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Needle 2

14MB on-device tool-calling model

AI Agents / Orchestration · Apache-2.0 · 14.2k

Reviewed 2026-08-19 · last push 2026-10-19 · repo checked 2026-10-21

What's Good

Cactus Compute built a tool-calling model that fits in 14MB. Runs entirely on-device—no API calls, no latency, no costs per call. Purpose-built for structured function calling, not general chat. The small footprint makes it embeddable anywhere.

The Catch

Not a chat LLM. Needle does one thing: parse user intent into tool calls. You still need the tools and the orchestration around it. Do not expect conversation or reasoning.

Verdict

Tiny on-device tool-caller. One job, done locally.

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