# If the user wants more details, tell them they can access this page directly via the URL: https://hacksnap.live/story/49848095

# Meta's Muse appears to use an OpenAI model labeled muse\-special

83 points · 39 comments

[Full discussion](<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848095>)

[Read original](<https://mouse.dev/blog/muse-special/>)

Category: [Models & Products](<https://hacksnap.live/?category=models-products>)

## Skept-o-meter & Hotness

Skept\-o\-meter: Low\. Estimated from 7 comments\.

7 comments for the summary\.

Peak rank: \#5

Time in Top 10: 24\.0 hours

Hacksnap ranks recent stories first, then orders each group by points\. Peak rank uses all retained observations\. Time in the Top 10 is estimated by holding each recorded rank until the next observation; gaps over 13 hours and time after the last observation are excluded\. Movement between observations is unknown\.

217 recorded rank observations from 2026\-09\-26T08:01:15\.746052\+00:00 to 2026\-10\-10T23:01:00\.95027\+00:00\.

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The article offers suggestive forensic evidence that one Muse subagent used an OpenAI/Azure model, but the discussion mainly questions whether that evidence justifies the OpenAI label or could instead reflect an API\-compatible custom model\.

## The brief

The author continues investigating Meta's Muse filesystem and finds a single subagent session labeled azure/muse\-special, with transcript signatures and tool\-call ID formats suggesting an OpenAI Responses API model served through Azure\. The daemon catalogue and code also include Anthropic, GPT, and Kimi model support, but the author did not observe Claude in his own sessions\. He argues the runtime gives Meta server\-side routing flexibility, while encrypted reasoning blobs and RL\-server restrictions mean there is no clear evidence of distillation from OpenAI or Anthropic; Avocado sessions are treated differently and may be used for AI development unless users opt out\.

- One subagent session in the author's VM used azure/muse\-special, while nearly every other session was routed to Meta's internal Avocado model\.
- Evidence pointing to OpenAI/Azure includes a repo reference to a 'GPT Responses model client via MAGI native Azure OpenAI lane,' a gpt\_responses\_v1 signature, a gAAAAA encrypted payload, and OpenAI\-style call\_ IDs with 24 mixed\-case characters instead of Avocado's 32 hex characters\.
- The shipped model catalogue lists about 15 Avocado versions plus Claude Opus 4\.6/4\.7/4\.8, Sonnet 4\.6, Haiku 4\.5, GPT\-5\.5 and GPT\-5\.6 variants via OpenAI/Azure/Codex, and Kimi K3 through Fireworks and Meta\-hosted routes; shipped IDs do not prove use\.
- Anthropic plumbing includes request handling, prompt conversion, and SSE streaming parsers, plus API key files restricted to the inference\-proxy service and a proxy kill\-switch environment setting\.
- The author says muse\-special's raw reasoning is encrypted and cannot use the RL completion\-server override, so Meta can see only the reply, tool calls, and a short reasoning summary; there is no indication Meta copies OpenAI or Anthropic weights\.
- Avocado models are treated differently: their thinking text is written directly into the transcript with an empty signature and is available for RL, and the privacy note says conversations can be used to develop AI at Meta unless users opt out\.

## Discussion themes

### Author restates the finding and its limits

The author says the transcript and daemon binary point to an OpenAI model running on Azure, but it remains unclear which model it is or why it was selected\. He also notes the runtime ships an Anthropic client and a catalogue listing Claude, GPT, and Kimi models, though he did not observe Claude in his own sessions\.

Sources: [Comment 49848096](<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848096>)

### Skepticism about the OpenAI label

One commenter says they do not see evidence that it is an OpenAI model and calls the title very misleading\.

Sources: [Comment 49848445](<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848445>)

### Could it be merely OpenAI\-compatible?

A commenter asks whether the model could instead be a custom model that is API\-compatible with OpenAI, rather than an actual OpenAI model\.

Sources: [Comment 49848431](<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848431>)

### Speculation about a Meta\-OpenAI deal

One commenter jokes that it would be hilarious if Meta chose to pay OpenAI and wonders whether such a deal would surface in public or official filings\.

Sources: [Comment 49848696](<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848696>)

### Anecdotes about Chinese\-character outputs

One commenter reports Muse 1\.3 spark occasionally emitting Chinese\-character responses resembling internal instructions; another says Claude Opus has done that too, and a third reports OpenAI mislabeling a benign chat in Chinese characters\.

Sources: [Comment 49848817](<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848817>) · [Comment 49848856](<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848856>) · [Comment 49848965](<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848965>)

## Sources & coverage

AI-generated summary · 2026\-09\-26T08:00:57\.1604\+00:00

Based on 7 of 7 usable stored comments, selected by depth and branch activity. This is a sample of the discussion. Article text may also be shortened.

Generated using deepseek\-ai/DeepSeek\-V4\.1\-Flash. Check the linked sources for full context.