reaperdoesntknow/Shepherd-Alpha

TEXT GENERATIONPricing:Input $0.32 / Cached $0.064 / Output $1.6Concurrent Unit Cost:1Model Size:2BQuant:BF16Context Size:32kTool Calling:SupportedPublished:Apr 8, 2026License:apache-2.0Architecture:Transformer0.0K Open Weights Featherless Exclusive Cold

Shepherd-Alpha is a 2 billion parameter tactical reasoning model developed by Convergent Intelligence LLC, fine-tuned on Qwen3-1.7B. It specializes in dual-perspective military scenario analysis, generating both attack and defense reasoning. This model utilizes a novel BiCell Depth Dispersal training methodology to separate representation encoding from task-specific reasoning, making it the first defense AI reasoning model on Hugging Face.

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Shepherd-Alpha: Tactical AI Reasoning

Shepherd-Alpha is a 2 billion parameter model developed by Convergent Intelligence LLC, designed for dual-perspective tactical scenario analysis. It is the first public model in the Shepherd program, focusing on AI systems for autonomous defense applications. Built on Qwen3-1.7B, it provides structured reasoning for both adversary exploitation (attack) and counter-measures (defense) within military contexts.

Key Capabilities & Differentiators

  • Dual-Perspective Reasoning: Generates both attack and defense strategies for tactical scenarios, anticipating threats by understanding adversarial approaches.
  • BiCell Depth Dispersal: Employs a novel training methodology that partitions transformer layers by abstraction depth, training them asymmetrically. This forces specialization, with lower layers encoding domain structure and upper layers focusing on reasoning.
  • Specialized Domain Adaptation: Training insights revealed that for domain-specific fine-tuning, representation layers (lower layers) are the primary bottleneck, not reasoning layers.
  • Structured Output: Produces clear, structured analysis for tactical situations.

Training Details

The model was fine-tuned on the ZennyKenny/tactical-military-reasoning-v.1.0 dataset, comprising 150 dual-perspective tactical scenarios. The BiCell Depth Dispersal method involves three phases of asymmetric layer freezing and training, accumulating gradients before a single optimizer step.

Limitations

As an alpha release, Shepherd-Alpha has a small training set (150 scenarios), limiting its tactical depth. Users should be aware that the base model's <think> generation pattern might override structured output, and enable_thinking=False is recommended for cleaner results. This model is for analysis and reasoning only, not for controlling or actuating systems.