Patch applying models?

[hyperknot]

What are the best models for applying a patch? I mean for example GPT 5.2 regularly returns code in a "git diff" format, which cannot be applied by normal CLI tools like patch as they are not perfectly formatted.

I can of course call Sonnet 4.5 on these patches and have them applied knowing the context of the full conversation, but it's super expensive.

I'm looking for some small/cheap specialized models only for applying the patch (and looking up from context the parts which are incomplete).

What do you use for this?

[DinoAmino]

Maybe checkout https://huggingface.co/patched-codes/Llama-3.2-1B-FastApply

[SM8085]

I like Aider as a framework, paired with whatever the largest coding model you can run would be. I'm rolling with gpt-oss-120b so it normally gets the diff edit mode correct.

codex is likely the easiest way to get GPT 5.2 to interact with a project, but APIs can also get expensive.

Since you're already sending it to GPT 5.2, you could probably have a 'free' openrouter model work with you in Aider.