Podman AI Lab: For developers to build AI Applications with LLMs running locally by Philippe Martin

Podman AI Lab is an extension for Podman Desktop that enables running AI applications locally using containers

Key features of AI Lab:

• Runs LLMs and AI models locally without cloud dependencies
• Provides pre-configured recipes for NLP, code generation, computer vision
• Integrates GPU support through libkrun on Mac/Windows VMs
• Offers a built-in playground for testing prompts
• Uses Llama.cpp backend to serve models

Development workflow:

• Start with ideation and prototyping using provided recipes
• Test prompts in the playground environment
• Adapt existing recipes by modifying source code
• Package as containers using Containerfile/Dockerfile
• Deploy locally for development and testing

Architecture components:

• Uses LangChain toolkit for model communication
• Flask/Streamlit for building REST APIs and UIs
• Container-based deployment with Podman
• Health checks for service monitoring
• JSON/REST APIs for application integration

Recipe structure:

• Defined in ailab.yml configuration file
• Contains container definitions and settings
• Supports custom model configurations
• Can be shared through custom catalogs
• Allows for language-specific implementations (Python, Java)

Best practices:

• Monitor memory usage and stop unused services
• Enable experimental GPU support when needed
• Use system prompts for consistent model responses
• Implement proper health checks
• Consider containerization for team sharing