Installation Guide
Prerequisites
Python 3.8 or higher
pip or conda
Installation Options
Option 1: CPU-Only (Minimal)
For development or CPU-only inference:
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pip install slm-builder
This installs the base dependencies without heavy ML libraries.
Option 2: Full Installation (Recommended)
For training and GPU support:
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pip install slm-builder[full]
This includes:
PyTorch
Transformers
PEFT (for LoRA)
Accelerate
ONNX Runtime
All training dependencies
Option 3: Development Installation
For contributing to the project:
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git clone https://github.com/isathish/slm.git
cd slm
pip install -e ".[full,dev]"
This installs in editable mode with development tools (pytest, black, flake8, etc.)
Verifying Installation
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python - c "import slm_builder; print(slm_builder.__version__)"
Or test the CLI:
Optional Dependencies
For GPU Training
If you have NVIDIA GPU:
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# Install PyTorch with CUDA support first
pip install torch --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu118
# Then install SLM Builder
pip install slm-builder[full]
For HTML Scraping
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pip install beautifulsoup4
For Database Connectors
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# PostgreSQL
pip install psycopg2-binary
# MongoDB
pip install pymongo
Troubleshooting
Solution: Install full version:
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pip install slm-builder[full]
Issue: CUDA out of memory
Solution: Use CPU or reduce batch size:
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slm build --source data.csv --device cpu
Or in config:
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training :
batch_size : 4 # Reduce from default 8
Issue: peft not available
Solution: Install full version with PEFT:
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pip install slm-builder[full]
macOS
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# For M1/M2 Macs, use MPS acceleration
pip install slm-builder[full]
SLM Builder will automatically detect and use MPS when available.
Windows
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pip install slm-builder[full]
For best performance on Windows, use WSL2 with Ubuntu.
Linux
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# Standard installation works well
pip install slm-builder[full]
Docker Installation
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# CPU version
docker pull slmbuilder/slm-builder:latest
# GPU version (requires nvidia-docker)
docker pull slmbuilder/slm-builder:gpu
Next Steps
After installation, check out: