> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/ikawrakow/ik_llama.cpp/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# llama-server reference

> CLI flags for the llama-server inference server

`llama-server` is the primary inference server. It exposes an OpenAI-compatible HTTP API and an integrated web UI.

**Example launch command**

```bash theme={null}
./build/bin/llama-server \
  --model /models/Qwen_Qwen3-30B-A3B-IQ4_NL.gguf \
  --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080 \
  --ctx-size 8192 \
  -ngl 999 --flash-attn \
  --parallel 2 --api-key mysecret
```

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Basic">
    | Flag                | Default     | Description                                                                               |
    | ------------------- | ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | `-m, --model FNAME` | required    | Path to the `.gguf` model file.                                                           |
    | `--host HOST`       | `127.0.0.1` | IP address to listen on. Use `0.0.0.0` for LAN/external access.                           |
    | `--port PORT`       | `8080`      | TCP port to listen on.                                                                    |
    | `-c, --ctx-size N`  | from model  | Context window size in tokens. Shared across parallel slots — increase with `--parallel`. |
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Performance">
    | Flag                   | Default | Description                                                                               |
    | ---------------------- | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | `-fa, --flash-attn`    | on      | Enable Flash Attention. Improves throughput and reduces KV cache memory.                  |
    | `-ngl, --gpu-layers N` | 0       | Number of model layers to offload to VRAM. Use `999` to offload everything.               |
    | `-mla, --mla-use N`    | 3       | MLA mode for DeepSeek and other MLA-based models. `3` = FlashMLA (fastest).               |
    | `--fused-moe`          | enabled | Fuse `ffn_up` and `ffn_gate` ops for faster MoE inference. Disable with `--no-fused-moe`. |
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Server">
    | Flag                | Default | Description                                                                |
    | ------------------- | ------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | `--webui NAME`      | `auto`  | Web UI to serve. Options: `auto`, `llamacpp`, `none`.                      |
    | `--api-key KEY`     | none    | Require this key in the `Authorization` header for all requests.           |
    | `-np, --parallel N` | `1`     | Number of parallel decode slots. `--ctx-size` is divided across all slots. |
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Sampling">
    | Flag        | Default | Description                                                                   |
    | ----------- | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | `--temp N`  | `0.8`   | Sampling temperature. Lower = more deterministic.                             |
    | `--top-k N` | `40`    | Keep only the top-K most likely tokens before sampling.                       |
    | `--top-p N` | `0.95`  | Nucleus sampling threshold.                                                   |
    | `--min-p N` | `0.05`  | Minimum probability relative to the top token. Useful alternative to `top-p`. |
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>