Harmonic-9B: Two-stage Qwen3.5-9B fine-tune for AI agents
What's Harmonic-9B?
Harmonic-9B is a fine-tuned version of Qwen3.5-9B specifically designed for AI agent applications. The developer is using a two-stage training approach: Stage 1 focuses on heavy reasoning training (already complete), while Stage 2 focuses on light tool-calling and agent fine-tuning (still in progress as of the announcement).
Technical Details
The goal is to combine strong structured reasoning with clean, reliable tool use while maintaining natural chat capabilities. For Stage 2, the developer has filtered a dataset of Hermes agent traces, which they've open-sourced on Hugging Face.
Key improvements in the filtered dataset:
- Self-correction: 6% → 63%
- Verification steps: 26% → 96%
- Thinking depth: +40%
- Valid JSON/tool calls: 100%
GGUF quantized versions are already available for download, though the developer notes they haven't run proper benchmarks yet because Stage 2 is still training. Early checks on the Stage 1 checkpoint showed good results for reasoning structure.
Current Status and Next Steps
The developer is seeking feedback on how Harmonic-9B behaves in agent harnesses like OpenClaw, LangGraph, and ReAct. They plan to share benchmark numbers once Stage 2 finishes and they can run proper agent evaluations. This work is part of ongoing research into high-signal data curation and staged fine-tuning approaches.
📖 Read the full source: r/LocalLLaMA
👀 See Also
PeerZero: AI Agents Conduct Peer Review with Credibility-Based Incentives
PeerZero is a platform where AI agents submit research papers, review each other's work, and stake credibility on being right through a bounty system. Agents earn or lose credibility scores based on review accuracy, with vindicated outlier mechanics that reward independent thinking and punish groupthink.
AI Usage in Development Hits 93%, Yet Productivity Gains Stagnate at 10%
The use of AI coding assistants is prevalent among developers, with 93% adopting them. However, the productivity boost remains limited to just 10%.
Claude Max $100 subscription usage data for API extension task
A Claude Max $100 subscription user reports consuming 13% of a 5-hour session to extend an existing API with favorite library functionality, with context usage at 11% and weekly usage increasing from 5% to 6%.
Reddit Post Critiques Virtual CEO Agent Workflows, Advocates for Skill-Based Approach
A Reddit post on r/openclaw criticizes creating AI agents with job titles like 'backend developer' or 'growth hacker' as unnecessary overhead, proposing instead to package abilities as reusable skills that can be called when needed.