RL — Research Utilities

RL is a Python library which provides several things:

• A set of utilities commonly required in Python research codebases, including:
  • IO utils for keeping an organized data directory and working with JSONL/CSV files
  • Scripts for training next-token LLMs with LoRA fine-tuning, as well as merging and quantizing those models.
  • "Inference engines" that provide a unified interface for both local and API-based LLM inference, including support for vLLM, OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic, Together.AI, and other inference libraries/providers.
  • A devsync CLI for automatically syncing Git-tracked files in a codebase with a remote SSH host.
  • A drop-in replacement for the Click CLI library which provides rich formatting and an ipdb debugger that activates automatically when your code raises an unhandled exception (useful for saving data!).
• A CLI (rl) interacting with Sherlock less painful by automating Duo 2FA and providing useful primitives for working with SLURM jobs.

CLI Installation

NOTE: The below is only for a stable release of the Sherlock CLI. Docs for using the rest of the library are forthcoming.

The best way to install Sherlock is via uv, a fast Python installation/package manager.

If you don't have it already (or have an old version), install uv:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Then, on both your local machine and Sherlock (or either one, if you just want some features):

uv tool install "rl[sherlock] @ git+https://github.com/ProbablyFaiz/[email protected]"

Setup

Note

RL requires you to configure Duo and NetID credentials to work. These never leave your device; use of RL is as secure as using an SSH key stored on your device to sign in to a remote server. For the same reason, you should not use RL on a shared computer or share your configuration with others.

Duo

TODO: Add visual instructions for setting up Duo.

• Go to Duo Central. Add a device with a phone number of the form [some area code]-555-0199 (this is a reserved dummy number). If you are asked to confirm the phone number via SMS, exit, delete the device, and try a different area code. Duo only prompts for verification if the number has been used previously, so you can keep trying different area codes until you find one that works.
• When Duo shows you the QR code, right click and copy its image address.
• Run rl configure duo. Paste the image address when prompted.

TODO: In the future, RL should generate a valid Duo phone number for you, so you don't have to manually find one.

Sherlock

To access Sherlock, RL also requires your NetID credentials. You can configure them by running rl configure sherlock.

That's it! You should now be able to use rl ssh without needing to enter a Duo code.

Usage

Usage: rl [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  approve    Approve a Duo login request
  cancel     Cancel a running job
  configure  Configure different aspects of rl
  job        Create an interactive job, even on the owners partition
  scp        SCP files to/from Sherlock
  ssh        SSH into Sherlock or into a particular job while on Sherlock
  touch      Temporarily modify files to avoid Sherlock auto-deletion