Needle2
AI
small on-device tool-calling model
SHOW HN2026
How HN took it
18 positive, 57 neutral or asking, 4 mixed, 29 critical, out of 108 comments about the project. Thread score -0.07.
Performance: 5 for, 16 againstIdea: 9 for, 4 againstExecution: 1 for, 7 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 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
Impressively small model that runs locally in WASM
From 2 comments
Its pretty significant you've got this working locally in wasm. Very cool. Re: robotics: I'm unsure how this could be helpful. It fails a pretty simple navigation prompt. X0:…
kooi on HNThis is cool! While most of the industry focuses on the frontier of “intelligence” (function), a release like this represents the frontier of the other end of the spectrum…
redrix on HN
Fills a useful niche between non-LLM tools and frontier models
From 2 comments
Utterly Fascinating! For the longest time, I conceptualized LLM's as Text Input -> Text Output transformers, then later as Text Input -> Video Output transformers. Later still I…
peter_d_sherman on HNLooks incredibly cool, although it ran at ~4 tok/s on my browser (I assume because I've disabled V8). I believe your numbers though. I always wanted to try using something like…
a022311 on HN
Objections
Gives wrong tool calls for simple commands like thermostat and lights
From 3 comments
My first query: > Make it a little warmer in here. The reply: > "name": "set_thermostat", > "arguments": { > "temperature": 65, > "mode": "cool", > ... > "reasoning": "'warmer'…
dbeardsl on HN> turn on the tv { "function_calls": [ { "name": "lock_door", "arguments": { "door": "tv" } } ], "confidence": 0.0158 } Very interesting, seems confidence is 0 when tool calls…
dangoodmanUT on HN> Turn the lights down low in the bedroom Sets lights to 30% but also off > Turn the lights low in the bedroom Sets lights to on This is a cool idea but I think humans assume…
Robin_Message on HN
Confidence scores are unreliable, sometimes high for wrong answers
From 2 comments
Specifying units seems to be unreliable; I tried adding a description to the set_thermostat temperature: ``` "temperature": { "type": "number", "description": "degrees…
wky on HN> set lights on { "function_calls": [ { "name": "set_lights", "arguments": { "room": "bedroom", "state": "on" } } ], "confidence": 0 } is confidence 0 that its confident?
tough on HN
Fails on arithmetic and units without clearer tool descriptions
From 2 comments
I tested with ``` import needle @needle.tool def add(a: int, b: int): "Add two numbers." return a + b agent = needle.Needle(tools=[add]) print(agent.run("calculate 1 +…
hathym on HNIt seems to fail. I sent the prompt: “ 5° warmer” And it said: “ setting the temperature to 5°F”
raylad on HN
Requests
Ollama release
From 1 comment
Any plan to release on ollama?
mickael-kerjean on HN
ESP32 and desktop x86 support
From 2 comments
Any instructions available for running this on an ESP32-S3 or P4 like the site says?
forsalebypwner on HNI tried using it on my x86_64 desktop. Could not use it. Then I tried using it on a raspberry pi 4. Did not work. This is specifically for 64 bit arm. I see no reason why you…
israrkhan on HN
Home Assistant plugin
From 1 comment
If you want Needle2 to rget lots of testing, become well known, etc - make a Home Assistant plugin.
KennyBlanken on HN
Questions
Why 2-bit quantization and 14MB size choice
From 2 comments
This is cool. I definitely think the "micro" sized LLM space is underappreciated, so it's always good to see work like this. I foresee a paradigm in some contexts where you have…
nater5000 on HNCurious, why did you go down to 2bit rather than 4 bits? 4bit with folding the layers should arrive at the same size, but with better quality?
r0ze-at-hn on HN
How it differs from LiteRT
From 1 comment
Congratulations. 28MB is impressive, I've not played around with actual queries/outputs. I'm wondering what is the overall thesis/plan here and where exactly the innovation lies?…
havercosine on HN
Alternatives named
LiteRT / TensorFlow Lite
From 1 comment
Congratulations. 28MB is impressive, I've not played around with actual queries/outputs. I'm wondering what is the overall thesis/plan here and where exactly the innovation lies?…
havercosine on HN
FunctionGemma 270M
From 1 comment
That's really cool - I was already thinking of compressing `functiongemma-270m-it` down to 1-2 bits so it would work flawlessly in the browser. Your `Fine-tuning` feature is even…
arthuqa on HN
LFM2.5 230M and Apple Foundation Model
From 1 comment