R1-family tool_choice=auto is a documented vLLM architecture conflict --
the model narrates fake tool_calls in <think> instead of emitting real
ones, regardless of parser (deepseek_v3 400s, hermes parses but the model
still doesn't call out). Qwen3's native tool-call format sidesteps this.
No pre-quantized AWQ/GPTQ/bnb checkpoint exists for this specific distill
(only GGUF, llama.cpp/Ollama-only) -- using on-the-fly bitsandbytes
quantization against the full bf16 checkpoint instead.
Story Crater Bot
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