llama.cpp is the open-source C/C++ engine that made it practical to run large language models on ordinary hardware.
It popularised the GGUF model format and aggressive quantization — techniques that shrink models so they fit on laptops, mini PCs, and even phones. You rarely use it directly, but it’s the foundation: friendlier tools like Ollama and LM Studio are built on top of llama.cpp. If you want to understand how local AI actually runs, this is the layer to know.
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