Patched Jinja template for Qwen 3.5 27B - fixes developer role crash + preserves thinking mode (thinking = 1). Drop-in replacement for agent tools (OpenCode, Claude Code, Continue, Cursor, Aider). Without this patch, --chat-template chatml silently kills thinking mode.

qwen3.5_chat_template.jinja

{%- set image_count = namespace(value=0) %}
{%- set video_count = namespace(value=0) %}
{%- macro render_content(content, do_vision_count, is_system_content=false) %}
    {%- if content is string %}
        {{- content }}
    {%- elif content is iterable and content is not mapping %}
        {%- for item in content %}
            {%- if 'image' in item or 'image_url' in item or item.type == 'image' %}
                {%- if is_system_content %}
                    {{- raise_exception('System message cannot contain images.') }}
                {%- endif %}
                {%- if do_vision_count %}
                    {%- set image_count.value = image_count.value + 1 %}
                {%- endif %}
                {%- if add_vision_id %}
                    {{- 'Picture ' ~ image_count.value ~ ': ' }}
                {%- endif %}
                {{- '<|vision_start|><|image_pad|><|vision_end|>' }}
            {%- elif 'video' in item or item.type == 'video' %}
                {%- if is_system_content %}
                    {{- raise_exception('System message cannot contain videos.') }}
                {%- endif %}
                {%- if do_vision_count %}
                    {%- set video_count.value = video_count.value + 1 %}
                {%- endif %}
                {%- if add_vision_id %}
                    {{- 'Video ' ~ video_count.value ~ ': ' }}
                {%- endif %}
                {{- '<|vision_start|><|video_pad|><|vision_end|>' }}
            {%- elif 'text' in item %}
                {{- item.text }}
            {%- else %}
                {{- raise_exception('Unexpected item type in content.') }}
            {%- endif %}
        {%- endfor %}
    {%- elif content is none or content is undefined %}
        {{- '' }}
    {%- else %}
        {{- raise_exception('Unexpected content type.') }}
    {%- endif %}
{%- endmacro %}
{%- if not messages %}
    {{- raise_exception('No messages provided.') }}
{%- endif %}
{%- if tools and tools is iterable and tools is not mapping %}
    {{- '<|im_start|>system\n' }}
    {{- "# Tools\n\nYou have access to the following functions:\n\n<tools>" }}
    {%- for tool in tools %}
        {{- "\n" }}
        {{- tool | tojson }}
    {%- endfor %}
    {{- "\n</tools>" }}
    {{- '\n\nIf you choose to call a function ONLY reply in the following format with NO suffix:\n\n<tool_call>\n<function=example_function_name>\n<parameter=example_parameter_1>\nvalue_1\n</parameter>\n<parameter=example_parameter_2>\nThis is the value for the second parameter\nthat can span\nmultiple lines\n</parameter>\n</function>\n</tool_call>\n\n<IMPORTANT>\nReminder:\n- Function calls MUST follow the specified format: an inner <function=...></function> block must be nested within <tool_call></tool_call> XML tags\n- Required parameters MUST be specified\n- You may provide optional reasoning for your function call in natural language BEFORE the function call, but NOT after\n- If there is no function call available, answer the question like normal with your current knowledge and do not tell the user about function calls\n</IMPORTANT>' }}
    {%- if messages[0].role == 'system' %}
        {%- set content = render_content(messages[0].content, false, true)|trim %}
        {%- if content %}
            {{- '\n\n' + content }}
        {%- endif %}
    {%- endif %}
    {{- '<|im_end|>\n' }}
{%- else %}
    {%- if messages[0].role == 'system' or messages[0].role == 'developer' %}
        {%- set content = render_content(messages[0].content, false, true)|trim %}
        {{- '<|im_start|>system\n' + content + '<|im_end|>\n' }}
    {%- endif %}
{%- endif %}
{%- set ns = namespace(multi_step_tool=true, last_query_index=messages|length - 1) %}
{%- for message in messages[::-1] %}
    {%- set index = (messages|length - 1) - loop.index0 %}
    {%- if ns.multi_step_tool and message.role == "user" %}
        {%- set content = render_content(message.content, false)|trim %}
        {%- if not(content.startswith('<tool_response>') and content.endswith('</tool_response>')) %}
            {%- set ns.multi_step_tool = false %}
            {%- set ns.last_query_index = index %}
        {%- endif %}
    {%- endif %}
{%- endfor %}
{%- if ns.multi_step_tool %}
    {{- raise_exception('No user query found in messages.') }}
{%- endif %}
{%- for message in messages %}
    {%- set content = render_content(message.content, true)|trim %}
    {%- if message.role == "system" or message.role == "developer" %}
        {%- if not loop.first %}
            {{- '<|im_start|>user\n' + content + '<|im_end|>\n' }}
        {%- endif %}
    {%- elif message.role == "user" %}
        {{- '<|im_start|>' + message.role + '\n' + content + '<|im_end|>' + '\n' }}
    {%- elif message.role == "assistant" %}
        {%- set reasoning_content = '' %}
        {%- if message.reasoning_content is string %}
            {%- set reasoning_content = message.reasoning_content %}
        {%- else %}
            {%- if '</think>' in content %}
                {%- set reasoning_content = content.split('</think>')[0].rstrip('\n').split('<think>')[-1].lstrip('\n') %}
                {%- set content = content.split('</think>')[-1].lstrip('\n') %}
            {%- endif %}
        {%- endif %}
        {%- set reasoning_content = reasoning_content|trim %}
        {%- if loop.index0 > ns.last_query_index %}
            {{- '<|im_start|>' + message.role + '\n<think>\n' + reasoning_content + '\n</think>\n\n' + content }}
        {%- else %}
            {{- '<|im_start|>' + message.role + '\n' + content }}
        {%- endif %}
        {%- if message.tool_calls and message.tool_calls is iterable and message.tool_calls is not mapping %}
            {%- for tool_call in message.tool_calls %}
                {%- if tool_call.function is defined %}
                    {%- set tool_call = tool_call.function %}
                {%- endif %}
                {%- if loop.first %}
                    {%- if content|trim %}
                        {{- '\n\n<tool_call>\n<function=' + tool_call.name + '>\n' }}
                    {%- else %}
                        {{- '<tool_call>\n<function=' + tool_call.name + '>\n' }}
                    {%- endif %}
                {%- else %}
                    {{- '\n<tool_call>\n<function=' + tool_call.name + '>\n' }}
                {%- endif %}
                {%- if tool_call.arguments is mapping %}
                    {%- for args_name in tool_call.arguments %}
                        {%- set args_value = tool_call.arguments[args_name] %}
                        {{- '<parameter=' + args_name + '>\n' }}
                        {%- set args_value = args_value | tojson | safe if args_value is mapping or (args_value is sequence and args_value is not string) else args_value | string %}
                        {{- args_value }}
                        {{- '\n</parameter>\n' }}
                    {%- endfor %}
                {%- endif %}
                {{- '</function>\n</tool_call>' }}
            {%- endfor %}
        {%- endif %}
        {{- '<|im_end|>\n' }}
    {%- elif message.role == "tool" %}
        {%- if loop.previtem and loop.previtem.role != "tool" %}
            {{- '<|im_start|>user' }}
        {%- endif %}
        {{- '\n<tool_response>\n' }}
        {{- content }}
        {{- '\n</tool_response>' }}
        {%- if not loop.last and loop.nextitem.role != "tool" %}
            {{- '<|im_end|>\n' }}
        {%- elif loop.last %}
            {{- '<|im_end|>\n' }}
        {%- endif %}
    {%- else %}
        {{- '<|im_start|>user\n' + content + '<|im_end|>\n' }}
    {%- endif %}
{%- endfor %}
{%- if add_generation_prompt %}
    {{- '<|im_start|>assistant\n' }}
    {%- if enable_thinking is defined and enable_thinking is false %}
        {{- '<think>\n\n</think>\n\n' }}
    {%- else %}
        {{- '<think>\n' }}
    {%- endif %}
{%- endif %}

---

Usage

Drop this file next to your model and run:

llama-server -m Qwen3.5-27B-Q4_K_M.gguf -ngl 99 -c 262144 -np 1 -fa on --cache-type-k q4_0
--cache-type-v q4_0 --chat-template-file qwen3.5_chat_template.jinja

What this fixes: Qwen 3.5 GGUF templates reject the developer role sent by OpenCode, Claude Code, and
other modern agent tools. The common workaround (--chat-template chatml) silently kills thinking mode
(thinking = 0). This template handles all roles and preserves full thinking (thinking = 1).

Note: Not needed for Qwopus (Claude Opus distilled version) which uses Hermes 2 Pro template natively.

---

Thanks a lot for this, I'm using it on 9B Q4_K_M with an RTX 5080 and the results are pretty good too!

Thanks a lot for this, I'm using it on 9B Q4_K_M with an RTX 5080 and the results are pretty good too!

thanks for confirming! what tok/s are you seeing on the 5080? curious how it compares to 3090 numbers.

thanks for confirming! what tok/s are you seeing on the 5080? curious how it compares to 3090 numbers.

with the following llama-server command:

./llama-server -hf Jackrong/Qwen3.5-9B-Claude-4.6-Opus-Reasoning-Distilled-GGUF:Q8_0 -ngl 99 -c 262144 -np 1 -fa on --cache-type-k q8_0 --cache-type-v q8_0 --chat-template-file qwen3.5_chat_template.jinja --port 8001 --host 0.0.0.0

I get a rather stable 80 tps, the client is a smolClaw/picoclaw microvm