Are there any open models that can actually compete with proprietary ones like GPT 5.5 Extended Thinking or Claude Opus 4.7? I am getting really good results with those in their chat interfaces for coding tasks. They sometimes spend 30-45 minutes working on my task and have an internal container they are doing tool calls on, like cloning a repository and compiling their code, and can find online documentation. Their answers are very good and usually correct for very complex tasks requiring specific protocols.
So I would like to know how well we can replicate this using open models since I want more control over how it runs, and privacy. Do any of you hook in agentic capabilities into your local models? How do you do it, and which models give you good results?
Pretend I have unlimited resources (local llama.cpp, sufficient fast storage/memory, and unlimited time to wait for a good response).
“Compete with”? Depends on your definition of competition. You can accomplish similar results with smaller, local models but you cannot do it as lackadaisically as with Claude by just throwing a sentence at it and letting it go to town for 15 minutes.
Doing things like this locally will take more time and effort in countless different ways. You need to structure the prompts and the environment much more carefully. You need to wait much longer for much smaller portions of work. You need to retry again when it gets it wrong, which will happen, either relying on better luck or adjusting your plan, your prompts or your context to better guide it to what you’re actually looking for.
If you’re used to Claude, working the same way with both and comparing them directly side by side, then no. Open models are not directly competitive like that. They can compete with it, if you’re willing to be much more involved in the process.
If Claude is like a junior developer with access to an entire library of programming books, open models are like a 14-year-old in their first programming class with access to an entire library of programming books that they don’t know how to utilize effectively. They require a lot more guidance.
You may wonder “what’s the point if I have to do so much work anyway, maybe I should just do it myself” and indeed, this is the crux of the problem. It’s even more obvious with smaller, open models than it is with the commercial AI models. This is not a new problem, it has been a problem even when training new employees. The difference is, real junior developers actually learn and grow based on my efforts to guide them and they eventually become senior developers. I’m not convinced that Claude or any open model ever actually will, despite how much effort goes into “training” them.