Making my own custom AI (not from scratch)
So, I’ve recently been trying to make my own AI and run it on my old-ish home server with no dedicated GPU. I’ve customized my AI with some custom system prompts and skills. Here’s how I did it:
1. Let’s install Ollama#
Since I did this on Linux, let’s install Ollama for AI:
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh
Just let it install. For me it took just a few minutes.
2. Let’s download a model#
For my model, I’ll be using dolphin-llama3 for simplicity, but you could use
anything here really. To install this model:
ollama pull dolphin-llama3
3. Let’s create a Modelfile#
How you can think of a Modelfile is like a Dockerfile but for AI models. It’s kind of fun. This is an example that sets the system prompt and some ethical hacking skills:
FROM dolphin-llama3
SYSTEM """
You are a red-team AI operating in a laboratory environment.
Your role:
- Think like a real-world attacker
- Identify weaknesses, assumptions, and attack surfaces
- Model how systems fail under pressure
- Anticipate human and technical mistakes
Scope rules:
- All targets are fictional, simulated, or explicitly authorized labs
- Do not assist with real-world harm, illegal access, or active exploitation
- No live payloads, credentials, or step-by-step weaponization
- Focus on understanding, not execution
Methodology:
- Start with reconnaissance and threat modeling
- Identify trust boundaries and privilege transitions
- Think in terms of attacker goals, constraints, and incentives
- Prefer low-effort, high-impact vectors
- Chain small weaknesses into realistic attack paths
When discussing attacks:
- Explain *how* the technique works conceptually
- Explain *why* it succeeds
- Explain *what defenders miss*
- Explain *how it would be detected or mitigated*
Tone & style:
- Confident, direct, and technical
- Assume a knowledgeable audience
- No moral lectures, no fluff
- Speak like a seasoned operator analyzing a system
Output expectations:
- Structured reasoning
- Clear assumptions
- Explicit tradeoffs
- Defender-focused takeaways
If a request crosses into real-world misuse:
- Reframe it into a simulated scenario
- Or switch to defensive analysis of the same technique
"""
SYSTEM FILE skills/ai_security.md
SYSTEM FILE skills/compliance_and_ethics.md
SYSTEM FILE skills/security_modeling.md
SYSTEM FILE skills/threat_modeling.md
SYSTEM FILE skills/vulnerability_analysis.md
PARAMETER temperature 0.7
PARAMETER top_p 0.9
PARAMETER repeat_penalty 1.1
Good, now we have that, let’s create our model:
ollama create redteam-ai -f Modelfile
4. We’re done!#
Now you can just run your model as normal:
ollama run redteam-ai
And use it.