
slime-rl-training
Provides guidance for LLM post-training with RL using slime, a Megatron+SGLang framework. Use when training GLM models, implementing custom data generation workflows, or needing tight Megatron-LM integration for RL scaling.
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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 slime-rl-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 slime-rl-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.
slime: LLM Post-Training Framework for RL Scaling
slime is an LLM post-training framework from Tsinghua's THUDM team, powering GLM-4.5, GLM-4.6, and GLM-4.7. It connects Megatron-LM for training with SGLang for high-throughput rollout generation.
When to Use slime
Choose slime when you need:
- Megatron-LM native training with SGLang inference
- Custom data generation workflows with flexible data buffers
- Training GLM, Qwen3, DeepSeek V3, or Llama 3 models
- Research-grade framework with production backing (Z.ai)
Consider alternatives when:
- You need enterprise-grade stability features → use miles
- You want flexible backend swapping → use verl
- You need PyTorch-native abstractions → use torchforge
Key Features
- Training: Megatron-LM with full parallelism support (TP, PP, DP, SP)
- Rollout: SGLang-based high-throughput generation with router
- Data Buffer: Flexible prompt management and sample storage
- Models: GLM-4.x, Qwen3, DeepSeek V3/R1, Llama 3
Architecture Overview
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Data Buffer │
│ - Prompt initialization and management │
│ - Custom data generation and filtering │
│ - Rollout sample storage │
└─────────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────┘
│ │
┌─────────────▼───────────┐ ┌─────────────▼───────────────┐
│ Training (Megatron-LM) │ │ Rollout (SGLang + Router) │
│ - Actor model training │ │ - Response generation │
│ - Critic (optional) │ │ - Reward/verifier output │
│ - Weight sync to rollout│ │ - Multi-turn support │
└─────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘
Installation
# Recommended: Docker
docker pull slimerl/slime:latest
docker run --rm --gpus all --ipc=host --shm-size=16g \
-it slimerl/slime:latest /bin/bash
# Inside container
cd /root/slime && pip install -e . --no-deps
From Source
git clone https://github.com/THUDM/slime.git
cd slime
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -e .
Quick Start: GRPO Training
# Source model configuration
source scripts/models/qwen3-4B.sh
# Launch training
python train.py \
--actor-num-nodes 1 \
--actor-num-gpus-per-node 4 \
--rollout-num-gpus 4 \
--advantage-estimator grpo \
--use-kl-loss --kl-loss-coef 0.001 \
--rollout-batch-size 32 \
--n-samples-per-prompt 8 \
--global-batch-size 256 \
--num-rollout 3000 \
--prompt-data /path/to/data.jsonl \
${MODEL_ARGS[@]} ${CKPT_ARGS[@]}
Workflow 1: Standard GRPO Training
Use this workflow for training reasoning models with group-relative advantages.
Prerequisites Checklist
- Docker environment or Megatron-LM + SGLang installed
- Model checkpoint (HuggingFace or Megatron format)
- Training data in JSONL format
Step 1: Prepare Data
# data.jsonl format
{"prompt": "What is 2 + 2?", "label": "4"}
{"prompt": "Solve: 3x = 12", "label": "x = 4"}
Or with chat format:
{
"prompt": [
{"role": "system", "content": "You are a math tutor."},
{"role": "user", "content": "What is 15 + 27?"}
],
"label": "42"
}
Step 2: Configure Model
Choose a pre-configured model script:
# List available models
ls scripts/models/
# glm4-9B.sh, qwen3-4B.sh, qwen3-30B-A3B.sh, deepseek-v3.sh, llama3-8B.sh, ...
# Source your model
source scripts/models/qwen3-4B.sh
Step 3: Launch Training
python train.py \
--actor-num-nodes 1 \
--actor-num-gpus-per-node 8 \
--rollout-num-gpus 8 \
--advantage-estimator grpo \
--use-kl-loss \
--kl-loss-coef 0.001 \
--prompt-data /path/to/train.jsonl \
--input-key prompt \
--label-key label \
--apply-chat-template \
--rollout-batch-size 32 \
--n-samples-per-prompt 8 \
--global-batch-size 256 \
--num-rollout 3000 \
--save-interval 100 \
--eval-interval 50 \
${MODEL_ARGS[@]}
Step 4: Monitor Training
- Check TensorBoard:
tensorboard --logdir outputs/ - Verify reward curves are increasing
- Monitor GPU utilization across nodes
Workflow 2: Asynchronous Training
Use async mode for higher throughput by overlapping rollout and training.
When to Use Async
- Large models with long generation times
- High GPU idle time in synchronous mode
- Sufficient memory for buffering
Launch Async Training
python train_async.py \
--actor-num-nodes 1 \
--actor-num-gpus-per-node 8 \
--rollout-num-gpus 8 \
--advantage-estimator grpo \
--async-buffer-size 4 \
--prompt-data /path/to/train.jsonl \
${MODEL_ARGS[@]}
Async-Specific Parameters
--async-buffer-size 4 # Number of rollouts to buffer
--update-weights-interval 2 # Sync weights every N rollouts
Workflow 3: Multi-Turn Agentic Training
Use this workflow for training agents with tool use or multi-step reasoning.
Prerequisites
- Custom generate function for multi-turn logic
- Tool/environment interface
Step 1: Define Custom Generate Function
# custom_generate.py
async def custom_generate(args, samples, evaluation=False):
"""Multi-turn generation with tool calling."""
for sample in samples:
conversation = sample.prompt
for turn in range(args.max_turns):
# Generate response
response = await generate_single(conversation)
# Check for tool call
tool_call = extract_tool_call(response)
if tool_call:
tool_result = execute_tool(tool_call)
conversation.append({"role": "assistant", "content": response})
conversation.append({"role": "tool", "content": tool_result})
else:
break
sample.response = response
sample.reward = compute_reward(sample)
return samples
Step 2: Launch with Custom Function
python train.py \
--custom-generate-function-path custom_generate.py \
--max-turns 5 \
--prompt-data /path/to/agent_data.jsonl \
${MODEL_ARGS[@]}
See examples/search-r1/ for a complete multi-turn search example.
Configuration Reference
Three Argument Categories
slime uses three types of arguments:
1. Megatron Arguments (passed directly):
--tensor-model-parallel-size 2
--pipeline-model-parallel-size 1
--num-layers 32
--hidden-size 4096
2. SGLang Arguments (prefixed with --sglang-):
--sglang-mem-fraction-static 0.8
--sglang-context-length 8192
--sglang-log-level INFO
3. slime Arguments:
# Resource allocation
--actor-num-nodes 1
--actor-num-gpus-per-node 8
--rollout-num-gpus 8
--colocate # Share GPUs between training/inference
# Data
--prompt-data /path/to/data.jsonl
--input-key prompt
--label-key label
# Training loop
--num-rollout 3000
--rollout-batch-size 32
--n-samples-per-prompt 8
--global-batch-size 256
# Algorithm
--advantage-estimator grpo # or: gspo, ppo, reinforce_plus_plus
--use-kl-loss
--kl-loss-coef 0.001
Key Constraints
rollout_batch_size × n_samples_per_prompt = global_batch_size × num_steps_per_rollout
Example: 32 × 8 = 256 × 1
Data Buffer System
slime's data buffer enables flexible data management:
Basic Data Source
class RolloutDataSource:
def get_samples(self, num_samples):
"""Fetch prompts from dataset."""
return self.dataset.sample(num_samples)
def add_samples(self, samples):
"""Called after generation (no-op by default)."""
pass
Buffered Data Source (Off-Policy)
class RolloutDataSourceWithBuffer(RolloutDataSource):
def __init__(self):
self.buffer = []
def add_samples(self, samples):
"""Store generated samples for reuse."""
self.buffer.extend(samples)
def buffer_filter(self, args, buffer, num_samples):
"""Custom selection logic (prioritized, stratified, etc.)."""
return select_best(buffer, num_samples)
Common Issues and Solutions
Issue: SGLang Engine Crash
Symptoms: Inference engine dies mid-training
Solutions:
# Enable fault tolerance
--use-fault-tolerance
# Increase memory allocation
--sglang-mem-fraction-static 0.85
# Reduce batch size
--rollout-batch-size 16
Issue: Weight Sync Timeout
Symptoms: Training hangs after rollout
Solutions:
# Increase sync interval
--update-weights-interval 5
# Use colocated mode (no network transfer)
--colocate
Issue: OOM During Training
Symptoms: CUDA OOM in backward pass
Solutions:
# Enable gradient checkpointing
--recompute-activations
# Reduce micro-batch size
--micro-batch-size 1
# Enable sequence parallelism
--sequence-parallel
Issue: Slow Data Loading
Symptoms: GPU idle during data fetch
Solutions:
# Increase data workers
--num-data-workers 4
# Use streaming dataset
--streaming-data
Supported Models
| Model Family | Configurations |
|---|---|
| GLM | GLM-4.5, GLM-4.6, GLM-4.7, GLM-Z1-9B |
| Qwen | Qwen3 (4B, 8B, 30B-A3B), Qwen3-MoE, Qwen2.5 |
| DeepSeek | V3, V3.1, R1 |
| Llama | Llama 3 (8B, 70B) |
| Others | Kimi K2, Moonlight-16B |
Each model has pre-configured scripts in scripts/models/.
Advanced Topics
Co-location Mode
Share GPUs between training and inference to reduce memory:
python train.py \
--colocate \
--actor-num-gpus-per-node 8 \
--sglang-mem-fraction-static 0.4 \
${MODEL_ARGS[@]}
Custom Reward Model
# custom_rm.py
class CustomRewardModel:
def __init__(self, model_path):
self.model = load_model(model_path)
def compute_reward(self, prompts, responses):
inputs = self.tokenize(prompts, responses)
scores = self.model(inputs)
return scores.tolist()
--custom-rm-path custom_rm.py
Evaluation Multi-Task
--eval-prompt-data aime /path/to/aime.jsonl \
--eval-prompt-data gsm8k /path/to/gsm8k.jsonl \
--n-samples-per-eval-prompt 16
Resources
- Documentation: https://thudm.github.io/slime/
- GitHub: https://github.com/THUDM/slime
- Blog: https://lmsys.org/blog/2025-07-09-slime/
- Examples: See
examples/directory for 14+ worked examples
FAQ
What does the slime-rl-training skill do?
Provides guidance for LLM post-training with RL using slime, a Megatron+SGLang framework. Use when training GLM models, implementing custom data generation workflows, or needing tight Megatron-LM integration for RL scaling.
How do I install slime-rl-training?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/orchestra-research/ai-research-skills --skill slime-rl-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/slime-rl-training/ (personal) or .claude/skills/slime-rl-training/ (project).
Which AI agents can use slime-rl-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 slime-rl-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 slime-rl-training?
It is published by orchestra-research in orchestra-research/ai-research-skills. It has 956 recorded installs.
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