๐ฆ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฒ & ๐๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ: ๐ง๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐บ๐ ๐ฝ๐ต๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ (๐๐ ๐ฃ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ด๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐ข๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฟ)
Last weekend I gave LM Playground - the local-model setup I run on my own phone - an OpenAI-compatible interface so that anything that speaks โOpenAIโ can talk to a model on a phone on my home network.
This weekend the question was the a bit of fun follow-on: now that ๐ฎ๐ป๐ tool can reach my local model, whatโs the smallest genuinely useful thing I can build with it?
I landed on something that was meant purely as fun, no serious investigation this weekend - an SMS auto-responder. A text comes in, a small model running locally on my phone drafts a reply in my voice, and I approve or edit it before anything sends. No cloud, no API bill, and the LLM interaction never leaves my network (or my phone). The orchestration runs in Tasker on the phone: incoming text โ POST to the local endpoint โ parse the reply โ pop an editable dialog โ send on approval.
On a slide, thatโs five boxes and an arrow. In practice it was a bit of a pain (mainly editing JavaScript on a phone keyboard with my fat fingers) - phones arenโt the best IDEโs
- LM Playground was the easy part - OpenAI compatible interface worked flawlessly and the logging really helped.
- Switching to SMS made things easier for Tasker.
- Testing was fun - Iโd dropped a line into the system prompt to give the model some context for who โIโ am - that me being in a bike shop with a credit card is one of my familyโs worst fears.
So naturally, the very next test text from home was:
- โ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐บ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ธ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฝ?โ
My dutiful little local model, now fully briefed on the family lore, replied:
- โ๐๐บ๐บ, ๐น๐ฒ๐โ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ. ๐๐ณ ๐โ๐บ ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐ฝ, ๐โ๐บ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ.โ - it did itโs best.
Which is the whole point, really - even though this is a tiny model, like all models - it did itโs best, not too bad but it needed a HITL at exactly the right point.
Not sure what to build next weekend, but there will be โ