Getting started with AI Bridge
You need a local AI provider running on your computer before AI Bridge can do anything. It supports two: LM Studio and Ollama.
Step 1: Install a local AI provider
Option A: LM Studio (recommended for beginners)
LM Studio has a graphical interface for downloading and running AI models locally.
2. Launch LM Studio
3. Download a model:
Click the magnifying glass icon in the left sidebar (Model Search)
Type `gemma-4-e2b` in the search field or just leave this field blank, this model pops up as a recommended by LM Studio as well (this is the latest and most capable model from Google)
Select Gemma 4 E2B from the results. There are several download options for each model, the smallest Gemma 4 E2B Instruct Q4_K_M is enough:
If LM Studio warns the model is "Likely too large" for your machine, search for `qwen3 vl` or `gemma3` instead and pick google/gemma-3-4b or qwen/qwen3-vl-4b
Make sure the model has a yellow eye icon — that means it supports vision (image analysis), which AI Bridge requires
Click Download
Once the download finishes, click Load Model to load the model into memory
Start the local server:
Click the Developer tab
(or Local Server section) in LM Studio
Click Start Server — the server runs on port 1234 by default
Step 2: Configure AI Bridge
Open WinCatalog AI Bridge and point it at your provider.
Opening settings
Start WinCatalog and open AI Tools tab on the Ribbon toolbar.
Click the Options button to open AI Bridge Options window.
Provider settings
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Setting
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Description
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Provider Type
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LM Studio or Ollama
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IP Address
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localhost by default; change this only if the provider runs on a different machine
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Port
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1234 for LM Studio, 11434 for Ollama
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Endpoint URL
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Filled in automatically from the settings above
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Status indicator
The status section shows whether your provider is reachable:
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Green — installed and running
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Yellow — installed but the server isn't running (click Start Server to launch it)
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Red — not installed or not reachable
Picking a model
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Click Refresh List (or wait for the list to populate on its own)
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Pick a model from the dropdown
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The green eye icon indicates that the model supports images
Output language
The preferred language is selected automatically based on WinCatalog UI language, bug you can override this selection and pick any other language for generated descriptions. If your language isn't listed, select Other and type the language name.
Resize large thumbnails
To speed up an LLM when working with large images, you can reduce them to 256 pixels. That should still be enough to correctly recognize objects and scenes, while making the process faster.
Test the connection
Click Test Connection to check that AI Bridge can talk to the provider. You'll see a confirmation if it works.
Step 3: Done
Once the status dot is green and you've picked a model, AI Bridge is ready. See
Interface and workflow for how to queue images and start processing.
