Connect an NVIDIA DGX Spark, or any AI box on your network

A Spark, a second PC, or any machine on your network running Ollama or another OpenAI-compatible server connects through the same "OpenAI-compatible" provider as a local one, once you give it a network address instead of localhost.

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Steps

  1. On the Spark, or whichever machine will hold the model, run an inference server. Ollama is the common choice. NeuralVault itself runs on Windows only, so the machine you chat from is a Windows PC, and the box can be anything on your network.
  2. Ollama only listens on its own machine by default, so another computer cannot reach it yet. Make it listen on the network with the OLLAMA_HOST environment variable, set to 0.0.0.0:11434, then restart Ollama. The guide on Ollama on another machine gives the exact steps for a Mac, Linux and Windows, and a security note to read first.
  3. Find that machine’s address on your network, either its LAN IP or a hostname your network resolves, and note the port.
  4. Tell NeuralVault the address. For Ollama, put {"base":"http://192.168.1.23:11434","model":"your-model"} in the file .neuralvault-ollama.json in your Windows user folder, with your own address and a model you pulled. For a server that speaks the OpenAI API, use .neuralvault-compat.json instead, with the address ending in /v1. Settings, Intelligence, API keys shows the address in use but has no box to change it in this build.

How to tell it worked

The model picker lists the models the remote machine reports, the same way it would for a server on your own machine. A populated list means the connection reached across the network.

If it does not work

The model list is empty, but the server answers fine when you test it on the Spark itself.
Almost always the bind address. A server left on its default 127.0.0.1 refuses every connection that is not from itself, including one from NeuralVault on a different machine. Confirm OLLAMA_HOST is actually set to 0.0.0.0 and that the server was restarted after you set it.
It answers in a browser on the Spark itself but not from NeuralVault on another PC.
A firewall on the Spark is the next most common cause. Allow inbound traffic on the port your server uses, 11434 for Ollama, on whatever machine is holding the model.
You want to know if this is specific to DGX Spark.
It is not. Anything that can run an OpenAI-compatible or Ollama server on your network connects the same way: the address is what changes, never the method.