I had a problem while setting up my chatbot so I got solution. Ths is a very common setup when you want Flowise (frontend / orchestration) to talk to Ollama (model server) inside Docker.
Letโs go step by step.
๐ง Concept
You have:
- Container 1: Flowise (runs on port
3000by default) - Container 2: Ollama (runs on port
11434by default)
You want Flowise to send requests to Ollama from inside Docker, not just from your host machine.
๐ ๏ธ Solution: Put Them on the Same Docker Network
1. Create a User-Defined Bridge Network
This lets the containers talk to each other by name.
docker network create ai-network
2. Run Ollama in That Network
docker run -d \
--name ollama \
--network ai-network \
-p 11434:11434 \
ollama/ollama
This exposes Ollama on http://ollama:11434 inside the Docker network (and http://localhost:11434 from your host).
3. Run Flowise in That Network
docker run -d \
--name flowise \
--network ai-network \
-p 3000:3000 \
flowiseai/flowise
Now both containers share the same virtual network and can see each other by name.
4. Configure Flowise to Use Ollama
In Flowise UI:
- Go to Credentials โ Create a new Ollama connection.
- Use the internal container name as the Base URL:
http://ollama:11434
(Do not use localhost or 127.0.0.1 โ those refer to the Flowise container itself, not your Ollama container.)
5. Test the Connection
- In Flowise, drop an Ollama node in your workflow.
- Select the new credential with
http://ollama:11434. - Test by sending a prompt โ you should get a response from the Ollama model.
๐งฉ Common Pitfalls
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Flowise says โFetch failedโ | You are likely using localhost:11434. Use http://ollama:11434 instead. |
| Containers cannot talk | Check docker network inspect ai-network to see if both containers are listed. |
| Ollama not reachable from host | Make sure you used -p 11434:11434 so itโs exposed on your machine. |
| Firewall blocking | Open port 11434 if you are trying to connect from another computer. |
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