little-coder 1.0.0

package/LICENSE

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package/NOTICE

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+little-coder
+Copyright 2026 Itay Inbar
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); see the
+accompanying LICENSE file for the full text.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Attribution to upstream project
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+This product is a derivative work based on CheetahClaws / ClawSpring
+(https://github.com/SafeRL-Lab/clawspring), Copyright SafeRL-Lab,
+licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
+
+The upstream project provided the foundational agent architecture, tool
+system, multi-provider support, and REPL interface. little-coder has
+been substantially modified: skill-augmented tool use, domain-knowledge
+injection, workspace awareness, thinking-budget enforcement with
+reasoning reuse, the Write-vs-Edit tool invariant, a multi-language
+Aider Polyglot benchmark harness, per-model profiles for small local
+LLMs, and a complete UI refresh have been added. Many upstream features
+that did not fit the small-model focus have been removed.

package/README.md

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+# little-coder
+
+**A coding agent tuned for small local models, built on top of [pi](https://pi.dev).**
+
+The research story behind all this — why scaffold–model fit matters, how a 9.7 B Qwen beat frontier entries on Aider Polyglot, and what the load-bearing mechanisms actually do — is written up on Substack: **[*Honey, I Shrunk the Coding Agent*](https://open.substack.com/pub/itayinbarr/p/honey-i-shrunk-the-coding-agent)**. Start there if you want the "why"; stay here for the "how".
+
+## How it relates to pi
+
+[pi](https://pi.dev) is the minimal substrate — agent loop, multi-provider API, TUI, session tree, compaction, extension model. Four built-in tools (read / write / edit / bash) and a ~1000-token system prompt.
+
+little-coder is **pi + 20 extensions + 30 skill markdown files + a Python benchmark harness**. It doesn't fork pi or shadow its CLI — pi is a plain dependency in `package.json`, and everything little-coder-specific lives under `.pi/extensions/`, `skills/`, and `benchmarks/`. You can mix little-coder with pi packages from anyone else, add your own extensions, or disable ours per-project via `.pi/settings.json`.
+
+If you've never used pi, it's useful to skim [pi.dev](https://pi.dev) first — the rest of this doc assumes pi's model of `--agent-import-path`, `--mode rpc`, and `.pi/extensions/` auto-discovery.
+
+## Paper / benchmark results
+
+| Release | Model | Benchmark | Result |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| [**v0.0.2**](https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder/releases/tag/v0.0.2) (commit `1d62bde`) — the paper | Qwen3.5-9B via Ollama | Aider Polyglot (225 exercises) | **45.56 %** mean of two runs; matched-model vanilla Aider baseline 19.11 %. Paper: [*Honey, I Shrunk the Coding Agent* on Substack](https://open.substack.com/pub/itayinbarr/p/honey-i-shrunk-the-coding-agent). |
+| [**v0.0.5**](https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder/releases/tag/v0.0.5) — pre-pi Python | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B via llama.cpp | Aider Polyglot | **78.67 %**. [Full narrative](docs/benchmark-qwen3.6-35b-a3b.md). |
+| [**v0.1.4**](https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder/releases/tag/v0.1.4) — on pi | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B via llama.cpp | Terminal-Bench-Core v0.1.1 (80 tasks) | **40.0 %** in 6 h 50 min. [Write-up](docs/benchmark-terminal-bench-v0.1.1.md). |
+| [**v0.1.13**](https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder/releases/tag/v0.1.13) — on pi, TB 2.0 leaderboard | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B via llama.cpp | Terminal-Bench 2.0 (89 tasks × 5 trials = 445) | **23.82 %** (106 / 445). [PR #158](https://huggingface.co/datasets/harborframework/terminal-bench-2-leaderboard/discussions/158) — awaiting maintainer merge. |
+| [**v0.1.24**](https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder/releases/tag/v0.1.24) — on pi, TB 2.0 leaderboard, smaller model | Qwen3.5-9B (Q4_K_M) via llama.cpp (5.3 GB on GPU, 2× faster per-token than the 35B-A3B) | Terminal-Bench 2.0 (89 tasks × 5 trials = 445) | **9.21 %** (41 / 445). [PR #163](https://huggingface.co/datasets/harborframework/terminal-bench-2-leaderboard/discussions/163) — awaiting maintainer merge. |
+| [**v0.1.27**](https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder/releases/tag/v0.1.27) — on pi, GAIA validation | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B via llama.cpp | GAIA validation set (165 tasks) | **40.00 %** (66 / 165). L1 60.4 % / L2 37.2 % / L3 7.7 %. Test-split run pending. |
+
+All runs used a consumer laptop: i9-14900HX, 32 GB RAM, **8 GB VRAM** on RTX 5070 Laptop (Blackwell). No cloud inference at any point.
+
+---
+
+## Roadmap
+
+The near-term focus is **benchmarking**, not new features. The paper established that scaffold–model fit moves a 9.7 B model from 19 % to 45 % on Aider Polyglot. The open question is: **how wide is the impact radius?** Does the same set of adaptations — Write-vs-Edit invariant, per-turn skill injection, thinking-budget cap, output-repair, quality monitor — help on tasks that *aren't* self-contained coding exercises? What breaks? What compounds?
+
+The plan is to establish a wide baseline before any further scaffolding changes:
+
+1. **Aider Polyglot** — done. 45.56 % (paper, Qwen3.5-9B) and 78.67 % (v0.0.5, Qwen3.6-35B-A3B).
+2. **Terminal-Bench-Core v0.1.1** — done. 40.0 % (v0.1.4).
+3. **Terminal-Bench 2.0** — done. Qwen3.6-35B-A3B at **23.82 %** ([PR #158](https://huggingface.co/datasets/harborframework/terminal-bench-2-leaderboard/discussions/158)) and Qwen3.5-9B at **9.21 %** ([PR #163](https://huggingface.co/datasets/harborframework/terminal-bench-2-leaderboard/discussions/163)), both awaiting maintainer merge. The v0.1.24 prompt-repetition fix (re-add tool descriptions + concision guideline, validated by a 4 / 4 pilot on the previously-regressing `prove-plus-comm` task) was the prompt for both submissions.
+4. **GAIA** — validation set done at v0.1.27: **40.00 %** (66 / 165) on Qwen3.6-35B-A3B. Per-level L1 60.4 % / L2 37.2 % / L3 7.7 %. Test-split run (301 tasks) pending → leaderboard submission to follow.
+5. **SWE-bench Verified** — after GAIA. Multi-file real-world patches; the longest-horizon test of whether the scaffolding generalizes past exercise-scale tasks.
+
+**After that baseline is in place**, the next phase starts: improvement experiments targeted at the specific failure patterns we've seen (thinking-budget / quality-monitor behavior on long-horizon tasks, deliberate.py-style parallel branches on failure, better shell-session recovery for interactive-process traps). No scaffold changes until the data says which ones are worth running.
+
+---
+
+## Install
+
+One-line install (Node.js 20.6+ required):
+
+```bash
+curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/itayinbarr/little-coder/main/install.sh | bash
+```
+
+Or with npm directly:
+
+```bash
+npm install -g little-coder
+```
+
+That's the whole install. No clone, no `npm install` in a workspace, no PATH fiddling. `little-coder` is now on your PATH and works from any directory.
+
+## Run
+
+```bash
+cd ~/your-project
+little-coder --model anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5
+```
+
+Other models work the same way:
+
+```bash
+little-coder --model openai/gpt-4o-mini "What does this codebase do?"
+little-coder --model llamacpp/qwen3.6-35b-a3b   # local llama.cpp server
+little-coder --model ollama/qwen3.5             # local Ollama
+little-coder --list-models                      # see everything pi knows about
+```
+
+The agent uses the directory you launched it from as its working directory — `Read` / `Write` / `Edit` / `Bash` operate on your project, not on little-coder's install path.
+
+For local providers (llama.cpp, Ollama) pi expects *some* value in the API-key env even though local servers ignore it:
+
+```bash
+export LLAMACPP_API_KEY=noop
+export OLLAMA_API_KEY=noop
+```
+
+`LLAMACPP_BASE_URL` and `OLLAMA_BASE_URL` override the defaults (`http://127.0.0.1:8888/v1`, `http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1`).
+
+For cloud providers, set the standard env (`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `OPENAI_API_KEY`, etc.) and pi will discover it.
+
+## Local model setup (optional)
+
+Skip this section if you're using a cloud model.
+
+**Option A — llama.cpp** (fastest for local; supports Qwen3.6-35B-A3B MoE):
+
+```bash
+# One-time: build llama.cpp with CUDA (sm_XXX = your GPU arch; Blackwell = 120)
+git clone https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp && cd llama.cpp
+cmake -B build -DGGML_CUDA=ON -DCMAKE_CUDA_ARCHITECTURES=120 -DLLAMA_CURL=ON
+cmake --build build --config Release -j
+
+# Fetch a GGUF
+pip install -U "huggingface_hub[cli]"
+hf download unsloth/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-GGUF Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-UD-Q4_K_M.gguf --local-dir ~/models
+
+# Serve it (MoE trick: experts in RAM, attention on GPU → 22 GB model on 8 GB VRAM)
+build/bin/llama-server -m ~/models/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-UD-Q4_K_M.gguf \
+   --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8888 --jinja \
+   -c 16384 -ngl 99 --n-cpu-moe 999 --flash-attn on
+```
+
+**Option B — Ollama** (simpler, but slower on MoE):
+
+```bash
+curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh
+ollama pull qwen3.5        # 9.7B — the paper's model
+# or: ollama pull qwen3.6-35b-a3b
+```
+
+All small-model-specific extensions auto-disable for large/cloud models so they don't interfere.
+
+---
+
+## Troubleshooting
+
+**`little-coder: command not found`** — npm's global bin directory isn't on your PATH. Run `npm config get prefix` to see where it installed; add `<prefix>/bin` to your PATH. Or reinstall with `sudo` if your prefix needs root.
+
+**`ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:8888`** — llama.cpp isn't running. Start `llama-server` first, or switch `--model` to an Ollama/cloud ID.
+
+**No API key env var warning** — pi expects *some* key even for local providers. Export `LLAMACPP_API_KEY=noop` (or `OLLAMA_API_KEY=noop`) before launching.
+
+**Extension load failures on startup** — run `little-coder --list-models --verbose`; extension errors surface there. If the install looks corrupt: `npm uninstall -g little-coder && npm install -g little-coder`.
+
+**Node version too old** — little-coder needs Node ≥ 20.6.0. Check with `node --version`. Easiest fix: `nvm install 20 && nvm use 20`.
+
+---
+
+## Developing little-coder locally
+
+If you want to hack on the extensions or skills:
+
+```bash
+git clone https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder.git
+cd little-coder
+npm install
+npm link            # makes the local checkout available as `little-coder`
+little-coder --model anthropic/claude-haiku-4-5
+```
+
+To unlink: `npm unlink -g little-coder`.
+
+The benchmarks harness (`benchmarks/`) is dev-only and not shipped with the npm package. Run it from a clone with `python3 benchmarks/aider_polyglot.py …` etc.
+
+---
+
+## Architecture
+
+```
+little-coder/
+├── .pi/
+│   ├── settings.json               # per-model profiles + benchmark_overrides (terminal_bench, gaia)
+│   └── extensions/                 # 20 TypeScript extensions, auto-discovered by pi
+│       ├── llama-cpp-provider/     # registers llamacpp/* and ollama/* as OpenAI-compat providers
+│       ├── write-guard/            # Write refuses on existing files — the whitepaper invariant
+│       ├── extra-tools/            # glob, webfetch, websearch (pi ships grep/find)
+│       ├── skill-inject/           # per-turn tool-skill selection (error > recency > intent)
+│       ├── knowledge-inject/       # algorithm cheat-sheet scoring (word=1.0, bigram=2.0, threshold=2.0)
+│       ├── output-parser/          # repair malformed ```tool, <tool_call>, bare JSON
+│       ├── quality-monitor/        # empty / hallucinated / loop detection + correction follow-up
+│       ├── thinking-budget/        # cap thinking tokens per turn, retry with thinking off
+│       ├── permission-gate/        # bash whitelist (ls, cat, git log/status/diff, etc.)
+│       ├── checkpoint/             # snapshot files before Write/Edit
+│       ├── tool-gating/            # enforces _allowed_tools at exec + schema levels
+│       ├── turn-cap/               # max_turns abort (Polyglot unbounded, TB 40, GAIA 30)
+│       ├── benchmark-profiles/     # reads settings.json → systemPromptOptions + sets temperature
+│       ├── shell-session/          # ShellSession[Cwd|Reset] — tmux-proxy + subprocess backends
+│       ├── browser/                # Playwright BrowserNavigate/Click/Type/Scroll/Extract/Back/History
+│       ├── evidence/               # EvidenceAdd/Get/List — per-session store, 1 KB snippet cap
+│       └── evidence-compact/       # preserves evidence across pi's auto-compaction
+├── skills/                         # 30 markdown files the extensions inject on demand
+│   ├── tools/*.md                  #   14 tool-usage cards
+│   ├── knowledge/*.md              #   13 algorithm cheat sheets
+│   └── protocols/*.md              #    3 research/cite/decomposition workflows
+├── benchmarks/
+│   ├── rpc_client.py               # PiRpc — spawns `pi --mode rpc`, demuxes events + UI requests
+│   ├── aider_polyglot.py           # Polyglot driver with per-language transforms
+│   ├── tb_adapter/                 # Terminal-Bench 1.0 BaseAgent (tmux-proxy)
+│   ├── harbor_adapter/             # Terminal-Bench 2.0 BaseAgent (async env.exec proxy)
+│   ├── tb_pilot.sh / harbor_pilot.sh
+│   ├── tb_status.sh / harbor_status.sh
+│   └── test_rpc_client.py
+├── AGENTS.md                       # project system prompt (pi discovers it automatically)
+├── models.json                     # documented provider registration (extension is canonical)
+└── docs/
+    ├── benchmark-*.md              # per-benchmark narratives
+    └── architecture.md             # v0.0.5-era Python architecture (historical)
+```
+
+**Key invariant.** pi is a minimal base by design. Every little-coder mechanism ships as a pi extension that hooks pi's lifecycle events (`before_agent_start`, `context`, `before_provider_request`, `tool_call`, `tool_result`, `turn_end`, `session_compact`). Extensions are independent and can be enabled/disabled per deployment via `.pi/settings.json`. If you don't want one, delete its directory or disable it in settings; if you want to add another, drop it next to the existing ones.
+
+---
+
+## Reproducing the paper (v0.0.2)
+
+```bash
+git clone https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder.git
+cd little-coder
+git checkout v0.0.2
+# Follow that version's README for its Python setup (pip install -e .)
+```
+
+The paper ran `ollama/qwen3.5` through the Python little-coder at commit **`1d62bde`** (tag [`v0.0.2`](https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder/releases/tag/v0.0.2)). The 45.56 % mean figure is the average of two full 225-exercise runs on that exact codebase. For the 78.67 % headline, check out tag [`v0.0.5`](https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder/releases/tag/v0.0.5) — both are pre-pi Python and follow the pre-pi setup.
+
+---
+
+## Citation
+
+```bibtex
+@misc{inbar2026littlecoder,
+  title        = {little-coder: A Coding Agent Optimized for Small Local Language Models},
+  subtitle     = {Architectural Adaptation Lets a 9.7B Model Outperform Frontier Models on Aider Polyglot},
+  author       = {Inbar, Itay},
+  year         = {2026},
+  month        = apr,
+  howpublished = {\url{https://open.substack.com/pub/itayinbarr/p/honey-i-shrunk-the-coding-agent}},
+  note         = {White paper}
+}
+```
+
+---
+
+## Attribution
+
+little-coder v0.0.x was a derivative work of [CheetahClaws / ClawSpring](https://github.com/SafeRL-Lab/clawspring) by SafeRL-Lab, Apache 2.0. That upstream provided the Python agent substrate, tool system, multi-provider support, and REPL.
+
+little-coder v0.1.0+ replaces that substrate with **[pi](https://github.com/badlogic/pi-mono)** (`@mariozechner/pi-coding-agent`) by Mario Zechner — Apache 2.0 / MIT. pi provides the agent loop, provider abstraction, TUI, and extension model. little-coder rebuilds its small-model adaptations on top of pi as extensions.
+
+All little-coder-specific mechanisms — Write-vs-Edit invariant, skill / knowledge injection, thinking-budget cap, output-parser, quality-monitor, per-model profiles, per-benchmark overrides, ShellSession / Browser / Evidence tool families, evidence-aware compaction — are preserved across versions.
+
+---
+
+## License
+
+Apache 2.0 — see [LICENSE](LICENSE) for details. NOTICE tracks upstream attribution.

package/bin/little-coder.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+// little-coder launcher.
+// Spawns the bundled pi runtime with our AGENTS.md, skills, and every
+// custom extension wired in — works from any working directory.
+
+import { spawn } from "node:child_process";
+import { existsSync, readdirSync, statSync } from "node:fs";
+import { dirname, join, resolve } from "node:path";
+import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
+
+// ---- 1. Node version preflight (>= 20.6.0, matching pi.dev) ----
+const MIN_NODE = [20, 6, 0];
+const cur = process.versions.node.split(".").map((n) => parseInt(n, 10));
+const tooOld =
+  cur[0] < MIN_NODE[0] ||
+  (cur[0] === MIN_NODE[0] && cur[1] < MIN_NODE[1]) ||
+  (cur[0] === MIN_NODE[0] && cur[1] === MIN_NODE[1] && cur[2] < MIN_NODE[2]);
+if (tooOld) {
+  console.error(
+    `little-coder requires Node.js >= ${MIN_NODE.join(".")} (you have ${process.versions.node}).\n` +
+      `Install a newer Node from https://nodejs.org or via nvm: 'nvm install 20'.`,
+  );
+  process.exit(1);
+}
+
+// ---- 2. Resolve package install root ----
+const here = dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
+const pkgRoot = resolve(here, "..");
+
+// ---- 3. Resolve the bundled pi binary ----
+const piBin = join(pkgRoot, "node_modules", ".bin", "pi");
+if (!existsSync(piBin)) {
+  console.error(
+    `little-coder: cannot find pi at ${piBin}.\n` +
+      `Try reinstalling: npm install -g little-coder`,
+  );
+  process.exit(1);
+}
+
+// ---- 4. Auto-discover bundled extensions ----
+const extDir = join(pkgRoot, ".pi", "extensions");
+const extArgs = [];
+if (existsSync(extDir)) {
+  for (const name of readdirSync(extDir).sort()) {
+    const subdir = join(extDir, name);
+    const idx = join(subdir, "index.ts");
+    try {
+      if (statSync(subdir).isDirectory() && existsSync(idx)) {
+        extArgs.push("--extension", idx);
+      }
+    } catch {
+      // skip unreadable entries
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+// ---- 5. Compose pi argv ----
+// --no-context-files : ignore the user's AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md so OURS wins
+// --no-extensions    : skip pi's auto-discovery from cwd; explicit -e flags still load
+// --system-prompt    : load <pkgRoot>/AGENTS.md regardless of cwd
+const agentsMd = join(pkgRoot, "AGENTS.md");
+const piArgs = [
+  "--no-context-files",
+  "--no-extensions",
+  ...(existsSync(agentsMd) ? ["--system-prompt", agentsMd] : []),
+  ...extArgs,
+  ...process.argv.slice(2),
+];
+
+// ---- 6. Spawn pi in the user's cwd ----
+const child = spawn(piBin, piArgs, {
+  stdio: "inherit",
+  cwd: process.cwd(),
+  env: process.env,
+});
+
+const forward = (sig) => () => {
+  try {
+    child.kill(sig);
+  } catch {
+    // child already gone
+  }
+};
+process.on("SIGINT", forward("SIGINT"));
+process.on("SIGTERM", forward("SIGTERM"));
+process.on("SIGHUP", forward("SIGHUP"));
+
+child.on("error", (err) => {
+  console.error("little-coder: failed to start pi:", err.message);
+  process.exit(1);
+});
+
+child.on("exit", (code, signal) => {
+  if (signal) {
+    process.kill(process.pid, signal);
+  } else {
+    process.exit(code ?? 0);
+  }
+});

package/models.json

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+{
+  "providers": {
+    "llamacpp": {
+      "api": "openai-completions",
+      "baseUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:8888/v1",
+      "apiKey": "LLAMACPP_API_KEY",
+      "models": [
+        {
+          "id": "qwen3.6-35b-a3b",
+          "name": "Qwen3.6-35B-A3B (local llama.cpp)",
+          "reasoning": true,
+          "input": ["text"],
+          "contextWindow": 32768,
+          "maxTokens": 4096,
+          "cost": { "input": 0, "output": 0, "cacheRead": 0, "cacheWrite": 0 }
+        },
+        {
+          "id": "qwen3.5-9b",
+          "name": "Qwen3.5-9B (local llama.cpp)",
+          "reasoning": true,
+          "input": ["text"],
+          "contextWindow": 32768,
+          "maxTokens": 4096,
+          "cost": { "input": 0, "output": 0, "cacheRead": 0, "cacheWrite": 0 }
+        }
+      ]
+    },
+    "ollama": {
+      "api": "openai-completions",
+      "baseUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1",
+      "apiKey": "OLLAMA_API_KEY",
+      "models": [
+        {
+          "id": "qwen3.5",
+          "name": "Qwen3.5 (ollama)",
+          "reasoning": true,
+          "input": ["text"],
+          "contextWindow": 32768,
+          "maxTokens": 4096,
+          "cost": { "input": 0, "output": 0, "cacheRead": 0, "cacheWrite": 0 }
+        }
+      ]
+    }
+  }
+}

package/package.json

@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+{
+  "name": "little-coder",
+  "version": "1.0.0",
+  "description": "A pi-based coding agent optimized for small local language models. Reproduces the whitepaper's scaffold-model-fit adaptations as pi extensions.",
+  "homepage": "https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder",
+  "repository": {
+    "type": "git",
+    "url": "git+https://github.com/itayinbarr/little-coder.git"
+  },
+  "license": "Apache-2.0",
+  "author": "Itay Inbar",
+  "type": "module",
+  "bin": {
+    "little-coder": "bin/little-coder.mjs"
+  },
+  "engines": {
+    "node": ">=20.6.0"
+  },
+  "files": [
+    "bin/",
+    "AGENTS.md",
+    "skills/",
+    ".pi/extensions/",
+    ".pi/settings.json",
+    "models.json",
+    "LICENSE",
+    "NOTICE",
+    "README.md",
+    "CHANGELOG.md"
+  ],
+  "scripts": {
+    "pi": "pi",
+    "test": "vitest run",
+    "test:py": "python3 -m pytest benchmarks/test_rpc_client.py -q",
+    "typecheck": "tsc --noEmit"
+  },
+  "dependencies": {
+    "@mariozechner/pi-coding-agent": "^0.68.1",
+    "@sinclair/typebox": "^0.34.49",
+    "playwright": "^1.59.1"
+  },
+  "devDependencies": {
+    "typescript": "^5.6.0",
+    "vitest": "^2.1.0"
+  }
+}