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Show HN: Building a full agentic harness around a 4B model is hard

https://orvena.app/
3•mehrant•45m ago
Around 3 months ago, we were thinking why none of the iPhone apps running an LLM are built as a full harness (as in inference + agentic loop + context management + tools + MCP servers and etc.). It became more interesting when we noticed even the new Siri is not fully on device (and not available in EU for that matter).

Having built a few agentic products around a custom harness in the past, we thought this shouldn't be that hard. well, we underestimated how "dumb" a 4B model can be, especially when it comes to tool calling. :D

We tried 8 different models and we settled on Qwen 3.5 4B and we used every trick we knew to make this model behave. well, it works!

It's not gonna win in any intelligence or speed benchmark, but it can do actual useful work and it really is an on device, private, full agentic harness. That said, you can still connect your OpenRouter or OpenAI API keys if that's what you prefer.

Please go check it out :) You need an iPhone 15 pro or above.

Moderna, Merck Vaccine Succeeds in Preventing Melanoma from Returning

https://www.wsj.com/health/pharma/moderna-merck-vaccine-succeeds-in-preventing-melanoma-from-retu...
1•marc__1•35s ago•0 comments

Answers Are Cheap. Questions Are the Work

https://blog.robinverlangen.nl/posts/answers-are-cheap-questions-are-the-work-26c807d8.html
2•RobinUS2•1m ago•0 comments

Confidential AI: Let AI Work for You Without Handing over Your Privacy

https://plugos.net/blog/2026/08/confidential-ai-how-plugclaw-keeps-your-ai-work-private/
1•PlugMate•1m ago•0 comments

A Calm Digital Notebook

https://paplo.app/
1•tillcarlos•3m ago•0 comments

Benchmarking Small Models for DigiKam's Natural Language Search

https://srirupa19.github.io/gsoc/2026/08/17/gsoc3.html
1•oever•6m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Knownbase, an MCP server for persistent AI agent memory

https://knownbase.dev/
1•knownbase_dev•6m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Sofka – much faster k9s alternative in Rust

https://github.com/nklmilojevic/sofka
1•nklmilojevic•7m ago•0 comments

I thought I was building a C replacement. I was wrong

https://c3-lang.org/blog/i_thought_i_was_building_a_c_replacement/
1•carlos-menezes•8m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What the Industry Is Missing?

1•amiosamu•9m ago•0 comments

The critical tech staying safe by going underground

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20ydrndr0wo
1•neversaydie•9m ago•0 comments

New D-Day weather reconstruction highlights key driver of military success

https://climate.copernicus.eu/new-d-day-weather-reconstruction-highlights-key-driver-military-suc...
1•Bluestein•11m ago•0 comments

GLM-5.3 achieves 60 on Artificial Analysis

https://twitter.com/ArtificialAnlys/status/2089830890709135426
1•tosh•13m ago•0 comments

The Physics of Golf

https://sharkclub.golf/golf_physics.html
1•TomVeitch•15m ago•0 comments

CVE-2026-24301: "CoSnitch" vulnerability in Microsoft Copilot

https://cyberupdates365.com/copilot-cosnitch-cve-2026-24301/
1•sysadmin_diarie•20m ago•0 comments

Show HN: ChatGPT plugin for deterministic world facts

https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6a6a0832a59081918b19aec0ddf9ec77/
1•avijeetsingh16•24m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Cairn – self-hosted Shape Up tool with a code-aware PM agent

https://github.com/cairnpm/cairn
1•jrpersico•25m ago•0 comments

When success doesn't fix low self esteem

https://www.pasthepast.com/p/when-success-doesnt-fix-low-self
1•ElysiumAbove•26m ago•1 comments

Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network That Penetrated Cambridge University

https://bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/the-peter-thiel-linked-race-science-network-that-penetrated-ca...
4•Lapra•26m ago•0 comments

What's the difference between speaking with a friend and a therapist?

https://www.pasthepast.com/p/whats-the-difference-between-speaking
1•ElysiumAbove•27m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Basis – A free crypto terminal without paywalls

https://www.basischarts.com/
1•Alrady•28m ago•0 comments

Benchmarking General-Purpose Agents on Market-Validated End-to-End Workflows

https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.17800
2•tcp_handshaker•30m ago•0 comments

Deterministic behavioral (lethal-trifecta defeating) sandboxes with liquid types

https://wiki.alcidesfonseca.com/blog/aeonbox-logical-guardrails-for-agents/
1•alcidesfonseca•30m ago•0 comments

The guide to healing your insecure attachment

https://www.pasthepast.com/p/the-ultima-guide-to-healing-your
1•ElysiumAbove•30m ago•0 comments

Landlords can buy their way out of NYC's climate law starting this week

https://gothamist.com/news/landlords-can-buy-their-way-out-of-nycs-climate-law-starting-this-week
1•geox•31m ago•0 comments

AI reverse-engineered my printer. I just pressed the buttons

https://www.panaxeo.com/blog/ai-reverse-engineered-my-printer-i-just-pressed-the-buttons
2•druchem•32m ago•0 comments

Artificial Analysis: LLM search API providers

https://artificialanalysis.ai/agents/search-api
1•j-bu•32m ago•0 comments

SIL: A semantic interface layer for web applications and AI agents

https://github.com/ais-space/sil
1•vladimir_si•32m ago•1 comments

My experience with the Fitbit Air after a month

https://www.kulman.sk/en/a-month-with-fitbit-air/
1•ig0r0•32m ago•0 comments

Air Theremin – a browser theremin you play by waving at your webcam

https://theremin.bizibah.com/
3•gurov•34m ago•1 comments

Founders OS, now one-click installable via MCPB and live on Smithery

https://www.foundersmcp.com
1•ourthinktank•36m ago•0 comments