admin
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Review source: GPT-5.6 pass shared by jhestyr 2026-07-17. Accept/pushback record in NOTES N-5. [ezra]
34 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
34 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
# local-horse — pricing & planning a local LLM box for agentic coding
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> ### 📖 READ THESE FIRST — don't re-derive, don't build blind
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> Before suggesting, changing, or buying anything on this project:
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> - **[`NOTES.md`](NOTES.md)** — the running findings log (`N-1…`): the K3 cost math that started this, the RAM crisis, the decision lean.
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> - **[`BUILDS.md`](BUILDS.md)** — the two priced builds (workhorse / feral cats) with the models each can run. **Prices dated 2026-07-17; the market is volatile — re-price before buying.**
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> - **Weave** — `admin/silas/SCRATCHPAD.md` threads + ledger lines = live state / open lines.
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## What it is
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A **rumination, not a purchase order** (status as of 2026-07-17). jhestyr asked what it would take to
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run local models — first "something like Kimi K3," then specifically **agentic coding like we do at the
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counter**, best-in-class around **$20k**. This repo holds the priced-out answer so future-us doesn't
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re-derive it: two build shapes, the models each runs, honest capability tiers, and the market caveats
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that will invalidate the numbers over time.
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The trigger was real data: repricing the lassiter-creek-adventure-game's build (10 sessions, Jul 5–17,
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from local transcripts) showed **1.15B cache-read tokens vs 3.5M output** — agentic coding is
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cache-dominated. The hardware conclusion that follows (corrected by external review, NOTES N-5): the
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first-order requirements are **KV-cache persistence, hit rate, and capacity** — cache reads are *hits*,
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not reprocessing; raw prefill bandwidth matters on the misses, not on the 99%.
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**Status 2026-07-17 (late):** externally reviewed (jhestyr's friend via GPT-5.6 — NOTES N-5). Two
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original numbers did not survive: the workhorse decode-rate estimate and the feral-cats slot count.
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**Any purchase is now gated on the benchmark plan in BUILDS.md** — the workhorse is a hypothesis, not
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a validated build.
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Standing constraints from jhestyr: **no Mac** ("not interested in the mac approach"). Not that fancy a
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man. Any coffee is coffee as long as it's not burnt.
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## How we work
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Read-first · write the note where next-me reads it · **verify it landed** · talk before building · one thing
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at a time · don't over-fix. The state of truth is this repo — keep it self-narrating.
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