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CLI / WebUI

Overview

CLI (Command Line Interface) provides terminal-based interaction with the program, enabling efficient and flexible execution of model training, inference, and evaluation tasks through parameterized configurations.

WebUI (Web User Interface) offers a browser-based visual interface that allows users to perform model training, chatting, and deployment without coding or complex commands, making it ideal for non-technical users and rapid prototyping.

Features

This document details the usage of CLI tools and WebUI in the ERNIE model toolkit, covering core functionalities:

  • 📈 Model Fine-tuning: SFT/LoRA/DPO fine-tuning with built-in/custom datasets
  • 🗣️ Chat Interaction: Load models for multi-turn conversation testing
  • 📊 Performance Evaluation: Validate models on built-in/custom datasets
  • 📁 Model Export: Convert trained models to deployable formats

Whether you're a developer seeking script-based customization or prefer graphical interfaces for quick experimentation, both approaches are supported.

Quick Start

Installation

Run in the erniekit root directory:

python -m pip install -e .

Verify installation:

erniekit help

Expected output:

------------------------------------------------------------
| Usage:                                                     |
|   erniekit train -h: model finetuning                      |
|   erniekit export -h: model export                         |
|   erniekit split -h: model split                           |
|   erniekit eval -h: model evaluation                       |
|   erniekit server -h: model deployment                     |
|   erniekit chat -h: launch a chat interface in CLI         |
|   erniekit webui -h: launch webui                          |
|   erniekit version: show version info                      |
|   erniekit help: show helping info                         |
------------------------------------------------------------

GPU Configuration

By default, all available gpus are used in CLI/WebUI. If you wan to specify certain gpus, please set CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES before running CLI/WebUI:

# Single GPU
export CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0
# Multi GPUs
export CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7

# Single XPU
export XPU_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0
# Multi XPUs
export XPU_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7

# Single NPU
export ASCEND_RT_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0
# Multi NPUs
export ASCEND_RT_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
  • Note: In Chat module, the number of gpus configured by CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES should be equal to tensor_parallel_degree in the config. Alternatively, you can also unset CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES.

1. CLI Usage

Examples using ERNIE-4.5-0.3B model:

1.1. Chat

# download model from huggingface
huggingface-cli download baidu/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-Paddle --local-dir baidu/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-Paddle
# Load model and start service
erniekit server examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/run_chat.yaml
# Launch CLI chat interface
erniekit chat examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/run_chat.yaml
  • Note: the command-line dialogue for VL-model only supports pure text input.

1.2. Model Fine-tuning

1.2.1. SFT & LoRA Fine-tuning

# download model from huggingface
huggingface-cli download baidu/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-Paddle --local-dir baidu/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-Paddle
# Example 1: 8K seq length, SFT
erniekit train examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/sft/run_sft_8k.yaml
# Example 2: 32K seq length, SFT
erniekit train examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/sft/run_sft_32k.yaml
# Example 3: 8K seq length, SFT-LoRA
erniekit train examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/sft/run_sft_lora_8k.yaml
# Example 4: 32K seq length, SFT-LoRA
erniekit train examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/sft/run_sft_lora_32k.yaml

1.2.2. DPO & LoRA Fine-tuning

# download model from huggingface
huggingface-cli download baidu/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-Paddle --local-dir baidu/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-Paddle
# Example 1: 8K seq length, DPO
erniekit train examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/dpo/run_dpo_8k.yaml
# Example 2: 32K seq length, DPO
erniekit train examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/dpo/run_dpo_32k.yaml
# Example 3: 8K seq length, DPO-LoRA
erniekit train examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/dpo/run_dpo_lora_8k.yaml
# Example 4: 32K seq length, DPO-LoRA
erniekit train examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/dpo/run_dpo_lora_32k.yaml

1.3. Model Evaluation

erniekit eval examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/run_eval.yaml

1.4. Model Export

erniekit export examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B/run_export.yaml

1.5. Multi-Node Training

NNODES={num_nodes} MASTER_ADDR={your_master_addr} MASTER_PORT={your_master_port} CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 erniekit train examples/configs/ERNIE-4.5-300B-A47B/sft/run_sft_lora_8k.yaml

2. WebUI Examples

Launch WebUI:

erniekit webui
# Specify port: GRADIO_SERVER_PORT=8080 erniekit webui

WebUI contains five modules: Basic Info, Training, Chat, Evaluation, and Export.

2.1. Basic Info

2.1.1 Model

Default model name is Customization. Custom models support local paths (relative/absolute).

If using a multimodal model, you need to select Customization_VL.

2.1.2 Export Directory

If empty, training will auto-generate paths like ./output/ERNIE-4.5-0.3B_SFT_LoRA_2025_06_29_12_03_36. Evaluation/chat/export default to ./output.

2.1.3 Available GPUs

Displays GPU count (read-only).

2.1.4 Training Method

WebUI Param Variable Description
Fine-tuning fine_tuning LoRA or Full-parameter
Compute Type compute_type bf16, fp16, fp8 (NVIDIA H-series only), wint8, wint4/8
AMP Master Grad amp_master_grad For AMP O2, uses fp32 weight gradients (default: keep unchanged)
Disable CKPT Quant disable_ckpt_quant Disables weight quantization
LoRA Rank lora_rank LoRA rank dimension
LoRA Alpha lora_alpha LoRA scaling factor
LoRA+ Scale lora_plus_scale LoRA B scale in LoRA+
RSLoRA rslora Enable RSLoRA

2.1.5 Distributed Parameters

WebUI Param Variable Description
Tensor Parallel tensor_parallel_degree Tensor parallelism degree
Pipeline Parallel pipeline_parallel_degree Pipeline parallelism degree
Sharding Parallel sharding_parallel_degree Sharding parallelism degree
Pipeline Config pipeline_parallel_config Recommended: "disable_partial_send_recv enable_clear_every_step_cache enable_delay_scale_loss enable_overlap_p2p_comm best_unbalanced_scheduler"
PP Seg Method pp_seg_method Pipeline layer segmentation
Sharding sharding Sharding stage: stage1 (optimizer), stage2 (gradients), stage3 (model)
Use SP Callback use_sp_callback Skips redundant gradient calculations
MoE Group moe_group MoE communication group ("mp" or "dummy")

Basic Info

2.2. Training Module

Default SFT/DPO configurations for ERNIE-4.5-0.3B-Paddle are provided under "Switch SFT/DPO Presets".

After setting dataset paths/probabilities, click "Preview Dataset" for visualization. Click "Preview" to show configurations, "Start" to begin training, and "Stop" to interrupt.

2.2.1 Data Parameters

WebUI Param Variable Description
Max Sequence Length max_seq_len Token limit (adjust lower with larger GBS to avoid OOM)
Max Prompt Length max_prompt_len For DPO (max: max_seq_len-10)
Virtual Epoch Size num_samples_each_epoch Recommended default
Recompute recompute Gradient checkpointing to save memory
Training Epochs num_train_epochs Overridden by max_steps if both set
Max Steps max_steps Total training steps
Batch Size batch_size Micro batch size
Gradient Accumulation gradient_accumulation_steps Steps for gradient accumulation

2.2.2 Training Dataset

Choose built-in (demo/HuggingFace) or custom datasets (mixed by probability):

WebUI Param Variable Description
Dataset Path train_dataset_path Training dataset path
Dataset Probability train_dataset_prob Sampling probability
Data Type train_dataset_type Supported: erniekit, alpaca
  • Note: Multimodal models can additionally be configured with text-only datasets, allowing for mixed training with both multimodal and text-only data. You can adjust the data ratio through a sliding window interface.

2.2.3 Evaluation Dataset

Same options as training dataset:

WebUI Param Variable Description
Dataset Path eval_dataset_path Evaluation dataset path
Dataset Probability eval_dataset_prob Sampling probability
Data Type eval_dataset_type Supported: erniekit, alpaca

2.2.4 Dataloader

WebUI Param Variable Description
Workers dataloader_num_workers Subprocess count (0 to disable)
Distributed distributed_dataloader Saves memory for large datasets

2.2.5 Optimizer

WebUI Param Variable Description
LR Scheduler lr_scheduler_type linear/cosine/polynomial/constant/constant_with_warmup
Learning Rate learning_rate Suggested: 3e-5 (SFT), 1e-6 (DPO), 3e-4 (SFT-LoRA), 1e-5 (DPO-LoRA)
Min LR min_lr For cosine scheduler only
Layerwise Decay layerwise_lr_decay_bound (0, 1], 1=no decay
Warmup Steps warmup_steps Typically 1-10% of max_steps
Optimizer optim Default: adamw
Offload Optim offload_optim Offload to CPU
Release Grads release_grads Reduces peak memory (recommended: True)
Loss Scaling scale_loss For float16 training
Weight Decay weight_decay AdamW parameter
Adam Epsilon adam_epsilon AdamW parameter
Adam Beta1 adam_beta1 AdamW parameter
Adam Beta2 adam_beta2 AdamW parameter

2.2.6 Output

WebUI Param Variable Description
Logging Steps logging_steps Log interval
Eval Steps eval_steps Evaluation interval
Eval Strategy evaluation_strategy "steps" enables periodic evaluation
Save Steps save_steps Checkpoint interval (when save_strategy=="steps")
Save Strategy save_strategy Checkpoint saving method
Save Limit save_total_limit Max checkpoints to keep

Training Module

2.3. Chat Module

Load models from Basic Info section. Click "Verify Model Loading" to check status, and "Unload" to release models.

*Note: Full-parameter checkpoints in output_dir take priority for deployment.

After successful loading: - Enter prompts in the input box - Set roles/system prompts - 【VL model】 Select "Enable VL Thought Mode" to enable thinking mode - 【VL model】 You can drag and drop to upload images or videos, or click to upload, or enter a URL - Click "Submit" to start chatting - View history in "Chat History" - "Clear" resets conversation - "Stop" interrupts generation

WebUI Param Variable Description
Max Length max_model_len Input+output token limit
Port port Service port
Max New Tokens max_new_tokens Generation limit
Top-p top_p Nucleus sampling (higher=more diverse)
Temperature temperature Controls randomness (higher=more creative)

Chat Module

2.4. Evaluation Module

Select model in Basic Info (latest checkpoint in export dir used by default).

Choose evaluation dataset (built-in/custom). Click "Preview Eval Dataset" for visualization.

"Preview Command" shows configurations. "Start" begins evaluation, "Stop" interrupts.

WebUI Param Variable Description
Dataset Path eval_dataset_path Evaluation dataset path
Dataset Probability eval_dataset_prob Sampling probability
Data Type eval_dataset_type Supported: erniekit, alpaca

Evaluation Module

2.5. Export Module

Two functions: 1. LoRA weight merging 2. Model weight splitting (safetensors format only)

LoRA Merging Set export directory to training output dir. Click "Start Merge LoRA Weights" to merge into original model (saved in export_dir/export).

Weight Splitting For large safetensors files, click "Start Split Model" to split weights (saved in export_dir/split_export).

WebUI Param Variable Description
Max Shard Size (GB) max_shard_size Split file size limit

Export Module