Running Sophisticated Agents Locally: My Mac Studio M4 Max Experience

Running Sophisticated Agents Locally: My Mac Studio M4 Max Experience
Just set up my new Mac Studio (M4 Max, 128GB) specifically for local LLM development, and I'm genuinely excited about what's possible now.
The Setup:

Ollama for model orchestration
Vercel AI SDK for the interface layer
Focus: private, cost-effective agents that punch above their weight

The Sweet Spot:
After testing several models, GPTOSS-20B has been my go-to workhorse. RAM usage is remarkably efficient, and the intelligence-to-resource ratio is impressive. The 128GB headroom means I can even spin up 120B models when needed, but honestly, the 20B handles most sophisticated agent workflows beautifully.
For coding tasks, qwen3-coder:30b is shaping up to be a fantastic "junior developer" - fast, capable, and incredibly cost-effective for routine development work.
The Real Insight:
Raw parameter count isn't everything. Small Language Models enhanced with thoughtful cognitive patterns (chain-of-thought, self-reflection, multi-step reasoning) deliver outsized results. You can build genuinely sophisticated agents without cloud dependencies or burning through API budgets.
Local-first AI development is reaching an inflection point. The hardware's ready, the models are maturing, and the tooling ecosystem is excellent. If you value privacy, cost control, and want to experiment freely - this stack is worth exploring.

Видео Running Sophisticated Agents Locally: My Mac Studio M4 Max Experience канала Orhan Örs