* upgrade to torchao 0.17.0
* chore: lint
* refactor attention handling
* replace legacy attention boolean flags with capability properties
Replace checks with capability-based properties derived from attn_implementation
This separates three concerns that were conflated under flash_attention:
1. Backend selection -> attn_implementation enum
2. Packing capability -> attn_supports_packing property
3. Flash-attn library dependency -> attn_uses_flash_lib property
* compute attn capability flags in normalizer instead of properties
* make attn_implementation the single source of truth
* move attention-dependent validators to mode=after
* migrate remaining consumers to canonical attn_implementation
* expand attention tests + rewrite docs
* migrate example configs to canonical attn_implementation
* update doc snippets + reject gemma4-hybrid with non-FA2 backend
* remove dead gemma4 branch in _set_attention_config
* fix duplicate attn_implementation in gpt-oss yamls and flaky caplog tests
* drop "Phase 2" naming from attn-implementation tests
* regroup attn_implementation tests by feature concern
* clean up verbose comments and remove MD
Signed-off-by: Wing Lian <wing@axolotl.ai>
Co-authored-by: Axolotl Swarm <no-reply@axolotl.ai>
* fix(collator): pass return_dict=True at apply_chat_template top level for transformers 5.x
In transformers 5.x, ProcessorMixin.apply_chat_template gained its own
`return_dict` parameter (defaulting to False). When return_dict=False
and tokenize=True the method returns out["input_ids"] directly — a 2-D
tensor — rather than the full BatchFeature dict.
The old code placed `return_dict=True` inside processor_kwargs. In
transformers 5.x those kwargs are forwarded to the underlying processor
call self(...) where _merge_kwargs silently ignores any key not present
in MllamaProcessorKwargs (emitting a warning). The outer return_dict
therefore stayed False, apply_chat_template returned the raw input_ids
tensor, and the subsequent `batch["input_ids"]` attempted to index a
2-D tensor with the 9-character string "input_ids", producing:
IndexError: too many indices for tensor of dimension 2
The fix is to pass return_dict=True as a top-level keyword argument to
apply_chat_template (where it is actually consumed) and remove it from
processor_kwargs (where it was silently dropped). No version guard is
needed: transformers is pinned to ==5.5.4 in pyproject.toml.
Adds a unit-level regression test (tests/test_mm_chat_collator.py) that
mocks the processor to return a raw tensor when apply_chat_template is
called without top-level return_dict=True, verifying the four invariants:
process_rows returns a dict, input_ids is 2-D, labels is 2-D, and
apply_chat_template receives return_dict=True as a top-level kwarg.
Fixes: tests/e2e/test_llama_vision.py::TestLlamaVision::test_lora_llama_vision_multimodal_dataset
Fixes: tests/e2e/test_llama_vision.py::TestLlamaVision::test_lora_llama_vision_text_only_dataset
Signed-off-by: Wing Lian <wing@axolotl.ai>
Co-authored-by: Axolotl Swarm <no-reply@axolotl.ai>
* fix(collator): process_rows returns dict (BatchFeature) shape
Two related changes for the multimodal chat collator under transformers 5.x:
1. Wrap apply_chat_template result in dict(...) so process_rows returns
a plain dict rather than a BatchFeature instance. BatchFeature is a
Mapping but not a dict; downstream code that did
batch["labels"] = self.processing_strategy.process_labels(batch["input_ids"])
would index on a tensor when the result wasn't dict-shaped, raising
IndexError: too many indices for tensor of dimension 2
2. Soften the regression test's contract from `dict` to `Mapping` so it
exercises the actual semantic guarantee (key/value access) rather
than the implementation detail (dict vs BatchFeature). Test guards
against the original transformers 5.x breakage where apply_chat_template's
return_dict default went from True to False.
Includes regression test under tests/test_mm_chat_collator.py.
Bug surfaced via swarm dispatch task_01KQHPNAYD8XARSNSDJVW1GPF6 against
attn-implementation-refactor; squash-merged from agent commits 4de886fd
+ dc9fcf4f.
Signed-off-by: Wing Lian <wing@axolotl.ai>
---------
Signed-off-by: Wing Lian <wing@axolotl.ai>
Co-authored-by: Axolotl Swarm <no-reply@axolotl.ai>
* Support loss_type/loss_weights DPO
* Validate dpo loss type/weights only set for dpo
* Tests: Update ipo tests to use new path
* Docs: Update docs for new ipo path
* PR fixes - typo/validation
* PR nit - warning
* chore: fix warnings arg
---------
Co-authored-by: NanoCode012 <nano@axolotl.ai>
* docs: comprehensive documentation improvements for humans and agents
New human docs:
- grpo.qmd: GRPO deep dive (async, rewards, IS correction, scaling)
- ebft.qmd: EBFT guide (structured/strided modes, feature extraction)
- choosing_method.qmd: decision tree for SFT vs LoRA vs DPO vs GRPO
- vllm_serving.qmd: vLLM setup for GRPO (server/colocate, LoRA sync)
- training_stability.qmd: monitoring, NaN debugging, OOM, healthy metrics
New agent docs:
- AGENTS_SFT.md: agent reference for supervised fine-tuning
- AGENTS_DPO.md: agent reference for preference learning (DPO/KTO/ORPO)
Updated existing docs:
- rlhf.qmd: cross-references to new GRPO/EBFT/choosing-method guides
- getting-started.qmd: reorganized Next Steps with links to new guides
- debugging.qmd: link to training stability guide
- _quarto.yml: added new pages to sidebar navigation
Removed:
- bak.agents.md: stale backup that confused agents
* docs: trim duplicated generic config from AGENTS_DPO.md
Remove boilerplate training params (optimizer, gradient_checkpointing,
flash_attention, etc.) from each method template. These are not
preference-learning-specific and are already covered in AGENTS_SFT.md.
Config templates now show only method-specific fields with a reference
to AGENTS_SFT.md for the rest.
* docs: deduplicate across new doc pages
- grpo.qmd: collapse vLLM setup section to brief config + link to
vllm_serving.qmd; collapse IS correction to essentials + link;
replace full monitoring tables with summary + link to
training_stability.qmd
- vllm_serving.qmd: remove duplicated async/IS config reference tables
(already in grpo.qmd config reference); replace full example config
with link to grpo.qmd quick start
- ebft.qmd: trim generic training params in quick start config
* fix: train scripts
* feat: split files into cleaner parts
* fix: cleanup pretraining docs
---------
Co-authored-by: Wing Lian <wing.lian@gmail.com>
