So...which models actually support mcp server tools?

[mearleycf]

I've recently discovered this project, and as it's one of the only quality clients out there, besides claude desktop, that actually supports mcp-server tools, I thought I'd give it a whirl.
So, I've set up my config.json properly, things seem to work, I can start a new chat and select tools. However--I don't know which models actually support the use of mcp tools...? I tried deepseek-r1:latest, just because that happened to be the one I had selected, but no luck there. I don't want to randomly try a bunch of different models just to see which ones might or might not support mcp tools.
So i figured I would ask here instead. Any help is appreciated.

[ggozad]

Hey there,
I am happy you enjoy oterm!
Currently Ollama does not directly support MCP (and I am not sure if it ever will, see here).
What I do with oterm is to "translate" MCP server tools to Ollama tools. As a result, you are looking for models that have tool support. Within oterm you can tell if a model supports tools when you create a chat: when you choose the model if tools are supported the tool selection list is enabled otherwise it's not.
A list of models that support tools can also be found here

[mearleycf]

Huh, weird--I was able to see and select tools using deepseek r1, but then it said it doesn't support tool use when the chat opened.

[ggozad]

deepseek r1 does not support tools. So when I create a chat and select deepseek r1 as the model, I do not see the tool selection enabled. If you do, it's a bug, you should submit an issue.