LLM Reference

Needle 2

Released
2026-08-09
Last refreshed
2026-09-17
Status
Researched 1d ago
Open sourceCommercial use: permittedAgentsClassificationJSON / Tool useAgents

Needle 2 is available now for agents, classification, and json / tool use with open-source; evaluate it while provider pricing coverage matures.

Use it for

  • Teams evaluating agents, classification, and json / tool use
  • Workloads that can use a 2k context window

Do not use it for

  • Cost-sensitive launches that need sourced token pricing
  • Vision or document-understanding workloads
  • Teams that need a tracked hosted API route today
Specifications
Family
Needle
Released
2026-08-09
Context
2k
Parameters
45M
Specialization
on-device
Openness
Open source
License
Apache 2.0OSI-approvedCommercial use: permitted
Weights
Available
Code
Unknown
Training
Pretrained
Created by
Cactus Compute

Cactus Compute, Inc. builds automation foundation models for tiny devices (mobiles, wearables, smart home, robots, micro

Website
Pricing

No tracked provider token pricing is available yet.

Links
Website HuggingFace

About

Needle 2 is Cactus Compute's prior-generation open 45M-parameter automation model (first-party blog 2026-08-09 + HF Cactus-Compute/needle2). Single ~14MB CQ2-bit binary; ~28MB session RAM; tool calling, device use, and structured extraction. Apache 2.0 (HF license:apache-2.0). Tip Needle 3 is the follow-up under the same Needle family. Context left empty — blog emphasizes 256-token sliding KV window for RAM bounding rather than publishing a clear 8k-style context figure for seed. INSERT sibling under family needle (live /model/needle-2 404). Compare it for Open Source / Agents / on-device.

Top use-case fit: coding, agents, and build tasks

Agents

Included by capability and metadata signals in the decision map.

Classification

Included by capability and metadata signals in the decision map.

JSON / Tool use

Included by capability and metadata signals in the decision map.

Provider price ladder

No tracked provider token pricing is available for this model yet.

Capabilities

JSON / Tool useStructured OutputsFine-tuning

Benchmark peer barsfor Agents

No task-mapped benchmark peers are available for this model yet.

Migration checks

No linked migration route is available for this model yet.

API versions

needle-2needle2