# Training with Transformers Transformers provides comprehensive training capabilities through the `Trainer` API, supporting distributed training, mixed precision, and advanced optimization techniques. ## Basic Training Workflow ```python from transformers import ( AutoModelForSequenceClassification, AutoTokenizer, Trainer, TrainingArguments ) from datasets import load_dataset # 1. Load and preprocess data dataset = load_dataset("imdb") tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("bert-base-uncased") def tokenize_function(examples): return tokenizer(examples["text"], padding="max_length", truncation=True) tokenized_datasets = dataset.map(tokenize_function, batched=True) # 2. Load model model = AutoModelForSequenceClassification.from_pretrained( "bert-base-uncased", num_labels=2 ) # 3. Define training arguments training_args = TrainingArguments( output_dir="./results", num_train_epochs=3, per_device_train_batch_size=16, per_device_eval_batch_size=64, learning_rate=2e-5, eval_strategy="epoch", save_strategy="epoch", load_best_model_at_end=True, ) # 4. Create trainer trainer = Trainer( model=model, args=training_args, train_dataset=tokenized_datasets["train"], eval_dataset=tokenized_datasets["test"], ) # 5. Train trainer.train() # 6. Evaluate trainer.evaluate() # 7. Save model trainer.save_model("./final_model") ``` ## TrainingArguments Configuration ### Essential Parameters **Output and Logging:** - `output_dir`: Directory for checkpoints and outputs (required) - `logging_dir`: TensorBoard log directory (default: `{output_dir}/runs`) - `logging_steps`: Log every N steps (default: 500) - `logging_strategy`: "steps" or "epoch" **Training Duration:** - `num_train_epochs`: Number of epochs (default: 3.0) - `max_steps`: Max training steps (overrides num_train_epochs if set) **Batch Size and Gradient Accumulation:** - `per_device_train_batch_size`: Batch size per device (default: 8) - `per_device_eval_batch_size`: Eval batch size per device (default: 8) - `gradient_accumulation_steps`: Accumulate gradients over N steps (default: 1) - Effective batch size = `per_device_train_batch_size * gradient_accumulation_steps * num_gpus` **Learning Rate:** - `learning_rate`: Peak learning rate (default: 5e-5) - `lr_scheduler_type`: Scheduler type ("linear", "cosine", "constant", etc.) - `warmup_steps`: Warmup steps (default: 0) - `warmup_ratio`: Warmup as fraction of total steps **Evaluation:** - `eval_strategy`: "no", "steps", or "epoch" (default: "no") - `eval_steps`: Evaluate every N steps (if eval_strategy="steps") - `eval_delay`: Delay evaluation until N steps **Checkpointing:** - `save_strategy`: "no", "steps", or "epoch" (default: "steps") - `save_steps`: Save checkpoint every N steps (default: 500) - `save_total_limit`: Keep only N most recent checkpoints - `load_best_model_at_end`: Load best checkpoint at end (default: False) - `metric_for_best_model`: Metric to determine best model **Optimization:** - `optim`: Optimizer ("adamw_torch", "adamw_hf", "sgd", etc.) - `weight_decay`: Weight decay coefficient (default: 0.0) - `adam_beta1`, `adam_beta2`: Adam optimizer betas - `adam_epsilon`: Epsilon for Adam (default: 1e-8) - `max_grad_norm`: Max gradient norm for clipping (default: 1.0) ### Mixed Precision Training ```python training_args = TrainingArguments( output_dir="./results", fp16=True, # Use fp16 on NVIDIA GPUs fp16_opt_level="O1", # O0, O1, O2, O3 (Apex levels) # or bf16=True, # Use bf16 on Ampere+ GPUs (better than fp16) ) ``` ### Distributed Training **DataParallel (single-node multi-GPU):** ```python # Automatic with multiple GPUs training_args = TrainingArguments( output_dir="./results", per_device_train_batch_size=16, # Per GPU ) # Run: python script.py ``` **DistributedDataParallel (multi-node or multi-GPU):** ```bash # Single node, multiple GPUs python -m torch.distributed.launch --nproc_per_node=4 script.py # Or use accelerate accelerate config accelerate launch script.py ``` **DeepSpeed Integration:** ```python training_args = TrainingArguments( output_dir="./results", deepspeed="ds_config.json", # DeepSpeed config file ) ``` ### Advanced Features **Gradient Checkpointing (reduce memory):** ```python training_args = TrainingArguments( output_dir="./results", gradient_checkpointing=True, ) ``` **Compilation with torch.compile:** ```python training_args = TrainingArguments( output_dir="./results", torch_compile=True, torch_compile_backend="inductor", # or "cudagraphs" ) ``` **Push to Hub:** ```python training_args = TrainingArguments( output_dir="./results", push_to_hub=True, hub_model_id="username/model-name", hub_strategy="every_save", # or "end" ) ``` ## Custom Training Components ### Custom Metrics ```python import evaluate import numpy as np metric = evaluate.load("accuracy") def compute_metrics(eval_pred): logits, labels = eval_pred predictions = np.argmax(logits, axis=-1) return metric.compute(predictions=predictions, references=labels) trainer = Trainer( model=model, args=training_args, compute_metrics=compute_metrics, ) ``` ### Custom Loss Function ```python class CustomTrainer(Trainer): def compute_loss(self, model, inputs, return_outputs=False): labels = inputs.pop("labels") outputs = model(**inputs) logits = outputs.logits # Custom loss calculation loss_fct = torch.nn.CrossEntropyLoss(weight=class_weights) loss = loss_fct(logits.view(-1, self.model.config.num_labels), labels.view(-1)) return (loss, outputs) if return_outputs else loss ``` ### Data Collator ```python from transformers import DataCollatorWithPadding data_collator = DataCollatorWithPadding(tokenizer=tokenizer) trainer = Trainer( model=model, args=training_args, train_dataset=train_dataset, data_collator=data_collator, ) ``` ### Callbacks ```python from transformers import TrainerCallback class CustomCallback(TrainerCallback): def on_epoch_end(self, args, state, control, **kwargs): print(f"Epoch {state.epoch} completed!") return control trainer = Trainer( model=model, args=training_args, callbacks=[CustomCallback], ) ``` ## Hyperparameter Search ```python def model_init(): return AutoModelForSequenceClassification.from_pretrained( "bert-base-uncased", num_labels=2 ) trainer = Trainer( model_init=model_init, args=training_args, train_dataset=train_dataset, eval_dataset=eval_dataset, compute_metrics=compute_metrics, ) # Optuna-based search best_trial = trainer.hyperparameter_search( direction="maximize", backend="optuna", n_trials=10, hp_space=lambda trial: { "learning_rate": trial.suggest_float("learning_rate", 1e-5, 5e-5, log=True), "per_device_train_batch_size": trial.suggest_categorical("per_device_train_batch_size", [8, 16, 32]), "num_train_epochs": trial.suggest_int("num_train_epochs", 2, 5), } ) ``` ## Training Best Practices 1. **Start with small learning rates**: 2e-5 to 5e-5 for fine-tuning 2. **Use warmup**: 5-10% of total steps for learning rate warmup 3. **Monitor training**: Use eval_strategy="epoch" or "steps" to track progress 4. **Save checkpoints**: Set save_strategy and save_total_limit 5. **Use mixed precision**: Enable fp16 or bf16 for faster training 6. **Gradient accumulation**: For large effective batch sizes on limited memory 7. **Load best model**: Set load_best_model_at_end=True to avoid overfitting 8. **Push to Hub**: Enable push_to_hub for easy model sharing and versioning ## Common Training Patterns ### Classification ```python model = AutoModelForSequenceClassification.from_pretrained( "bert-base-uncased", num_labels=num_classes, id2label=id2label, label2id=label2id ) ``` ### Question Answering ```python model = AutoModelForQuestionAnswering.from_pretrained("bert-base-uncased") ``` ### Token Classification (NER) ```python model = AutoModelForTokenClassification.from_pretrained( "bert-base-uncased", num_labels=num_tags, id2label=id2label, label2id=label2id ) ``` ### Sequence-to-Sequence ```python model = AutoModelForSeq2SeqLM.from_pretrained("t5-base") ``` ### Causal Language Modeling ```python model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained("gpt2") ``` ### Masked Language Modeling ```python model = AutoModelForMaskedLM.from_pretrained("bert-base-uncased") ```