Implementation:Axolotl ai cloud Axolotl CI Test Workflow

Knowledge Sources	Axolotl
Domains	CI_CD, Testing
Last Updated	2026-02-07 00:00 GMT

Overview

GitHub Actions workflow that orchestrates the full Axolotl continuous integration test suite across multiple Python and PyTorch version matrices.

Description

The tests.yml workflow is the primary CI pipeline for the Axolotl project. It runs on push to main, pull requests, and merge queue events. The workflow contains multiple job stages: pre-commit linting, unit tests (pytest) across a Python (3.11, 3.12) and PyTorch (2.8.0, 2.9.0, 2.9.1) matrix, source distribution testing, a gated end-to-end GPU test pipeline using Modal for self-hosted runners, and a cleanup stage. It implements concurrency controls to cancel superseded runs, caches HuggingFace model artifacts from S3, and uploads coverage to Codecov.

Usage

This workflow triggers automatically on pushes to main, pull requests modifying Python files, requirements, or workflow definitions, and manual dispatch. Contributors do not invoke it directly; it runs as part of the GitHub Actions CI system. The [skip-e2e] token in commit messages or PR titles/bodies skips the GPU-based end-to-end tests.

Code Reference

Source Location

Repository: Axolotl
File: .github/workflows/tests.yml
Lines: 1-401

Signature

name: Tests
on:
  merge_group:
  push:
    branches: ["main"]
    paths: ['**.py', 'requirements.txt', '.github/workflows/*.yml', ...]
  pull_request:
    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, ready_for_review]
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  pre-commit:     # Lint checks
  pytest:         # Unit tests (matrix: python x pytorch)
  pytest-sdist:   # Tests from source distribution
  gate-skip-e2e:  # Check for [skip-e2e] token
  docker-e2e-tests-1st:  # Initial GPU e2e gate
  docker-e2e-tests:      # Full GPU e2e matrix
  docker-e2e-cleanup:    # Cache cleanup

Import

# Triggered automatically by GitHub Actions. Not imported.
# Manual trigger: gh workflow run tests.yml

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
push event	GitHub webhook	No	Triggers on push to main with matching path filters
pull_request event	GitHub webhook	No	Triggers on PR open/sync/reopen/ready
workflow_dispatch	Manual	No	Allows manual triggering from GitHub UI

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
Test results	GitHub check status	Pass/fail for each matrix combination
coverage.xml	Codecov upload	Code coverage report uploaded per matrix entry

Usage Examples

Skip E2E Tests

# Add [skip-e2e] to commit message to skip GPU tests
git commit -m "fix typo in docs [skip-e2e]"

Manual Trigger

# Trigger workflow manually via GitHub CLI
gh workflow run tests.yml

Related Pages

Page Connections

Double-click a node to navigate. Hold to expand connections.

Principle

Implementation

Heuristic

Environment