I Replaced Codex with Gemma 4 + Ollama — Here’s My Local AI Coding Agent

A hands-on guide to setting up a fully local AI coding agent using Google DeepMind's Gemma 4 (E2B model) with Ollama and Claude Code as the agent interface. The setup eliminates API costs, latency, and privacy concerns associated with cloud-based tools like Codex. The guide covers installing Ollama, pulling the Gemma 4 E2B model (~7.2 GB), installing Claude Code via npm, and connecting them to create a working local coding agent. A demo shows the agent generating a complete Express.js server example. The author concludes that while local models aren't yet as capable as top cloud models for complex tasks, the gap is closing and local AI is becoming a viable part of the developer stack.