---
title: "RLHF (Beta)"
description: "Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback is a method whereby a language model is optimized from data using human feedback."
back-to-top-navigation: true
toc: true
toc-depth: 3
---

# Overview

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback is a method whereby a language model is optimized from data using human
feedback. Various methods include, but not limited to:

- Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) (not yet supported in axolotl)
- [Direct Preference Optimization (DPO)](#dpo)
- [Identity Preference Optimization (IPO)](#ipo)
- [Kahneman-Tversky Optimization (KTO)](#kto)
- [Odds Ratio Preference Optimization (ORPO)](#orpo)


# RLHF using Axolotl

::: {.callout-important}
This is a BETA feature and many features are not fully implemented. You are encouraged to open new PRs to improve the integration and functionality.
:::

We rely on the [TRL](https://github.com/huggingface/trl) library for implementations of various RL training methods, which we wrap around to expose in axolotl. Each method has their own supported ways of loading datasets and prompt formats.

::: {.callout-tip}
You can find what each method supports by going into `src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/{method}` where `{method}` is one of our supported methods. The `type: ` can be retrieved from `{method}.{function_name}`.
:::

## DPO

Example config:

```yaml
rl: dpo
datasets:
  - path: Intel/orca_dpo_pairs
    split: train
    type: chatml.intel
  - path: argilla/ultrafeedback-binarized-preferences
    split: train
    type: chatml
```

DPO supports the following types with the following dataset format:

### chatml.argilla

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "instruction": "...",
    "chosen_response": "...",
    "rejected_response": "..."
}
```

### chatml.argilla_chat

```json
{
    "chosen": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ],
    "rejected": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ]
}
```

### chatml.icr

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "input": "...",
    "chosen": "...",
    "rejected": "..."
}
```

### chatml.intel

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "question": "...",
    "chosen": "...",
    "rejected": "..."
}
```

### chatml.prompt_pairs

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "prompt": "...",
    "chosen": "...",
    "rejected": "..."
}
```

### chatml.ultra

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "prompt": "...",
    "chosen": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ],
    "rejected": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ]
}
```

### llama3.argilla

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "instruction": "...",
    "chosen_response": "...",
    "rejected_response": "..."
}
```

### llama3.argilla_chat

```json
{
    "chosen": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ],
    "rejected": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ]
}
```

### llama3.icr

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "input": "...",
    "chosen": "...",
    "rejected": "..."
}
```

### llama3.intel

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "question": "...",
    "chosen": "...",
    "rejected": "..."
}
```

### llama3.prompt_pairs

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "prompt": "...",
    "chosen": "...",
    "rejected": "..."
}
```

### llama3.ultra

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "prompt": "...",
    "chosen": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ],
    "rejected": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ]
}
```

### zephyr.nectar

```json
{
    "prompt": "...",
    "answers": [
        {
            "answer": "...",
            "rank": 1
        },
        {
            "answer": "...",
            "rank": 2
        }
        // ... more answers with ranks
    ]
}
```

### chat_template.default

```yaml
rl: dpo
datasets:
  - path: ...
    split: train
    type: chat_template.default
    field_messages: "messages"
    field_chosen: "chosen"
    field_rejected: "rejected"
    message_property_mappings:
      role: role
      content: content
    roles:
      user: ["user"]
      assistant: ["assistant"]
      system: ["system"]
```

Sample input format:

```json
{
    "messages": [
        {
            "role": "system",
            "content": "..."
        },
        {
            "role": "user",
            "content": "..."
        },
        // ... more messages
    ],
    "chosen": {
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": "..."
    },
    "rejected": {
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": "..."
    }
}
```

### user_defined.default

For custom behaviors,

```yaml
rl: dpo
datasets:
  - path: ...
    split: train
    type: user_defined.default

    field_prompt: "prompt"
    field_system: "system"
    field_chosen: "chosen"
    field_rejected: "rejected"
    prompt_format: "{prompt}"
    chosen_format: "{chosen}"
    rejected_format: "{rejected}"
```

The input format is a simple JSON input with customizable fields based on the above config.

```json
{
    "system": "...",  // optional
    "prompt": "...",
    "chosen": "...",
    "rejected": "..."
}
```

## IPO

As IPO is just DPO with a different loss function, all supported options for DPO works here.

```yaml
rl: ipo
```

## ORPO

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.07691

```yaml
rl: orpo
orpo_alpha: 0.1
remove_unused_columns: false

chat_template: chatml
datasets:
  - path: argilla/ultrafeedback-binarized-preferences-cleaned
    type: chat_template.argilla
```

ORPO supports the following types with the following dataset format:

### chat_template.argilla

```json
{
    "system": "...",  // optional
    "prompt": "...",  // if available, will be taken as user message for single-turn instead of from list below

    // chosen/rejected should be same till last content and only even-number of alternating user/assistant turns
    "chosen": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ],
    "rejected": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ]
}
```

## KTO

```yaml
rl: kto
rl_beta: 0.5
kto_desirable_weight: 0.2

remove_unused_columns: false

datasets:
  - path: argilla/ultrafeedback-binarized-preferences-cleaned-kto
    type: llama3.ultra
    split: train

gradient_checkpointing: true
gradient_checkpointing_kwargs:
  use_reentrant: true
```

KTO supports the following types with the following dataset format:

### chatml.argilla

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "instruction": "...",
    "completion": "..."
}
```

### chatml.argilla_chat

```json
{
    "chosen": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."}
    ],
    "completion": [
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ]
}
```

### chatml.intel

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "question": "...",
    "completion": "..."
}
```

### chatml.prompt_pairs

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "prompt": "...",
    "completion": "..."
}
```

### chatml.ultra

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "prompt": "...",
    "completion": "..."
}
```

### llama3.argilla

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "instruction": "...",
    "completion": "..."
}
```

### llama3.argilla_chat

```json
{
    "completion": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "..."},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": "..."}
    ]
}
```

### llama3.intel

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "question": "...",
    "completion": "..."
}
```

### llama3.prompt_pairs

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "prompt": "...",
    "completion": "..."
}
```

### llama3.ultra

```json
{
    "system": "...", // optional
    "prompt": "...",
    "completion": "..."
}
```

### user_defined.default

For custom behaviors,

```yaml
rl: kto
datasets:
  - path: ...
    split: train
    type: user_defined.default

    field_prompt: "prompt"
    field_system: "system"
    field_completion: "completion"
    field_label: "label"
    prompt_format: "{prompt}"
    completion_format: "{completion}"
```

The input format is a simple JSON input with customizable fields based on the above config.

```json
{
    "system": "...",  // optional
    "prompt": "...",
    "completion": "...",
    "label": "..."
}
```

## Using local dataset files

```yaml
datasets:
  - ds_type: json
    data_files:
      - orca_rlhf.jsonl
    split: train
    type: chatml.intel
```

## TRL auto-unwrapping for PEFT

TRL supports auto-unwrapping PEFT models for RL training paradigms which rely on a reference model. This significantly reduces memory pressure as an additional refreference model does not need to be loaded, and reference model log-probabilities can be obtained by disabling PEFT adapters. This is enabled by default. To turn it off, pass the following config:

```yaml
# load ref model when adapter training.
rl_adapter_ref_model: true
```