Which local AI model should I use for coding, and what can Build mode do?

What a coding model is

A coding model is a language model trained mostly on source code and on text about code. WorkOffline offers the Qwen2.5 Coder family from Alibaba's Qwen team. Its model card says the family was trained on 5.5 trillion tokens of code, text and synthetic data, comes in six sizes from 0.5 to 32 billion parameters, and is released under Apache 2.0. We offer three of those sizes, chosen to fit normal laptops.

Which model for your laptop

• 8 GB: Coder Lite. Fine for short scripts: listing, sorting and renaming. Keep the request small.
• 16 or 24 GB: Coder, for most Build mode jobs.
• 32 GB or more: Coder Large. Writes longer, more careful tools. Like the Large everyday model, it is quickest on a Mac with an Apple chip or a PC with a large graphics card.

The app gives the two smaller coding models 16,384 tokens of room to work and Coder Large 32,768. The coding model is a separate download from your everyday model, so check your free disk space too.

What Build mode does

1. Describe the tool. For example: "make a CSV listing every PDF with its page count and size". The coding model writes a short script. You can read and edit it.
2. Pick the folders it may read. It sees nothing else.
3. Try it. The script runs on your laptop in a sealed-off helper with no network, and returns a list of what it would make: new files, or renamed copies of files. Nothing is saved yet.
4. Confirm. Only then does it create the new files, in a new folder in Done in your WorkOffline folder. Your originals are never changed.

Tools you keep can be opened again from Home. Build mode is a Premium feature. Repeating jobs that need no code, such as watching a folder and offering to compress new files, or summarising every file in a folder, are automations, included with Single and Premium.

Honest limits

• Small models make mistakes. They can misread a request, miss an edge case or write a script that fails. The preview step is there so you catch that before anything is saved.
• Short jobs work best. One clear task per tool. A long list of steps is better split into several tools.
• Build mode is deliberately narrow. Its tools cannot reach the internet, install anything, change or delete your files, or see folders you did not pick.

Privacy

The model, the script and your files all stay on your laptop. Build mode makes no network connections, so it works the same in a tunnel as at your desk.

Local or cloud?

Cloud coding assistants run much larger models on their providers' servers. They are better at big codebases, long programs and hard problems, and many plug straight into code editors. They need a connection, and your code is sent to the provider under its terms.

A local coding model is smaller and slower, but it works offline, costs nothing per use and keeps your code and files on your laptop. For small tools that work on your own files, that is often enough. For serious software work, many people use both.

Frequently asked questions