Environment:Huggingface Alignment handbook Python Transformers
| Knowledge Sources | |
|---|---|
| Domains | NLP, Deep_Learning |
| Last Updated | 2026-02-07 00:00 GMT |
Overview
Python environment with Transformers >= 4.53.3 providing AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer, and Trainer infrastructure for model loading and saving.
Description
The HuggingFace Transformers library provides the core model and tokenizer loading APIs used by the alignment-handbook. The get_tokenizer function wraps AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained and get_model wraps AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained. The library also provides the Trainer base class, checkpoint management, seed setting, and model card creation utilities.
Usage
Use this environment for model and tokenizer loading, checkpoint resumption, and model saving/publishing to the HuggingFace Hub. Required by the Get_Tokenizer and Trainer_Save_And_Push implementations.
System Requirements
| Category | Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Python | >= 3.10.9 | Required by the alignment-handbook package |
| Network | Internet access | For downloading models from HuggingFace Hub |
Dependencies
Python Packages
- `transformers` >= 4.53.3
- `huggingface-hub` >= 0.33.4, < 1.0
- `safetensors` >= 0.5.3
- `sentencepiece` >= 0.2.0
- `protobuf` <= 3.20.2
- `einops` >= 0.8.1
Credentials
- HuggingFace Login: Required for accessing gated models and pushing to the Hub.
Quick Install
# Installed as part of alignment-handbook
uv pip install .
# Or install standalone
pip install transformers>=4.53.3 huggingface-hub>=0.33.4
Code Evidence
Transformers version requirement from `setup.py:68`:
"transformers>=4.53.3",
Transformers imports in `src/alignment/model_utils.py:16`:
from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer, PreTrainedTokenizer
Checkpoint management in `scripts/sft.py:45-46`:
from transformers import set_seed
from transformers.trainer_utils import get_last_checkpoint
Protobuf constraint from `setup.py:61`:
"protobuf<=3.20.2", # Needed to avoid conflicts with `transformers`
Common Errors
| Error Message | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| `OSError: Can't load tokenizer for 'model_name'` | Model not found or access restricted | Run `huggingface-cli login` and ensure you have access to the model |
| `ValueError: Unrecognized configuration class` | Model requires trust_remote_code | Set `trust_remote_code: true` in the recipe config |
| `ImportError: protobuf version conflict` | protobuf version too high | Pin to `protobuf<=3.20.2` as specified in setup.py |
Compatibility Notes
- protobuf: Pinned to <= 3.20.2 to avoid conflicts with transformers. This is documented in setup.py with a comment.
- huggingface-hub: Capped at < 1.0 to avoid breaking API changes.
- sentencepiece: Required for models using SentencePiece tokenizers (e.g., Mistral, Llama).