{"slug": "using-an-open-model-feels-surprisingly-good", "title": "Using an open model feels surprisingly good", "summary": "A user reports a surprisingly positive experience using the open-source coding tool opencode with a self-hosted inference endpoint, describing it as freeing and private. The user, who works at Modal, tested the newly launched Kimi K3 model on Modal's managed endpoints for a side project instead of upgrading a Claude or ChatGPT plan. Within five minutes, the user had opencode running on their own Modal endpoint, feeling a sense of ownership and independence from other AI providers.", "body_md": "# Using an open model feels surprisingly good\n\nI've been using Claude and ChatGPT like the next guy for probably two years now. I've never been a huge \"open software\" nerd or anything like that. But just now, I got opencode working on my own inference endpoint and... it felt surprisingly good. It feels... freeing, somehow. I own the endpoint, and my data just goes from my laptop to there and back. It feels like it's mine. It's really nice.\n\nThe motivation for this was that I just got home and wanted to start on a little side project, but I don't have the best Claude or ChatGPT plan for my personal account. I work at [Modal](https://modal.com), and today we just [launched Kimi K3](https://modal.com/library/moonshot/kimi-k3) on managed endpoints, and I know Kimi K3 is supposed to be pretty solid, so instead of upgrading my Claude plan, I wanted to give it a try. (I didn't directly contribute to this feature, so I haven't gotten to play with it yet.)\n\nWithin about 5 minutes, I had opencode pointed at my own Modal endpoint and running. Spinning up opencode, I just felt a nice, empty blankness. The best way I can describe it is like opening vim after spinning a bunch of time in a big fancy editor. Or maybe like the tendrils tying me to other providers had been cut, and I could breathe freely. I'm being somewhat dramatic here but not exaggerating that much. It's weird, lol, and unexpected to me, which is why I wanted to write about it.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/using-an-open-model-feels-surprisingly-good", "canonical_source": "https://matthewsaltz.com/blog/using-an-open-model-feels-surprisingly-good/", "published_at": "2026-07-28 02:37:14+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-28 02:52:25.769663+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-tools", "ai-infrastructure", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["Modal", "Kimi K3", "opencode", "Claude", "ChatGPT"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/using-an-open-model-feels-surprisingly-good", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/using-an-open-model-feels-surprisingly-good.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/using-an-open-model-feels-surprisingly-good.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/using-an-open-model-feels-surprisingly-good.jsonld"}}