs --results-queue hoglah-resultsh = Hoglah(config={
"rabbitmq_enabled": True,
"rabbitmq_url": "amqp://guest:guest@localhost:5672/",
"rabbitmq_input_queue": "hoglah-jobs",
"rabbitmq_results_queue": "hoglah-results",
})RabbitMQ's per-message model is a clean fit: ingress acks each message after a
durable enqueue (no head-of-line blocking), poison messages are nack'd to a
dead-letter exchange, and egress uses publisher confirms.
pip install "hoglah[redis]"
hoglah redis-bridge --url redis://localhost:6379/0 \
--input-stream hoglah-jobs --results-stream hoglah-resultsh = Hoglah(config={
"redis_enabled": True,
"redis_url": "redis://localhost:6379/0",
"redis_input_stream": "hoglah-jobs",
"redis_results_stream": "hoglah-results",
"redis_consumer_name": "hoglah-1", # stable across restarts for crash recovery
})The lightest-weight option — Redis is often already in the stack. Uses a consumer
group with explicit XACK after a durable enqueue; a consumer's unacked entries
(its Pending Entries List) are recovered on restart via a stable consumer name, so
a crash mid-processing re-delivers rather than loses. Run several redis-bridge
processes (distinct --consumer-names) in one group to scale out.
hoglah serve(needspip install hoglah[web], default127.0.0.1:8781) — a read-only queue dashboard: live status cards, jobs table with step names, and a job detail page showing the full input and output.hoglah debug [JOB_ID]— the clean In→Out call tree for executed jobs (chains render as trees;--verbosereveals model/timing/metadata). Requiresgaleed[cli]and capture enabled.- Family trace spine: with
galeed_enabled(envHOGLAH_GALEED_ENABLED=1,galeedextra) every job emits lifecycle events to Galeed, and withgaleed_capture_io(default on) records its complete prompt/messages and output into thellm_callsdebugging store — viewable viagaleed trace,galeed serve, or Mizpah. Label calls withsubmit(step_name=...)/--stepand threadmetadata={"trace_id": ...}through multi-step flows.
Every option can be set in the Hoglah(config={...}) dict or via a HOGLAH_*
environment variable. Common ones:
| Setting | Env var | Default | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
db_path |
HOGLAH_DB_PATH |
~/.hoglah/hoglah.db |
SQLite database file |
backend |
HOGLAH_BACKEND |
sqlite |
sqlite or mongo |
concurrency |
HOGLAH_CONCURRENCY |
1 |
Parallel jobs per worker |
ollama_host |
HOGLAH_OLLAMA_HOST |
http://localhost:11434 |
Ollama endpoint |
output_dir |
HOGLAH_OUTPUT_DIR |
None |
Write terminal results here |
log_level |
HOGLAH_LOG_LEVEL |
INFO |
Logging level |
Backend- and bridge-specific keys (mongo_*, kafka_*, rabbitmq_*, redis_*)
follow the same pattern; see the examples above. hoglah doctor prints the active
backend and transport (and never prints connection URLs).
The real adapter talks to Ollama (which uses llama.cpp for inference). Enable it
with use_real=True / --real / HOGLAH_USE_REAL_ADAPTER=1, and make sure the
model is available (hoglah pull <model> or auto-pull on first real submit).
Installing models from Hugging Face. Ollama can pull any GGUF model straight
from the Hugging Face Hub, so hoglah pull does too — just use an hf.co/...
name with the quant as the tag:
hoglah pull --real "hf.co/bartowski/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M"
# then submit to it like any other model:
hoglah submit "hello" --model "hf.co/bartowski/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M" --real --waitThe model then works everywhere a model name is accepted (CLI, library, the messaging bridges). Size it to your hardware: a model must fit in VRAM (with spillover to system RAM, which is much slower on CPU) — frontier models like MiniMax-M3 or Kimi-K2 (hundreds of GB) need server-class hardware, not a laptop.
Native Linux: when Ollama runs on the same machine as Hoglah, the default
http://localhost:11434 is sufficient — no extra networking setup.
WSL2: if Ollama runs as the Windows binary and your code runs in WSL, the
daemon is not reachable at localhost. Set OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0 on the Windows
side (setx OLLAMA_HOST "0.0.0.0", then restart Ollama) and point the client at
the WSL2 gateway IP:
OLLAMA_HOST="http://$(ip route show default | awk '{print $3}'):11434" \
hoglah doctor --realOpen an issue at github.com/gellsmore-svg/hoglah/issues — the Bug report template prompts for what's needed. To make a report actionable, include:
- the output of
hoglah doctor(--realif you use a real Ollama host) — it reports version, adapter, backend, and active transport, and is safe to paste (it never prints connection URLs/credentials); - your Hoglah version (
hoglah --version), Python version, and OS; - a minimal reproduction.
Security issues: please report privately — see SECURITY.md — rather than opening a public issue.
A machine- and human-readable knowledge map of Hoglah's concepts, modules, and CLI
is published as an Open Knowledge Format
bundle under okf/ — markdown with YAML frontmatter, linked into a
concept graph.
Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE. Named after one of the daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27).
See CONTRIBUTING.md.