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Simon Willison releases llm-echo 0.5a0 for testing LLM tools

Simon Willison has released version 0.5a0 of llm-echo, a plugin for the LLM tool that provides a "fake" model for testing purposes. This new version allows users to test against LLM versions 0.32a0 and higher, and it outputs a reasoning block to standard error before returning JSON that echoes the prompt. This update follows Willison's recent release of LLM version 0.31 and his exploration of new features in pip 26.1, such as lockfiles and dependency cooldowns. AI

IMPACT Improves developer tooling for testing LLM integrations, potentially speeding up development cycles.

RANK_REASON This is a release of a plugin for an existing tool, not a new core model or significant industry development.

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AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 3 sources. How we write summaries →

Simon Willison releases llm-echo 0.5a0 for testing LLM tools

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This is a release of a plugin for an existing tool, not a new core model or significant industry development.
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COVERAGE [3]

  1. Simon Willison TIER_1 (CY) ·

    llm-echo 0.5a0

    <p><strong>Release:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/simonw/llm-echo/releases/tag/0.5a0">llm-echo 0.5a0</a></p> <blockquote> <ul> <li>New <code>-o thinking 1</code> option to help test against <a href="https://llm.datasette.io/en/latest/changelog.html#a0-2026-04-28">LLM 0.32a…

  2. Simon Willison TIER_1 English(EN) ·

    What's new in pip 26.1 - lockfiles and dependency cooldowns!

    <p><strong><a href="https://ichard26.github.io/blog/2026/04/whats-new-in-pip-26.1/">What&#x27;s new in pip 26.1 - lockfiles and dependency cooldowns!</a></strong></p> Richard Si describes an excellent set of upgrades to Python's default <code>pip</code> tool for installing depend…

  3. Mastodon — mastodon.social TIER_1 English(EN) · [email protected] ·

    llm-echo 0.5a0 https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/5/llm-echo/#atom-everything # AI # OpenSource # Python

    llm-echo 0.5a0 https://simonwillison.net/2026/May/5/llm-echo/#atom-everything # AI # OpenSource # Python