A note of thanks · Small specialists

Needle 2

Needle 2's tiny tool-calling package deserved a direct Mac test. The result was negative on our gate, and keeping that result visible is part of the credit we owe a useful idea.

01 · The idea

What stayed with us

A compact call-only model combines top-five tool retrieval, constrained decoding, confidence escalation, bounded context, quantization, and a small packaged Mac artifact.

02 · The local translation

What we did with it

A 94-case local smoke reached 34.0 percent exact tool selection. Oracle catalog restriction reached 38.3 percent overall but regressed Pace and retained false actions.

03 · The boundary

Where the comparison stops

Catalog restriction is a latency lever, not a capability rescue. Package size and narrow call formatting do not establish grounded tool competence.