axolotl
Axolotl is a framework for fine-tuning large language models using YAML configuration files. This skill provides expert guidance on configuring and implementing Axolotl's advanced training techniques including LoRA/QLoRA optimization, multiple training algorithms (DPO, KTO, ORPO, GRPO), distributed training with FSDP, and multimodal model support across 100+ model architectures. Use it when setting up LLM fine-tuning pipelines, debugging training configurations, optimizing distributed training performance, or implementing specialized training methods.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates /tmp/axolotl && cp -r /tmp/axolotl/cli-tool/components/skills/ai-research/fine-tuning-axolotl ~/.claude/skills/axolotlSKILL.md
# Axolotl Skill
Comprehensive assistance with axolotl development, generated from official documentation.
## When to Use This Skill
This skill should be triggered when:
- Working with axolotl
- Asking about axolotl features or APIs
- Implementing axolotl solutions
- Debugging axolotl code
- Learning axolotl best practices
## Quick Reference
### Common Patterns
**Pattern 1:** To validate that acceptable data transfer speeds exist for your training job, running NCCL Tests can help pinpoint bottlenecks, for example:
```
./build/all_reduce_perf -b 8 -e 128M -f 2 -g 3
```
**Pattern 2:** Configure your model to use FSDP in the Axolotl yaml. For example:
```
fsdp_version: 2
fsdp_config:
offload_params: true
state_dict_type: FULL_STATE_DICT
auto_wrap_policy: TRANSFORMER_BASED_WRAP
transformer_layer_cls_to_wrap: LlamaDecoderLayer
reshard_after_forward: true
```
**Pattern 3:** The context_parallel_size should be a divisor of the total number of GPUs. For example:
```
context_parallel_size
```
**Pattern 4:** For example: - With 8 GPUs and no sequence parallelism: 8 different batches processed per step - With 8 GPUs and context_parallel_size=4: Only 2 different batches processed per step (each split across 4 GPUs) - If your per-GPU micro_batch_size is 2, the global batch size decreases from 16 to 4
```
context_parallel_size=4
```
**Pattern 5:** Setting save_compressed: true in your configuration enables saving models in a compressed format, which: - Reduces disk space usage by approximately 40% - Maintains compatibility with vLLM for accelerated inference - Maintains compatibility with llmcompressor for further optimization (example: quantization)
```
save_compressed: true
```
**Pattern 6:** Note It is not necessary to place your integration in the integrations folder. It can be in any location, so long as it’s installed in a package in your python env. See this repo for an example: https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/diff-transformer
```
integrations
```
**Pattern 7:** Handle both single-example and batched data. - single example: sample[‘input_ids’] is a list[int] - batched data: sample[‘input_ids’] is a list[list[int]]
```
utils.trainer.drop_long_seq(sample, sequence_len=2048, min_sequence_len=2)
```
### Example Code Patterns
**Example 1** (python):
```python
cli.cloud.modal_.ModalCloud(config, app=None)
```
**Example 2** (python):
```python
cli.cloud.modal_.run_cmd(cmd, run_folder, volumes=None)
```
**Example 3** (python):
```python
core.trainers.base.AxolotlTrainer(
*_args,
bench_data_collator=None,
eval_data_collator=None,
dataset_tags=None,
**kwargs,
)
```
**Example 4** (python):
```python
core.trainers.base.AxolotlTrainer.log(logs, start_time=None)
```
**Example 5** (python):
```python
prompt_strategies.input_output.RawInputOutputPrompter()
```
## Reference Files
This skill includes comprehensive documentation in `references/`:
- **api.md** - Api documentation
- **dataset-formats.md** - Dataset-Formats documentation
- **other.md** - Other documentation
Use `view` to read specific reference files when detailed information is needed.
## Working with This Skill
### For Beginners
Start with the getting_started or tutorials reference files for foundational concepts.
### For Specific Features
Use the appropriate category reference file (api, guides, etc.) for detailed information.
### For Code Examples
The quick reference section above contains common patterns extracted from the official docs.
## Resources
### references/
Organized documentation extracted from official sources. These files contain:
- Detailed explanations
- Code examples with language annotations
- Links to original documentation
- Table of contents for quick navigation
### scripts/
Add helper scripts here for common automation tasks.
### assets/
Add templates, boilerplate, or example projects here.
## Notes
- This skill was automatically generated from official documentation
- Reference files preserve the structure and examples from source docs
- Code examples include language detection for better syntax highlighting
- Quick reference patterns are extracted from common usage examples in the docs
## Updating
To refresh this skill with updated documentation:
1. Re-run the scraper with the same configuration
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