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 ≥3.10
  • PyTorch ≥2.5.1

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 PyPI Installation (Recommended)

pip3 install -U packaging setuptools wheel ninja
pip3 install --no-build-isolation axolotl[flash-attn,deepspeed]

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.

2.2 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 packaging setuptools wheel
uv pip install torch==2.6.0
uv pip install awscli pydantic

Install axolotl from PyPi

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

# 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,flash-attn,vllm]

2.3 Edge/Development Build

For the latest features between releases:

git clone https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl.git
cd axolotl
pip3 install -U packaging setuptools wheel ninja
pip3 install --no-build-isolation -e '.[flash-attn,deepspeed]'

2.4 Docker

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

For development with Docker:

docker compose up -d
Advanced 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

Use our example notebook.

4 Platform-Specific Instructions

4.1 macOS

pip3 install --no-build-isolation -e '.'

See 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 ≥3.10

  2. Install PyTorch: https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/

  3. Install Axolotl:

    pip3 install -U packaging setuptools wheel ninja
pip3 install --no-build-isolation -e '.[flash-attn,deepspeed]'

  4. (Optional) Login to Hugging Face:

    huggingface-cli login

6 Troubleshooting

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