# Engineer tests offline coding agent with Qwen3.5 9B in Himalayan workspace

Digest AI · Agents & Tools · published 2026-10-27T14:41:25Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/engineer-tests-offline-coding-agent-with-qwen3-5-9b-in-himalayan-works

## Summary

A Principal Engineer at Thomson Reuters tested running an offline coding agent on their laptop in the Himalayas, where network outages are common. Using **OpenCode** with the open-weight model **Qwen3.5 9B** (hosted via **Ollama**), they successfully fixed a bug in a Python script without internet access. The agent read local files, proposed edits, and ran tests—all offline—though dependencies and model downloads required prior setup.

The setup required downloading the model and project dependencies ahead of time. The engineer noted memory constraints (12–16 GB for Qwen3.5 9B) and emphasized focusing on small, test-driven tasks. While the test passed, the engineer acknowledged limitations: larger projects or unfamiliar frameworks may not perform as well. The walkthrough includes two additional exercises—a CSV report and log analyzer—for further offline testing.

## Key points

- Thomson Reuters engineer ran **OpenCode** with **Qwen3.5 9B** offline on a Mac, fixing a Python bug without internet
- Setup required pre-downloading the model (6.6 GB) and project dependencies; memory usage peaked at 12–16 GB
- Agent proposed edits, ran tests, and passed all five unit tests—verifying offline capability for small tasks

## Why it matters

Demonstrates offline AI coding agents can assist with local projects during outages, expanding use cases for developers in unreliable networks.

## Sources

1. [Coding From the Himalayas With an Offline AI Agent](https://latent.space/p/offline-coding) (Latent Space, 2026-10-27)

## Cite

Digest AI, "Engineer tests offline coding agent with Qwen3.5 9B in Himalayan workspace", 27 October 2026, https://digestai.news/story/engineer-tests-offline-coding-agent-with-qwen3-5-9b-in-himalayan-works

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