Running a Coding Agent Fully Offline on a Laptop
A walkthrough demonstrates OpenCode 1.19.4 on a Mac using Qwen3.5 9B served locally by Ollama. After downloading the model, dependencies, and configuration, the author disconnects the internet and has the coding agent read a local file, make a change, and run the original tests successfully. The tutorial recommends focused tasks, explicit test commands, reviewing changes, running tests independently, and monitoring memory pressure. It notes that installing packages and accessing the web still require connectivity, while the example does not establish performance on large repositories or unfamiliar frameworks.
The walkthrough provides practical evidence that a coding agent using a locally hosted open-weight model can modify code and run checks without an internet connection when the model, dependencies, and test tools are already available on the laptop.
When we talk about working remotely, we take a lot of things for granted, especially reliable internet and power. But sometimes, working remotely means trying to get something done on a flight, during a long train ride, or somewhere with little or no network.
I moved to the foothills of the Himalayas a year ago. I love the peace of living here, but it also comes with its own challenges, including network and power outages. Things I didn’t think about as much before are now part of planning my work.
I work as a Principal Engineer at Thomson Reuters, where I spend most of my time coding and reviewing my teammates’ code. Coding agents are already a big part of my everyday workflow, which made me curious about how much of that workflow I could keep using offline.