Needle
AI
function calling model
SHOW HN2026
How HN took it
29 positive, 45 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 16 critical, out of 91 comments about the project. Thread score +0.19.
Idea: 17 for, 4 againstExecution: 4 for, 5 againstPerformance: 2 for, 6 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful for on-device uses like Home Assistant and Siri-like assistants
From 2 comments
This would be amazing for home assistant.
syntaxing on HNCan this be a Siri-like core? Set me a timer, tell me what’s the weather, etc. Here is transcribed text and available list of tools for the model to call, and voice the output.
murkt on HN
Objections
Failed on chained timer request and gave wrong output for some queries
From 2 comments
Query: set a timer for 1 hour Result: [{"name":"set_timer","arguments":{"time_human":"1 hour"}}] Query: in 1 hour set a timer for 1 hour Result:…
casey2 on HNThis sounds like it could be really powerful, but I don't understand how to use it. I tried 'git add commit and push' which is something I might ask an llm to do but is a waste…
tim-projects on HN
Unclear use case versus existing assistants like Siri
From 2 comments
I'm having trouble understanding why someone would want that? Like, what are the product use-cases of such a thing? I understand why people want that for coding agents--although…
jcgrillo on HNI mean.. Siri basically works? When I'm driving I say "Hey Siri, find me a gas station along my route", and it does. Or I say "Hey Siri, call Joe Bob mobile" and it does. Or I…
jcgrillo on HN
Possible ToS conflict from distilling Gemini
From 2 comments
FYI, distilling Gemini is explicitly against the ToS: "You may not use the Services to develop models that compete with the Services (e.g., Gemini API or Google AI Studio). You…
ac29 on HNAre you worried about Google's response to this? They don't like people distilling their models:…
varenc on HN
Requests
Live demo or video of the playground
From 2 comments
Suggestion: publish a live demo of the "needle playground". It's small enough that it should be pretty cheap to run this on a little VPS somewhere!
simonw on HNAlternatively, record a video that showcases it.
giancarlostoro on HN
Release the dataset
From 2 comments
This is really cool. Any plans to release the dataset?
deepsquirrelnet on HNhey nice work, is it possible to release the datasets?
theykk on HN
Browser or WebGPU/ONNX version
From 2 comments
Should be quick and easy with WebGPU, too.
quantumleaper on HNCan this be converted to onnx or otherwise be used in a browser?
sroussey on HN
Support for multi-step tool chaining and in-context learning
From 2 comments
How could you use this for composability? I.e. chaining together multiple tools. For example web_search → summarize_url → send_email
Liam_Simpkin on HNDoes the model have capacity for in context learning ?, if we give it examples of patterns can it follow them ?.
quadrature on HN
Questions
How does it handle ambiguity and multi-turn state
From 2 comments
Do you have any examples or data on the discriminatory power of the model for tool use? The examples are things like "What is the weather in San Francisco", where you are only…
nl on HNA lot of agent workflows really are just tool selection + argument extraction + structured output. How does this behave once workflows become multi-step and state starts…
binyang_qiu on HN
Why structure time as human-readable strings
From 1 comment
This tool in the training data and playground surprised me: ``` { "name": "set_timer", "description": "Set a timer for the specified duration or end time.", "parameters": {…
gpm on HN
Alternatives named
FunctionGemma-270M
From 1 comment
Qwen-0.6B
From 1 comment
Granite-350M
From 1 comment
LFM2.5-350M
From 1 comment