diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a129d27d5..cf45f23cf 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -260,7 +260,9 @@ The [Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co) platform hosts a [number of LLMs](htt
 - [Trending](https://huggingface.co/models?library=gguf&sort=trending)
 - [LLaMA](https://huggingface.co/models?sort=trending&search=llama+gguf)
 
-You can either manually download the GGUF file or directly use any `llama.cpp`-compatible models from Hugging Face by using this CLI argument: `-hf <user>/<model>[:quant]`
+You can either manually download the GGUF file or directly use any `llama.cpp`-compatible models from [Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/) or other model hosting sites, such as [ModelScope](https://modelscope.cn/), by using this CLI argument: `-hf <user>/<model>[:quant]`.
+
+By default, the CLI would download from Hugging Face, you can switch to other options with the environment variable `MODEL_ENDPOINT`. For example, you may opt to downloading model checkpoints from ModelScope or other model sharing communities by setting the environment variable, e.g. `MODEL_ENDPOINT=https://www.modelscope.cn/`.
 
 After downloading a model, use the CLI tools to run it locally - see below.
 
diff --git a/common/arg.cpp b/common/arg.cpp
index 642fefb57..0b57f9da1 100644
--- a/common/arg.cpp
+++ b/common/arg.cpp
@@ -228,12 +228,13 @@ static bool common_download_file_single(const std::string & url, const std::stri
     curl_easy_setopt(curl.get(), CURLOPT_URL, url.c_str());
     curl_easy_setopt(curl.get(), CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, 1L);
 
+    http_headers.ptr = curl_slist_append(http_headers.ptr, "User-Agent: llama-cpp");
     // Check if hf-token or bearer-token was specified
     if (!bearer_token.empty()) {
         std::string auth_header = "Authorization: Bearer " + bearer_token;
         http_headers.ptr = curl_slist_append(http_headers.ptr, auth_header.c_str());
-        curl_easy_setopt(curl.get(), CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, http_headers.ptr);
     }
+    curl_easy_setopt(curl.get(), CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, http_headers.ptr);
 
 #if defined(_WIN32)
     // CURLSSLOPT_NATIVE_CA tells libcurl to use standard certificate store of
@@ -544,7 +545,10 @@ static struct common_hf_file_res common_get_hf_file(const std::string & hf_repo_
     curl_ptr       curl(curl_easy_init(), &curl_easy_cleanup);
     curl_slist_ptr http_headers;
     std::string res_str;
-    std::string url = "https://huggingface.co/v2/" + hf_repo + "/manifests/" + tag;
+
+    std::string model_endpoint = get_model_endpoint();
+
+    std::string url = model_endpoint + "v2/" + hf_repo + "/manifests/" + tag;
     curl_easy_setopt(curl.get(), CURLOPT_URL, url.c_str());
     curl_easy_setopt(curl.get(), CURLOPT_NOPROGRESS, 1L);
     typedef size_t(*CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION_PTR)(void * ptr, size_t size, size_t nmemb, void * data);
@@ -659,13 +663,8 @@ static void common_params_handle_model(
                 }
             }
 
-            std::string hf_endpoint = "https://huggingface.co/";
-            const char * hf_endpoint_env = getenv("HF_ENDPOINT");
-            if (hf_endpoint_env) {
-                hf_endpoint = hf_endpoint_env;
-                if (hf_endpoint.back() != '/') hf_endpoint += '/';
-            }
-            model.url = hf_endpoint + model.hf_repo + "/resolve/main/" + model.hf_file;
+            std::string model_endpoint = get_model_endpoint();
+            model.url = model_endpoint + model.hf_repo + "/resolve/main/" + model.hf_file;
             // make sure model path is present (for caching purposes)
             if (model.path.empty()) {
                 // this is to avoid different repo having same file name, or same file name in different subdirs
diff --git a/common/common.cpp b/common/common.cpp
index d4882c512..4e1a020d0 100644
--- a/common/common.cpp
+++ b/common/common.cpp
@@ -1027,6 +1027,19 @@ struct common_init_result common_init_from_params(common_params & params) {
     return iparams;
 }
 
+std::string get_model_endpoint() {
+    const char * model_endpoint_env = getenv("MODEL_ENDPOINT");
+    // We still respect the use of environment-variable "HF_ENDPOINT" for backward-compatibility.
+    const char * hf_endpoint_env = getenv("HF_ENDPOINT");
+    const char * endpoint_env = model_endpoint_env ? model_endpoint_env : hf_endpoint_env;
+    std::string model_endpoint = "https://huggingface.co/";
+    if (endpoint_env) {
+        model_endpoint = endpoint_env;
+        if (model_endpoint.back() != '/') model_endpoint += '/';
+    }
+    return model_endpoint;
+}
+
 void common_set_adapter_lora(struct llama_context * ctx, std::vector<common_adapter_lora_info> & lora) {
     llama_clear_adapter_lora(ctx);
     for (auto & la : lora) {
diff --git a/common/common.h b/common/common.h
index 725b5123d..e6eaa8e80 100644
--- a/common/common.h
+++ b/common/common.h
@@ -543,6 +543,8 @@ struct ggml_threadpool_params ggml_threadpool_params_from_cpu_params(const cpu_p
 // clear LoRA adapters from context, then apply new list of adapters
 void common_set_adapter_lora(struct llama_context * ctx, std::vector<common_adapter_lora_info> & lora);
 
+std::string                   get_model_endpoint();
+
 //
 // Batch utils
 //
diff --git a/examples/run/run.cpp b/examples/run/run.cpp
index 68e94b0b3..e63c2aac3 100644
--- a/examples/run/run.cpp
+++ b/examples/run/run.cpp
@@ -697,8 +697,10 @@ class LlamaData {
         std::vector<std::string> headers = { "User-Agent: llama-cpp", "Accept: application/json" };
         std::string              url;
 
+        std::string model_endpoint = get_model_endpoint();
+
         if (pos == std::string::npos) {
-            auto [model_name, manifest_url] = extract_model_and_tag(model, "https://huggingface.co/v2/");
+            auto [model_name, manifest_url] = extract_model_and_tag(model, model_endpoint + "v2/");
             hfr                             = model_name;
 
             nlohmann::json manifest;
@@ -713,7 +715,7 @@ class LlamaData {
             hff = model.substr(pos + 1);
         }
 
-        url = "https://huggingface.co/" + hfr + "/resolve/main/" + hff;
+        url = model_endpoint + hfr + "/resolve/main/" + hff;
 
         return download(url, bn, true, headers);
     }