i use smaller model gemma e2b for most of my editing and it works surprisingly well. Workflow is planning with sota models and execution via small models. If you plan properly dont leave ambiguity for smaller model it works well.
Out of curiosity have you tried other small models? The e2b for me was unusable. Llama3.2 3b was better and that thing is a year old and I rarely use it now too.
yes i keep on trying small models, i have also tried qwen 3.5 0.8B, 2B, 4b and gemma4 e4B models but they either did not worked reliably (thinking loop, issue in following instruction) or there were performance issues (prompt speed, tg speed, too much ram) e2b was the sweet spot where i could give it plan and it can edit files properly.
That makes sense it sounds like your computer isn't super powerful. Whatever works for you
How did e2b compare to e4b ?
i did not see much improvement for my use case i.e. file editing tasks but with e4b tg/s is lower so i stick with e2b.