Cline and LM Studio: the local coding stack with Qwen3 Coder 30B
10 days ago
- #AI coding
- #local models
- #offline development
- Local models like Qwen3 Coder 30B now enable offline coding with Cline and LM Studio.
- The setup includes LM Studio for hosting, Cline for VS Code, and Qwen3 Coder 30B as the model.
- Optimized for Apple Silicon with MLX format, offering 256k native context and strong tool-use capabilities.
- Quantization reduces model size and memory usage, making it feasible on consumer hardware.
- Configuring LM Studio involves setting the context length to 262,144 and disabling KV Cache Quantization.
- Cline settings must match LM Studio's context window and enable compact prompts for efficiency.
- Performance is solid on modern laptops, with warmup time and context ingestion slowdowns noted.
- Offline advantages include privacy, no API costs, and self-contained development environments.
- Local models are ideal for offline, privacy-sensitive, and cost-conscious projects.
- Cloud models still better for very large repositories or multi-hour refactoring sessions.
- Troubleshooting tips include verifying server status and adjusting context window settings.