openrlhf-training

Q: How do I install openrlhf-training?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/orchestra-research/ai-research-skills --skill openrlhf-training in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/openrlhf-training/ (personal) or .claude/skills/openrlhf-training/ (project).

by orchestra-researchCode Quality & Workflow

High-performance RLHF framework with Ray+vLLM acceleration. Use for PPO, GRPO, RLOO, DPO training of large models (7B-70B+). Built on Ray, vLLM, ZeRO-3. 2× faster than DeepSpeedChat with distributed architecture and GPU resource sharing.

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Install

Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.

npx skills add https://github.com/orchestra-research/ai-research-skills --skill openrlhf-training

01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads openrlhf-training automatically when relevant.
03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.

SKILL.md

The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.

OpenRLHF - High-Performance RLHF Training

Quick start

OpenRLHF is a Ray-based RLHF framework optimized for distributed training with vLLM inference acceleration.

Installation:

# Launch Docker container
docker run --runtime=nvidia -it --rm --shm-size="10g" --cap-add=SYS_ADMIN \
  -v $PWD:/openrlhf nvcr.io/nvidia/pytorch:25.02-py3 bash

# Uninstall conflicts
sudo pip uninstall xgboost transformer_engine flash_attn pynvml -y

# Install OpenRLHF with vLLM
pip install openrlhf[vllm]

PPO Training (Hybrid Engine):

ray start --head --node-ip-address 0.0.0.0 --num-gpus 8

ray job submit --address="http://127.0.0.1:8265" \
  --runtime-env-json='{"working_dir": "/openrlhf"}' \
  -- python3 -m openrlhf.cli.train_ppo_ray \
  --ref_num_nodes 1 --ref_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --reward_num_nodes 1 --reward_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --critic_num_nodes 1 --critic_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --actor_num_nodes 1 --actor_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --vllm_num_engines 4 --vllm_tensor_parallel_size 2 \
  --colocate_all_models \
  --vllm_gpu_memory_utilization 0.5 \
  --pretrain OpenRLHF/Llama-3-8b-sft-mixture \
  --reward_pretrain OpenRLHF/Llama-3-8b-rm-700k \
  --save_path ./output/llama3-8b-rlhf \
  --micro_train_batch_size 8 --train_batch_size 128 \
  --micro_rollout_batch_size 16 --rollout_batch_size 1024 \
  --max_epochs 1 --prompt_max_len 1024 --generate_max_len 1024 \
  --zero_stage 3 --bf16 \
  --actor_learning_rate 5e-7 --critic_learning_rate 9e-6 \
  --init_kl_coef 0.01 --normalize_reward \
  --gradient_checkpointing --packing_samples \
  --vllm_enable_sleep --deepspeed_enable_sleep

GRPO Training (Group Normalized Policy Optimization):

# Same command as PPO, but add:
--advantage_estimator group_norm

Common workflows

Workflow 1: Full RLHF pipeline (SFT → Reward Model → PPO)

Step 1: Train reward model (DPO):

deepspeed --module openrlhf.cli.train_rm \
  --save_path ./output/llama3-8b-rm \
  --save_steps -1 --logging_steps 1 \
  --eval_steps -1 --train_batch_size 256 \
  --micro_train_batch_size 1 --pretrain meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3-8B \
  --bf16 --max_epochs 1 --max_len 8192 \
  --zero_stage 3 --learning_rate 9e-6 \
  --dataset OpenRLHF/preference_dataset_mixture2_and_safe_pku \
  --apply_chat_template --chosen_key chosen \
  --rejected_key rejected --flash_attn --gradient_checkpointing

Step 2: PPO training:

ray start --head --node-ip-address 0.0.0.0 --num-gpus 8

ray job submit --address="http://127.0.0.1:8265" \
  -- python3 -m openrlhf.cli.train_ppo_ray \
  --ref_num_nodes 1 --ref_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --reward_num_nodes 1 --reward_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --critic_num_nodes 1 --critic_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --actor_num_nodes 1 --actor_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --vllm_num_engines 4 --vllm_tensor_parallel_size 2 \
  --colocate_all_models \
  --pretrain OpenRLHF/Llama-3-8b-sft-mixture \
  --reward_pretrain ./output/llama3-8b-rm \
  --save_path ./output/llama3-8b-ppo \
  --micro_train_batch_size 8 --train_batch_size 128 \
  --micro_rollout_batch_size 16 --rollout_batch_size 1024 \
  --max_epochs 1 --prompt_max_len 1024 --generate_max_len 1024 \
  --zero_stage 3 --bf16 \
  --actor_learning_rate 5e-7 --critic_learning_rate 9e-6 \
  --init_kl_coef 0.01 --normalize_reward \
  --vllm_enable_sleep --deepspeed_enable_sleep

Workflow 2: GRPO training (no critic model needed)

Memory-efficient alternative to PPO:

ray job submit --address="http://127.0.0.1:8265" \
  -- python3 -m openrlhf.cli.train_ppo_ray \
  --advantage_estimator group_norm \
  --ref_num_nodes 1 --ref_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --reward_num_nodes 1 --reward_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --actor_num_nodes 1 --actor_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
  --vllm_num_engines 4 --vllm_tensor_parallel_size 2 \
  --colocate_all_models \
  --pretrain OpenRLHF/Llama-3-8b-sft-mixture \
  --reward_pretrain OpenRLHF/Llama-3-8b-rm-700k \
  --save_path ./output/llama3-8b-grpo \
  --micro_train_batch_size 8 --train_batch_size 128 \
  --micro_rollout_batch_size 16 --rollout_batch_size 1024 \
  --max_epochs 1 --bf16 \
  --actor_learning_rate 5e-7 \
  --init_kl_coef 0.01 --use_kl_loss --kl_estimator k3 \
  --normalize_reward --no_advantage_std_norm

Key GRPO parameters:

--advantage_estimator group_norm - Enables GRPO
--use_kl_loss - KL loss from GRPO paper
--kl_estimator k3 - Loss function (k2 ≈ k1)
--no_advantage_std_norm - Disables std normalization

Workflow 3: DPO training (preference optimization)

Simpler alternative without reward model:

deepspeed --module openrlhf.cli.train_dpo \
  --save_path ./output/llama3-8b-dpo \
  --save_steps -1 --logging_steps 1 \
  --eval_steps -1 --train_batch_size 256 \
  --micro_train_batch_size 2 --pretrain meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3-8B \
  --bf16 --max_epochs 1 --max_len 8192 \
  --zero_stage 3 --learning_rate 5e-7 --beta 0.1 \
  --dataset OpenRLHF/preference_dataset_mixture2_and_safe_pku \
  --apply_chat_template --chosen_key chosen \
  --rejected_key rejected --flash_attn --gradient_checkpointing

When to use vs alternatives

Use OpenRLHF when:

Training large models (7B-70B+) with RL
Need vLLM inference acceleration
Want distributed architecture with Ray
Have multi-node GPU cluster
Need PPO/GRPO/RLOO/DPO in one framework

Algorithm selection:

PPO: Maximum control, best for complex rewards
GRPO: Memory-efficient, no critic needed
RLOO: Modified PPO with per-token KL
REINFORCE++: More stable than GRPO, faster than PPO
DPO: Simplest, no reward model needed

Use alternatives instead:

TRL: Single-node training, simpler API
veRL: ByteDance's framework for 671B models
DeepSpeedChat: Integrated with DeepSpeed ecosystem

Common issues

Issue: GPU OOM with large models

Disable model colocation:

# Remove --colocate_all_models flag
# Allocate separate GPUs for each model
--actor_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
--critic_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
--reward_num_gpus_per_node 8 \
--ref_num_gpus_per_node 8

Issue: DeepSpeed GPU index out of range

Set environment variable:

export RAY_EXPERIMENTAL_NOSET_CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=1

Issue: Training instability

Use Hybrid Engine instead of async:

--colocate_all_models \
--vllm_enable_sleep \
--deepspeed_enable_sleep

Adjust KL coefficient:

--init_kl_coef 0.05  # Increase from 0.01

Issue: Slow generation during PPO

Enable vLLM acceleration:

--vllm_num_engines 4 \
--vllm_tensor_parallel_size 2 \
--vllm_gpu_memory_utilization 0.5

Advanced topics

Hybrid Engine GPU sharing: See references/hybrid-engine.md for vLLM sleep mode, DeepSpeed sleep mode, and optimal node allocation.

Algorithm comparison: See references/algorithm-comparison.md for PPO vs GRPO vs RLOO vs REINFORCE++ benchmarks and hyperparameters.

Multi-node setup: See references/multi-node-training.md for Ray cluster configuration and fault tolerance.

Custom reward functions: See references/custom-rewards.md for reinforced fine-tuning and agent RLHF.

Hardware requirements

GPU: NVIDIA A100/H100 recommended
VRAM:
- 7B model: 8× A100 40GB (Hybrid Engine)
- 70B model: 48× A100 80GB (vLLM:Actor:Critic = 1:1:1)
Multi-node: Ray cluster with InfiniBand recommended
Docker: NVIDIA PyTorch container 25.02+

Performance:

2× faster than DeepSpeedChat
vLLM inference acceleration
Hybrid Engine minimizes GPU idle time

Resources

Docs: https://github.com/OpenRLHF/OpenRLHF
Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.11143
Examples: https://github.com/OpenRLHF/OpenRLHF/tree/main/examples
Discord: Community support

FAQ

What does the openrlhf-training skill do?

How do I install openrlhf-training?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/orchestra-research/ai-research-skills --skill openrlhf-training in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/openrlhf-training/ (personal) or .claude/skills/openrlhf-training/ (project).

Which AI agents can use openrlhf-training?

Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.

Is openrlhf-training safe to install?

No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.

Who maintains openrlhf-training?

It is published by orchestra-research in orchestra-research/ai-research-skills. It has 959 recorded installs.