Instructions to use NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf with libraries, inference providers, notebooks, and local apps. Follow these links to get started.

Libraries

How to use NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf with llama-cpp-python:

# !pip install llama-cpp-python

from llama_cpp import Llama

llm = Llama.from_pretrained(
	repo_id="NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf",
	filename="borealis-4b-instruct-preview-BF16.gguf",
)

llm.create_chat_completion(
	messages = [
		{
			"role": "user",
			"content": [
				{
					"type": "text",
					"text": "Describe this image in one sentence."
				},
				{
					"type": "image_url",
					"image_url": {
						"url": "https://cdn.britannica.com/61/93061-050-99147DCE/Statue-of-Liberty-Island-New-York-Bay.jpg"
					}
				}
			]
		}
	]
)

Notebooks
Google Colab
Kaggle
Local Apps Settings

llama.cpp

How to use NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf with llama.cpp:

Install from brew

brew install llama.cpp
# Start a local OpenAI-compatible server with a web UI:
llama-server -hf NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M
# Run inference directly in the terminal:
llama-cli -hf NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M

Install from WinGet (Windows)

winget install llama.cpp
# Start a local OpenAI-compatible server with a web UI:
llama-server -hf NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M
# Run inference directly in the terminal:
llama-cli -hf NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M

Use pre-built binary

# Download pre-built binary from:
# https://github.com/ggerganov/llama.cpp/releases
# Start a local OpenAI-compatible server with a web UI:
./llama-server -hf NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M
# Run inference directly in the terminal:
./llama-cli -hf NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M

Build from source code

git clone https://github.com/ggerganov/llama.cpp.git
cd llama.cpp
cmake -B build
cmake --build build -j --target llama-server llama-cli
# Start a local OpenAI-compatible server with a web UI:
./build/bin/llama-server -hf NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M
# Run inference directly in the terminal:
./build/bin/llama-cli -hf NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M

Use Docker

docker model run hf.co/NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M

LM Studio
Jan

vLLM

How to use NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf with vLLM:

Install from pip and serve model

# Install vLLM from pip:
pip install vllm
# Start the vLLM server:
vllm serve "NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf"
# Call the server using curl (OpenAI-compatible API):
curl -X POST "http://localhost:8000/v1/chat/completions" \
	-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
	--data '{
		"model": "NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf",
		"messages": [
			{
				"role": "user",
				"content": [
					{
						"type": "text",
						"text": "Describe this image in one sentence."
					},
					{
						"type": "image_url",
						"image_url": {
							"url": "https://cdn.britannica.com/61/93061-050-99147DCE/Statue-of-Liberty-Island-New-York-Bay.jpg"
						}
					}
				]
			}
		]
	}'

Use Docker

docker model run hf.co/NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M

Ollama
How to use NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf with Ollama:
```
ollama run hf.co/NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M
```

Unsloth Studio

How to use NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf with Unsloth Studio:

Install Unsloth Studio (macOS, Linux, WSL)

curl -fsSL https://unsloth.ai/install.sh | sh
# Run unsloth studio
unsloth studio -H 0.0.0.0 -p 8888
# Then open http://localhost:8888 in your browser
# Search for NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf to start chatting

Install Unsloth Studio (Windows)

irm https://unsloth.ai/install.ps1 | iex
# Run unsloth studio
unsloth studio -H 0.0.0.0 -p 8888
# Then open http://localhost:8888 in your browser
# Search for NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf to start chatting

Using HuggingFace Spaces for Unsloth

# No setup required
# Open https://huggingface.co/spaces/unsloth/studio in your browser
# Search for NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf to start chatting

Docker Model Runner
How to use NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf with Docker Model Runner:
```
docker model run hf.co/NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M
```

Lemonade

How to use NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf with Lemonade:

Pull the model

# Download Lemonade from https://lemonade-server.ai/
lemonade pull NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf:Q4_K_M

Run and chat with the model

lemonade run user.borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf-Q4_K_M

List all available models

lemonade list

Borealis 4B Instruct GGUF (Preview)

Release: Dec 22nd, 2025.

Model summary

NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf are quantized versions in GGUF format of a 4B-parameter instruction-tuned preview model intended for early testing and feedback. It is an experiment and should be treated as pre-release quality.

The original model is NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview.

Model	Bits	Format
NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview	BF16	Transformers (safetensors)
NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf	4	GGUF (`q4_K_M`)
NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf	8	GGUF (`q8_0`)
NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-gguf	BF16	GGUF (`bf16`)
NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-mlx	32	MLX
NbAiLab/borealis-4b-instruct-preview-mlx-8bits	8	MLX (quantized)