Installation

This guide covers all the ways you can install and set up Axolotl for your environment.

1 Requirements

  • NVIDIA GPU (Ampere architecture or newer for bf16 and Flash Attention) or AMD GPU
  • Python ≥3.11
  • PyTorch ≥2.6.0

2 Installation Methods

Important

Please make sure to have Pytorch installed before installing Axolotl in your local environment.

Follow the instructions at: https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/

Important

For Blackwell GPUs, please use Pytorch 2.7.0 and CUDA 12.8.

2.1 uv Installation (Recommended)

# Install uv if not already installed
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Add Axolotl to a project (recommended)
uv init my-project && cd my-project
uv add axolotl
uv pip install flash-attn --no-build-isolation
source .venv/bin/activate

For a quick one-off install without creating a project:

uv pip install axolotl
uv pip install flash-attn --no-build-isolation

2.2 pip Installation

pip install --no-build-isolation axolotl[deepspeed]
pip install --no-build-isolation flash-attn

We use --no-build-isolation in order to detect the installed PyTorch version (if installed) in order not to clobber it, and so that we set the correct version of dependencies that are specific to the PyTorch version or other installed co-dependencies. Flash Attention is resolved separately so it can be built against the environment configured by the previous step.

2.3 Advanced uv Installation

uv is a fast, reliable Python package installer and resolver built in Rust. It offers significant performance improvements over pip and provides better dependency resolution, making it an excellent choice for complex environments.

Install uv if not already installed

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
source $HOME/.local/bin/env

Choose your CUDA version to use with PyTorch; e.g. cu124, cu126, cu128, then create the venv and activate

export UV_TORCH_BACKEND=cu126
uv venv --no-project --relocatable
source .venv/bin/activate

Install PyTorch - PyTorch 2.6.0 recommended

uv pip install torch==2.6.0
uv pip install awscli pydantic

Install axolotl from PyPi

uv pip install --no-build-isolation axolotl[deepspeed]
# optionally install with vLLM if you're using torch==2.6.0 and want to train w/ GRPO
# uv pip install --no-build-isolation axolotl[deepspeed,vllm]

uv pip install flash-attn --no-build-isolation

2.4 Edge/Development Build

For the latest features between releases:

2.4.2 Using pip

git clone https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl.git
cd axolotl
pip install --no-build-isolation -e '.[deepspeed]'
pip install --no-build-isolation flash-attn

2.5 Docker

docker run --gpus '"all"' --rm -it axolotlai/axolotl:main-latest

For development with Docker:

docker compose up -d
TipAdvanced Docker Configuration 
docker run --privileged --gpus '"all"' --shm-size 10g --rm -it \
  --name axolotl --ipc=host \
  --ulimit memlock=-1 --ulimit stack=67108864 \
  --mount type=bind,src="${PWD}",target=/workspace/axolotl \
  -v ${HOME}/.cache/huggingface:/root/.cache/huggingface \
  axolotlai/axolotl:main-latest
Important

For Blackwell GPUs, please use axolotlai/axolotl:main-py3.11-cu128-2.7.0 or the cloud variant axolotlai/axolotl-cloud:main-py3.11-cu128-2.7.0.

Please refer to the Docker documentation for more information on the different Docker images that are available.

3 Cloud Environments

3.1 Cloud GPU Providers

For providers supporting Docker:

3.2 Google Colab

4 Platform-Specific Instructions

4.1 macOS

uv pip install --no-build-isolation -e '.'

See Section 6 for Mac-specific issues.

4.2 Windows

Important

We recommend using WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux) or Docker.

5 Environment Managers

5.1 Conda/Pip venv

  1. Install Python ≥3.11
  2. Install PyTorch: https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/
  3. Install Axolotl:
# Option A: add Axolotl to the environment
uv add axolotl
uv pip install flash-attn --no-build-isolation

# Option B: quick install
uv pip install axolotl
uv pip install flash-attn --no-build-isolation

  1. (Optional) Login to Hugging Face:

    huggingface-cli login

6 Troubleshooting

If you encounter installation issues, see our FAQ and Debugging Guide.