x.com/MrAhmadAwais/status/20509…

We sit down with Ahmad Awais, CEO of CommandCodeAI, who developed a lightweight "tool-input repair layer" in their open-source AI CLI that dramatically improves tool-calling reliability for open models like DeepSeek. By analyzing failure patterns across billions of tokens, he shifted from rigid validation to a "validate-then-repair" approach, allowing cheaper open models (especially DeepSeek V4 Pro) to outperform premium ones like Opus 4.7 in 6 out of 10 internal evaluations. The core insight: most perceived "open model weaknesses" in tool calling are harness/contract issues rather than true capability gaps, fixable with targeted repairs, semantic hints, and transparent feedback instead of changing the underlying LLM.