Expert guidance for fine-tuning LLMs with Axolotl - YAML configs, 100+ models, LoRA/QLoRA, DPO/KTO/ORPO/GRPO, multimodal support
npx skills add https://github.com/Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill axolotl
Comprehensive assistance with axolotl development, generated from official documentation.
This skill should be triggered when:
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 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()
This skill includes comprehensive documentation in references/:
Use view to read specific reference files when detailed information is needed.
Start with the getting_started or tutorials reference files for foundational concepts.
Use the appropriate category reference file (api, guides, etc.) for detailed information.
The quick reference section above contains common patterns extracted from the official docs.
Organized documentation extracted from official sources. These files contain:
Add helper scripts here for common automation tasks.
Add templates, boilerplate, or example projects here.
To refresh this skill with updated documentation:
Create new skills, modify and improve existing skills, and measure skill performance. Use when users want to create a skill from scratch, edit, or optimize an existing skill, run evals to test a skill, benchmark skill performance with variance analysis, or optimize a skill's description for better triggering accuracy.
Access NCBI GEO for gene expression/genomics data. Search/download microarray and RNA-seq datasets (GSE, GSM, GPL), retrieve SOFT/Matrix files, for transcriptomics and expression analysis.
Bayesian modeling with PyMC. Build hierarchical models, MCMC (NUTS), variational inference, LOO/WAIC comparison, posterior checks, for probabilistic programming and inference.
Multi-objective optimization framework. NSGA-II, NSGA-III, MOEA/D, Pareto fronts, constraint handling, benchmarks (ZDT, DTLZ), for engineering design and optimization problems.
Statistical modeling toolkit. OLS, GLM, logistic, ARIMA, time series, hypothesis tests, diagnostics, AIC/BIC, for rigorous statistical inference and econometric analysis.
Add unsigned integer (uint) type support to PyTorch operators by updating AT_DISPATCH macros. Use when adding support for uint16, uint32, uint64 types to operators, kernels, or when user mentions enabling unsigned types, barebones unsigned types, or uint support.
Convert PyTorch AT_DISPATCH macros to AT_DISPATCH_V2 format in ATen C++ code. Use when porting AT_DISPATCH_ALL_TYPES_AND*, AT_DISPATCH_FLOATING_TYPES*, or other dispatch macros to the new v2 API. For ATen kernel files, CUDA kernels, and native operator implementations.
Write docstrings for PyTorch functions and methods following PyTorch conventions. Use when writing or updating docstrings in PyTorch code.
Take orchestra-research/axolotl from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.