Configuration guide

LM Studio

Using LM Studio with Nexus

Before you begin

Availability depends on your school's enabled tools, provider setup, and account permissions. These settings are managed in the web workspace. A class policy may restrict a feature described here.

Guide#

Configure Nexus to use models served by LM Studio.

Nexus has a built-in integration with LM Studio that auto-discovers your loaded models, including their capabilities (vision, reasoning) and context length.

Setup LM Studio and Load Your Models#

Download LM Studio from lmstudio.ai and load the models you want to use.

Start the LM Studio local server:

  lms server start --port 1234

LM Studio runs on port 1234 by default.

For best results, use a model with strong instruction-following and tool-use capabilities (e.g., Qwen 3.5).

If LM Studio is running on a different machine than Nexus, make sure the server is accessible from the Nexus host (e.g., http://<lm-studio-host>:1234).

Running Nexus in Docker on the same machine as LM Studio?

By default, LM Studio binds only to `127.0.0.1`, which is unreachable from inside a Nexus container. To fix:

* In LM Studio's **Developer** tab, enable **"Serve on Local Network"** (or set the host to `0.0.0.0`) and restart the server.
* Use `http://host.docker.internal:1234` as the **API Base URL** instead of `http://localhost:1234`.

See [LM Studio's docs](https://lmstudio.ai/docs/developer/core/server/serve-on-network) for more details.

Navigate to Language Models#

Access the Admin Panel from your user profile icon, then navigate to Configuration → Language Models.

Configure LM Studio#

Select LM Studio from the available providers.

Give your provider a Display Name.

Set the API Base URL to your LM Studio server address (e.g., http://localhost:1234).

If Nexus is running in Docker on the same machine as LM Studio, use http://host.docker.internal:1234 instead. localhost inside the container points to the container itself, not your host. Make sure LM Studio is set to "Serve on Local Network" (see the Info callout in the previous step).

Nexus will automatically connect and discover your loaded models.

Choose Visible Models#

In the Advanced Options, you will see a list of all models available from this provider. You may choose which models are visible to your users in Nexus.

Setting visible models is useful when a provider publishes multiple models and versions of the same model.

Designate Provider Access#

Lastly, decide whether the provider should be public to all users in Nexus.

If set to private, the provider's models will be available to Admins and User Groups you explicitly assign the provider to.