| --- |
| license: apache-2.0 |
| library_name: sparrow-decider |
| pipeline_tag: text-classification |
| language: |
| - en |
| base_model: jhu-clsp/ettin-encoder-32m |
| base_model_relation: finetune |
| tags: |
| - sparrow-decider |
| - decision-making |
| - text-classification |
| - encoder |
| - edge |
| - distillation |
| - agents |
| - robotics |
| --- |
| |
| # sparrow-tiny-general (v1.0) |
|
|
| A 17.9 MB decision model built on the Ettin 32M bidirectional encoder. It answers yes/no (`noul`), |
| pick-one (`choice`) and rate-on-a-scale (`score`) questions about a text state, with calibrated |
| probabilities, in **23 ms per decision on one laptop core** with numpy only. |
|
|
| Part of [Sparrow Decider](https://github.com/sparrow-decider/sparrow-decider), a family of decision |
| models from 47 MB down to a few KB. Same question and answer shapes as |
| [Strands Decider](https://github.com/strands-labs/strands-decider). |
|
|
| > Unofficial community project. Not an AWS or Strands product. |
|
|
| | | | |
| |---|---| |
| | Model ID | `sparrow-tiny-general-v1.0` | |
| | Tier | tiny (Ettin 32M encoder + pointer head) | |
| | File | `sparrow-tiny-general-v1.0.sparrow` (17.9 MB) | |
| | Input | text | |
| | Runs on | laptop, Raspberry Pi | |
| | Runtime | Python, numpy only (no C runtime for encoder tiers) | |
|
|
| ## Intended use |
|
|
| - Text decisions where word order matters more than for the static tiers, and 20-50 ms per |
| decision on a CPU is fine. |
| - Its JevBench score (123/231) is the highest of the released Sparrow models, by one task. |
|
|
| **Out of scope:** microcontrollers (use a nano), open-ended language far from its training data, |
| yes/no judgement that needs reasoning, and being the only safety mechanism on a physical system. |
|
|
| ## How to use |
|
|
| ```bash |
| pip install sparrow-decider huggingface_hub |
| ``` |
|
|
| ```python |
| from huggingface_hub import hf_hub_download |
| from sparrow_decider import Decider |
| |
| path = hf_hub_download("sparrow-decider/sparrow-tiny-general", "sparrow-tiny-general-v1.0.sparrow", revision="v1.0") |
| d = Decider.load(path) |
| d.ask("User: what is the weather going to be like in Paris tomorrow?", { |
| "tool": {"type": "choice", "instructions": "Which tool should the agent call?", |
| "criteria": {"weather": "get a weather forecast", "calendar": "read or change calendar events", |
| "email": "send or read email", "search": "search the web"}}, |
| }) # -> weather |
| ``` |
|
|
| To load it by name (`Decider.load("tiny-general")`, `sparrow-decider --model tiny-general ...`), |
| put the file in `~/.cache/sparrow-decider/` or any folder listed in `$SPARROW_MODELS`: |
|
|
| ```bash |
| hf download sparrow-decider/sparrow-tiny-general sparrow-tiny-general-v1.0.sparrow --local-dir ~/.cache/sparrow-decider |
| ``` |
|
|
| ## Measured results |
|
|
| All numbers are from the project's |
| [bench/RESULTS.md](https://github.com/sparrow-decider/sparrow-decider/blob/main/bench/RESULTS.md) and |
| `site/facts.json`. Local runs on one Apple M4 Pro core, not leaderboard scores. |
|
|
| **Speed (numpy, 1 core)** |
|
|
| | Measure | Value | |
| |---|--:| |
| | Time per decision (p50) | **23 ms** | |
| | JevBench p50 / p95 | 22.59 ms / 124.0 ms | |
| | RobotBench time per question | 19.81 ms | |
| | Peak RSS, JevBench run | 604.6 MB | |
|
|
| **Quality** |
|
|
| | Benchmark | sparrow-tiny-general-v1.0 | Strands Decider 2B (public) | |
| |---|--:|--:| |
| | JevBench public, 231 tasks (local v1.5 proxy) | 123/231 | | |
| | MASSIVE 1.1 en-US, 600 held-out utterances: domain / intent | 0.368 / 0.592 | 0.86 / 0.871 | |
| | RobotBench v0, 55 hand-written robot decisions | 20/55 | 40/55 | |
|
|
| ## Limitations |
|
|
| - Weak on robot decisions (RobotBench 20/55) and on MASSIVE domain routing (0.368); for robots |
| use [sparrow-nano-robot](https://huggingface.co/sparrow-decider/sparrow-nano-robot). |
| - Open-ended language it never trained on is well behind the 2B. |
| - Yes/no judgement on JevBench is near chance at every Sparrow tier. A `noul` near 0.5 means |
| "don't know". |
| - Peak memory is about 0.6 GB with the numpy runtime. |
| - English only. |
| - It suggests decisions. Never use it as the only safety stop on a physical system. |
|
|
| ## Training |
|
|
| - **Init:** [Ettin encoder 32M](https://huggingface.co/jhu-clsp/ettin-encoder-32m). |
| - **Architecture:** the encoder plus a pointer head: each option's logit is a scaled dot product |
| between the mean encoder state over the `<answer>` tokens and the mean over that option's span. |
| One forward pass answers the question. |
| - **Prompt:** states, questions and numbered options rendered exactly as Strands Decider renders |
| them. |
| - **Data:** a general decision mix. Only tasksource rows marked for commercial use were used; |
| sources keep their own licences. |
| - **Teacher:** distilled from a Strands Decider 4B checkpoint (targets 50% teacher, 50% gold); |
| per-kind temperature calibration. |
|
|
| Details: [research report](https://github.com/sparrow-decider/sparrow-decider/blob/main/research/REPORT.md). |
|
|
| ## Licence and credits |
|
|
| - **Licence:** Apache-2.0 (see `LICENSE` and `NOTICE` in this repo). |
| - **Base weights:** derived from the [Ettin encoders](https://huggingface.co/jhu-clsp) (Johns |
| Hopkins University CLSP), released under the MIT licence. Their copyright notice and full MIT |
| text are in `LICENSE-ettin.txt` in this repo and apply to the corresponding weights. |
| - **Teacher and prompt format:** [Strands Decider](https://github.com/strands-labs/strands-decider) |
| (Apache-2.0). |
| - **Evaluation only:** Amazon MASSIVE 1.1 (CC BY 4.0), JevBench (MIT). |
|
|
| Unofficial community project. Not an AWS or Strands product. |
|
|
| ## Contact |
|
|
| - Email: vivek@sparrowdecider.com |
| - Issues: https://github.com/sparrow-decider/sparrow-decider/issues |
| - Discussions: https://github.com/sparrow-decider/sparrow-decider/discussions |
|
|
| ## Citation |
|
|
| ```bibtex |
| @software{sparrow_decider, |
| author = {Raja P S, Vivek}, |
| title = {Sparrow Decider: decision models from 47 MB down to a few KB}, |
| year = {2026}, |
| version = {0.2.0}, |
| url = {https://github.com/sparrow-decider/sparrow-decider} |
| } |
| ``` |
|
|
