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Axolotl Skill

Free

Expert guidance for fine-tuning LLMs with Axolotl.

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Free · Opens the source repo

What Axolotl Skill does

The Axolotl Skill provides comprehensive assistance for developers and researchers working with Axolotl, a framework designed for fine-tuning large language models (LLMs). This skill is particularly useful for those looking to leverage advanced techniques such as LoRA and QLoRA, which are essential for optimizing model performance while managing computational resources effectively. With a focus on YAML configurations, the skill offers guidance on over 100 models and various methodologies like DPO, KTO, ORPO, and GRPO, making it a versatile tool for anyone involved in LLM development.

Users can access a wealth of information through the skill's structured documentation, which includes quick reference patterns and example code snippets. These resources are derived from official documentation, ensuring that users receive accurate and up-to-date information. The skill also emphasizes best practices for implementing Axolotl solutions, debugging code, and understanding Axolotl features and APIs, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced developers.

The skill's quick reference section highlights common usage patterns, such as configuring model settings for distributed training and optimizing data handling. This allows users to quickly find solutions to common challenges they may face while working with Axolotl. Additionally, the skill provides a clear pathway for users to explore specific features or dive deeper into the documentation for more complex requirements.

Overall, the Axolotl Skill is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to enhance their capabilities in fine-tuning LLMs, offering structured guidance and practical examples to streamline the development process.

When to use it

Use this skill when you are working on fine-tuning LLMs with Axolotl or need help with its features and APIs.

When not to use it

This skill may not be suitable for those looking for general machine learning guidance unrelated to Axolotl or LLMs.

What you can build with it

Fine-Tuning a Model

When you need to fine-tune a large language model using Axolotl, this skill provides the necessary YAML configurations and best practices.

Debugging Code

If you encounter issues while implementing Axolotl solutions, the skill offers guidance on common debugging patterns.

Learning Best Practices

For developers new to Axolotl, the skill serves as a resource for learning best practices and efficient model training techniques.

How to install Axolotl Skill

View source

1. Install with the skills CLI

npx skills add davila7/claude-code-templates/fine-tuning-axolotl --agent claude-code

2. Or install it manually

Download the skill folder and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/ for all projects, or .claude/skills/ to scope it to one repo. Restart Claude Code so it picks up the new skill.

Anthropic's agentic coding CLI, and the reference implementation of Agent Skills. Drop a skill folder into ~/.claude/skills and Claude Code loads it automatically whenever a task matches the skill's description. Claude Code docs

Inside SKILL.md

Written by davila7

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):

cli.cloud.modal_.ModalCloud(config, app=None)

Example 2 (python):

cli.cloud.modal_.run_cmd(cmd, run_folder, volumes=None)

Example 3 (python):

core.trainers.base.AxolotlTrainer(
    *_args,
    bench_data_collator=None,
    eval_data_collator=None,
    dataset_tags=None,
    **kwargs,
)

Example 4 (python):

core.trainers.base.AxolotlTrainer.log(logs, start_time=None)

Example 5 (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
  2. The skill will be rebuilt with the latest information

Frequently asked questions about Axolotl Skill

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