03-fine-tuning/axolotl/SKILL.md
Expert guidance for fine-tuning LLMs with Axolotl - YAML configs, 100+ models, LoRA/QLoRA, DPO/KTO/ORPO/GRPO, multimodal support
npx skillsauth add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs axolotlInstall this skill globally with one command. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf.
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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:
development
Performs ARA Seal Level 2 semantic epistemic review on Agent-Native Research Artifacts, scoring six dimensions (evidence relevance, falsifiability, scope calibration, argument coherence, exploration integrity, methodological rigor) and producing a constructive, severity-ranked report with a Strong Accept-to-Reject recommendation. Use after Level 1 structural validation passes, when an ARA needs an objective epistemic critique before publication or release.
testing
Records research provenance as a post-task epilogue, scanning conversation history at the end of a coding or research session to extract decisions, experiments, dead ends, claims, heuristics, and pivots, and writing them into the ara/ directory with user-vs-AI provenance tags. Use as a session epilogue — never during execution — to maintain a faithful, auditable trace of how a research project actually evolved.
development
Compiles any research input — PDF papers, GitHub repositories, experiment logs, code directories, or raw notes — into a complete Agent-Native Research Artifact (ARA) with cognitive layer (claims, concepts, heuristics), physical layer (configs, code stubs), exploration graph, and grounded evidence. Use when ingesting a paper or codebase into a structured, machine-executable knowledge package, building an ARA from scratch, or converting research outputs into a falsifiable, agent-traversable form.
testing
Comprehensive guide for writing systems papers targeting OSDI, SOSP, ASPLOS, NSDI, and EuroSys. Provides paragraph-level structural blueprints, writing patterns, venue-specific checklists, reviewer guidelines, LaTeX templates, and conference deadlines. Use this skill for all systems conference paper writing.