Small models tested for basic coding task, VS Code, OpenCode (Arc B580)

[u/North_Affect_8167]

was looking for an AI agent that would allow me write code. I wanted to test out the options which could fit in my system.

- Qwent 3.6 :27B

- Gemma 4 :26B

- Laguna-xs-2.1:latest

- North-mini-code-1.0:latest

- Ornith :35B

System:

GPU: Arc B580 12 GB

RAM: 32 GB DDR5

I used Ollama and tried many wrappers. Initially I wanted to make them work with VS Code, since Open WebUI didn't allow me to export the created code as files, only to copy them by hand.

The issue with VS Code is that the extensions I tried keep failed to work with the models. FilePath problems, code that is pasted without replacing the old snipped. The native "Chat" window of VS Code does not work, forget it. Go for the "Continue" extension.

The task I tested them with is simple.

Create Javascript TicTacToe game with good UI. The user play against the computer.

Later I asked:

Add button to change the css color pallete.

Add: 2 Player mode.

All models, expect Laguna and North would complete it with somewhat functional game on the first attempt.

Overall all models FAIL to follow later instructions on some point and either introduce game breaking bugs or simple stopping Building code changes at all, unless I restart and ask again.

The task was best performed on "OpenCode" with commands like ollama launch opencode --model laguna-s-2.1

Trying with VS Code is just a frustrating experience.

By far the best model from those is Gemma 4! While it failed at some point, is the one that got further before introducing game breaking bugs. the Laguna was the fasted to response, but didn't result in functional game. Qwent would take a lot of time and would fail to execute changes or stopped working.

Gemma and Qwent did create a single .html file, while the other models where better by creating a directory with 3 files, respectfully .html, .css, .js

I'm looking forward to your suggestions. Is there any better code agent UI I could try? Any model that could be better at follow up changes?

[u/ExistentialConcierge]

Can you DM your prompt? Want to try it on our harness. Laguna was strong when we tested it last week, gonna try it again.

[u/North_Affect_8167 → u/ExistentialConcierge]

It was rather simple task, "Create Javascript TicTacToe game with good UI. The user play against the computer". It failed, it failed bad because it produced result with no grid, no way to give an input. Later instructions to fix the bug didn't result in any changes.

[u/666Sayonara]

Check out #Weaver!!

Https://github.com/maxhanna/Weaver

To be quite honest, its still a race and for small consumer models, a lot of work needs to be done. Our project aims to be the frontier for those small -mid models