Blog & Demos
Tutorials, case studies, benchmarks, and open-source demos – everything you need to build with small language models.
Train Your SLM with the distil labs Claude Skill
A step-by-step walkthrough of training a Text2SQL small language model using the distil labs Claude Code skill, going from raw conversation data to a working local model in a single conversation.
Text2SQL: Natural Language CSV Query Tool
Query your CSV data using natural language questions. A fine-tuned 0.6B parameter model converts questions into SQL queries and executes them locally, no cloud required.
SHELLper: Multi-turn Bash Function Calling Model
A fine-tuned 0.6B model that converts natural language into bash commands with 100% multi-turn tool call accuracy. Runs locally with full privacy.
Text2SQirreL 🐿️: Query your data in plain English
A fine-tuned small language model that converts plain English questions into executable SQL queries. Runs locally with no API keys, no cloud dependencies, and full privacy, matching the accuracy of a 685B teacher model.
We Benchmarked 12 Small Language Models Across 8 Tasks to Find the Best Base Model for Fine-Tuning
A systematic benchmark of 12 small language models across 8 tasks reveals Qwen3-4B as the best for fine-tuning, with fine-tuned models matching or exceeding a 120B+ teacher. Smaller models like Llama-3.2-1B show the highest tunability.
Gitara: How we trained a 3B Function-Calling Git Agent for Local Use
We fine-tuned a small, tool-calling language model to turn plain-English questions into git commands with the accuracy of a cloud LLM.
Resume Roaster AI: Brutally Honest Resume Critique with a Local SLM
A fine-tuned Llama-3.2-3B model that generates sarcastic resume critiques and professional improvement suggestions. Runs entirely locally to keep your personal data private.
distil-commit-bot: AI-Powered Commit Messages for TypeScript
A fine-tuned 0.6B parameter SLM that generates commit messages for TypeScript codebases. Runs locally via Ollama, achieving 90% accuracy compared to a 120B teacher model, at 200x smaller size.
distil-localdoc.py: Automatic Python Documentation Generation
A fine-tuned Qwen3 0.6B model that generates complete, properly formatted Google-style docstrings for your Python code. Runs locally to keep your proprietary code secure.