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Built this over the weekend with my wife using Claude Code. Github repo for site is here: https://github.com/earino/nonprofit-ai and github repo for prompt testing harness is here: https://github.com/earino/prompt-harness

Was a really fun weekend project!


This looks very interesting. I wish it came with some guides for using it with a local LLM. I have an MBP with 128gb of ram and I have been trying to find a local open source coding agent. This feels like it could be the thing.


I'll add docs! Tl;DR: in the onboarding (or in the Add Model menu section), you can select adding a custom LLM. It'll ask you for your API base URL, which is whatever localhost+port setup you're using, and then an env var to use as an API credential. Just put in any non-empty credential, since local models typically don't actually use authentication. Then you're good to go.

IMO gpt-oss-120b is actually a very competent local coding agent — and it should fit on your 128GB Macbook Pro. I've used it while testing Octo actually, it's quite good for a local model. The best open model in my opinion is zai-org/GLM-4.5, but it probably won't fit on your machine (although it works well with APIs — my tip is to avoid OpenRouter though since quite a few of the round-robin hosts have broken implementations.)


Ok wonderful! Thanks.

I'm trying to set it up right now with lmstudio with qwen3-coder-30b. Hopefully it's going to work. Happy to take any pointers on anything y'all have tried that seemed particularly promising.


For sure! We also have a Discord server if you need any help: https://discord.gg/syntheticlab


Follow up question, can the diff apply and fix json models be run locally as well with octofriend, or do they have to hit your servers? Thanks!


They're just Llama 3.1 8b Instruct LoRAs, so yes — you can run them locally! Probably the easiest way is to merge the weights, since AFAIK ollama and llama.cpp don't support LoRAs directly — although llama.cpp has utilities for doing the merge. In the settings menu or the config file you should be able to set up any API base URL + env var credential for the autofix models, just like any other model, which allows you to point to your local server :)

The weights are here:

https://huggingface.co/syntheticlab/diff-apply

https://huggingface.co/syntheticlab/fix-json

And if you're curious about how they're trained (or want to train your own), the entire training pipeline is in the Octofriend repo.


I think this might be your best bet right now. GLM-4.5-Air is probably next best. I'd run them at 8-bit using MLX.


As a proud graduate of MTSU's CS department, I'm so happy to see my school listed here. Even back in the 1990s when I attended there, everyone knew the recording industry program was something special. For a small to medium town, Murfreesboro had an incredible music scene.

I loved getting my bachelor's degree there. Best 9 years of my life :-D


Proud RIM (Recording Industry Major) Major here of 2001; cool to see MTSU mentioned on HN. It was a super fun degree and looks to be even more fun as they now offer a complete songwriting concentration to study in. It was either Music Business or Audio Engineering when i went.


MIS Graduate. Crazy to think that stuff I listend to while working in the computer lab is now in the school's archive.


This was a really enjoyable couple of minutes. I was able to find some of the more ancient cities I've visited (Ceuta, for example), and see how they're represented.

Now that we've seen how quickly digitized information becomes un-usuable, it's interesting to reflect that the actual physical Mappa Mundi will far outlive (barring fires/disasters) any of it's digital reflections.


I now live in a 4 story building in Spain and I too miss having BBQs.


What a wonderful article.

I've lived in single family homes and apartments in USA, Switzerland and Spain. I never understood why the apartment buildings in the USA felt so different, and now it makes sense. Even in my 15 story apartment in Zurich, there was a single stair. It made the apartment layouts much better, made it easier to make apartments with a lot more light, and many of the things this article talks about.

Now I live in Spain in a building from the 1960s. A 4 story apartment building, retrofitted in the 1980s with a tiny elevator. It's a really efficient design, though my wife and I have discussed that from an accessibility standpoint, it leaves a lot to be desired.

Now I understand the constraints of apartment designers in the USA a bit better!


ChatGPT now has the ability to do web browsing to search for recent events!

https://chat.openai.com/share/c35e3fd1-d94e-477b-a331-b14384...


I was in Istanbul recently, and what surprised me was the absolute depth of the cities attractions. I stayed in the Kadıköy and Sultanahmet districts, and it was so incredible to walk through a society which had been Monkey Patched through millennia. The runtime behavior of the objects, streets, buildings and the city had been adapted time and time again. Roman temples becoming Churches becoming Mosques becoming Museums, sometimes simply with some new tiles or a freshly laid down carpet. Each layer rich in artifacts. My favorite attraction was the Great Palace Mosaics Museum, some of the most detailed and vibrant mosaics I had ever seen. I hope to return soon.


"the runtime behavior of the objects" took me from Istanbul right back to my day job which I thought I was taking a break from on HN


You can take a break but you can never leave



It was blown away by Istanbul. Highly recommend that city.


It’s truly beautiful. After many visits though, the rundown nature of the history started to distress me.

See the Hagia Sophia, which appears to have been left to dilapidate since it was turned into a mosque all those centuries ago. A conversion process which appears to have amounted to plastering over the stunning mosaics, and drilling some Arabic script plaques into the walls. Some of which were exposed while it was a museum, but have been cordoned off again now that it’s been re-mosqued

I only noticed this when, on a recent trip, I travelled around the city with a well educated Turkish millennial, and amateur historian, who pointed out these abuses of historical sites over and over again. Topkapi and Dolmabace palaces are largely empty stone buildings with the trees in the yards being the most fascinating things.

The palimpsest of history in the city is quite stunning though. And some stunning beauty in unexpected places. For example, the ceilings in the University of Istanbul are incredible.


> Topkapi and Dolmabace palaces are largely empty stone buildings with the trees in the yards being the most fascinating things.

Either you were not actually allowed to go in or things have changed a lot since the last time I visited those places.

Dolmabahçe is real "palace" palace. There are a lot of rooms with really extravagant furnishings, carpets, mirrors etc as well as lots of original art on the walls. Topkapı is more like a museum with artifacts from the time displayed behind glass. Still worth a visit. Contrast this to the "palaces" in Seoul where all the buildings are completely empty except for one of them having one large sofa or something. You are not allowed inside any of the buildings. You spend 3 hours walking around the (admittedly beautiful) gardens and ponds.

What I have seen happening though is with every passing year the percentage of the are that are open to tourists is decreasing. It used to be that you could do a relaxed tour of Dolmabahçe with the guide explaining everything in detail. Tours were in groups but people could fall behind and the guide would wait for you. Last time I was there the tour was more like a factory conveyor belt. The frequency of tours had increased dramatically and it took maybe 30 minutes to do the thing in a rush. If I remember correctly Atatürk's room wasn't even included. Guides would keep telling you to hurry up and not to fall back. Plus, photography was forbidden. I belive these changes to be designed for money making purposes.

(I noticed similar things in Cappadocia. The natural open areas where you could visit a few years ago are now cordoned off. There are more venues in venues where you have to pay extra to visit etc.)

I've been meaning to visit Göbekli Tepe but they alread got their hands on it. I don't know that it would be a worthwhile trip now.

So. I don't know why you said Dolmabahçe and Topkapı are empty buildings. Maybe they are now but I really do find that hard to believe. Did you visit only the Harem in Dolmabahçe or something. The Harem is basically like a huge dormatory. There's nothing fancy there.


Thank you for your reply. I went there on days when they were closed to the public, so they were totally empty of people who weren't staff. Perhaps I missed the best parts of them by not having a guide to conveyor belt me along! It's a hazard of being there for work, and only having an hour or so to freely wander about; a benefit though, is that we were allowed into some of the rooms and areas that are closed to the public. In retrospect, I probably should have reserved my opinion on the palaces. Next time I'm there I'll get a map and look around more methodically.


Congratulations for getting this done. A very small percentage of folks who want to do this actually do it.

My constructive feedback is that the app asked me to register immediately. I didn't really get an idea of why I would get value from it.

Consider giving me a little tour or letting me browse before I have to give you my email address? Thanks and good luck!


Thanks, appreciate it a lot!

This is a really good point, and I am on it to change this! Thank you for your input again!


this 100%

also --> it should be free for consumers

is there b2b potential?


It is 100% free! For b2b I was thinking about also selling flowers through the App but not much more. Any ideas?


Allow people to give "stars" to their favorites posters/commenters like reddit gold.


This is in the pipeline already!


why should it be free to consumers?


Because it yet lack functionality that consumers would pay for it. I will add those in later stages of development


> Did you know that you can save ~$62,000 per year per company you work for, tax free (or deferred)?

Do you happen to have a link or pointers?


From the IRS: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/one-participant-401k-pl...

"""

The business owner wears two hats in a 401(k) plan: employee and employer. Contributions can be made to the plan in both capacities. The owner can contribute both:

    Elective deferrals up to 100% of compensation (“earned income” in the case of a self-employed individual) up to the annual contribution limit:
        $22,500 in 2023 ($20,500 in 2022; $19,500 in 2020 and 2021), or $30,000 in 2023 ($27,000 in 2022; $26,000 in 2020 and 2021) if age 50 or over; plus
    Employer nonelective contributions up to:
        25% of compensation as defined by the plan, or
        for self-employed individuals, see discussion below
If you’ve exceeded the limit for elective deferrals in your 401(k) plan, find out how to correct this mistake.

Total contributions to a participant’s account, not counting catch-up contributions for those age 50 and over, cannot exceed $66,000 for 2023 ($61,000 for 2022; $58,000 for 2021; $57,000 for 2020).

Example: Ben, age 51, earned $50,000 in W-2 wages from his S Corporation in 2020. He deferred $19,500 in regular elective deferrals plus $6,500 in catch-up contributions to the 401(k) plan. His business contributed 25% of his compensation to the plan, $12,500. Total contributions to the plan for 2020 were $38,500. This is the maximum that can be contributed to the plan for Ben for 2019.

A business owner who is also employed by a second company and participating in its 401(k) plan should bear in mind that his limits on elective deferrals are by person, not by plan. He must consider the limit for all elective deferrals he makes during a year.

"""

Per company means that if you contract for one company (with your own LLC) and work W2 for another (or work 2 W2s), you get ~22k total for employee contributions, but ~40k per each company you work for, ie 2 * 40k = 80k, therefore you can make 80k + 22k = 102k entirely into your 401k accounts. However, since it's a max of 25% per plan of each income, you'd have to be making very high six figures for it to get to such a maximum.

If you have your own LLC, you can set up a solo 401k easily, but for an employer, it's much harder as they must support mega backdoor Roth IRAs, ie allowing you to add your own after-tax money as part of their employer contribution.


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