npx skills add ...
npx skills add firecrawl/ai-research-skills --skill pytorch-lightning
npx skills add firecrawl/ai-research-skills --skill pytorch-lightning
High-level PyTorch framework with Trainer class, automatic distributed training (DDP/FSDP/DeepSpeed), callbacks system, and minimal boilerplate. Scales from laptop to supercomputer with same code. Use when you want clean training loops with built-in best practices.
PyTorch Lightning organizes PyTorch code to eliminate boilerplate while maintaining flexibility.
Installation:
Convert PyTorch to Lightning (3 steps):
That's it! Trainer handles:
Original PyTorch code:
Lightning version:
Benefits: 40+ lines → 15 lines, no device management, automatic distributed
Automatic features:
Launch:
No changes needed:
num_nodes=2)Result:
Use PyTorch Lightning when:
Key advantages:
Use alternatives instead:
Issue: Loss not decreasing
Check data and model setup:
Issue: Out of memory
Reduce batch size or use gradient accumulation:
Issue: Validation not running
Ensure you pass val_loader:
Issue: DDP spawns multiple processes unexpectedly
Lightning auto-detects GPUs. Explicitly set devices:
Callbacks: See references/callbacks.md for EarlyStopping, ModelCheckpoint, custom callbacks, and callback hooks.
Distributed strategies: See references/distributed.md for DDP, FSDP, DeepSpeed ZeRO integration, multi-node setup.
Hyperparameter tuning: See references/hyperparameter-tuning.md for integration with Optuna, Ray Tune, and WandB sweeps.
Precision options:
model = MyModel()
optimizer = torch.optim.Adam(model.parameters())
model.to('cuda')
for epoch in range(max_epochs):
for batch in train_loader:
batch = batch.to('cuda')
optimizer.zero_grad()
loss = model(batch)
loss.backward()
optimizer.step()class LitModel(L.LightningModule):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.model = MyModel()
def training_step(self, batch, batch_idx):
loss = self.model(batch) # No .to('cuda') needed!
return loss
def configure_optimizers(self):
return torch.optim.Adam(self.parameters())
# Train
trainer = L.Trainer(max_epochs=10, accelerator='gpu')
trainer.fit(LitModel(), train_loader)class LitModel(L.LightningModule):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.model = MyModel()
def training_step(self, batch, batch_idx):
x, y = batch
y_hat = self.model(x)
loss = nn.functional.cross_entropy(y_hat, y)
self.log('train_loss', loss)
return loss
def validation_step(self, batch, batch_idx):
x, y = batch
y_hat = self.model(x)
val_loss = nn.functional.cross_entropy(y_hat, y)
acc = (y_hat.argmax(dim=1) == y).float().mean()
self.log('val_loss', val_loss)
self.log('val_acc', acc)
def test_step(self, batch, batch_idx):
x, y = batch
y_hat = self.model(x)
test_loss = nn.functional.cross_entropy(y_hat, y)
self.log('test_loss', test_loss)
def configure_optimizers(self):
return torch.optim.Adam(self.parameters(), lr=1e-3)
# Train with validation
trainer = L.Trainer(max_epochs=10)
trainer.fit(model, train_loader, val_loader)
# Test
trainer.test(model, test_loader)# Same code as single GPU!
model = LitModel()
# 8 GPUs with DDP (automatic!)
trainer = L.Trainer(
accelerator='gpu',
devices=8,
strategy='ddp' # Or 'fsdp', 'deepspeed'
)
trainer.fit(model, train_loader)# Single command, Lightning handles the rest
python train.pyfrom lightning.pytorch.callbacks import ModelCheckpoint, EarlyStopping, LearningRateMonitor
# Create callbacks
checkpoint = ModelCheckpoint(
monitor='val_loss',
mode='min',
save_top_k=3,
filename='model-{epoch:02d}-{val_loss:.2f}'
)
early_stop = EarlyStopping(
monitor='val_loss',
patience=5,
mode='min'
)
lr_monitor = LearningRateMonitor(logging_interval='epoch')
# Add to Trainer
trainer = L.Trainer(
max_epochs=100,
callbacks=[checkpoint, early_stop, lr_monitor]
)
trainer.fit(model, train_loader, val_loader)class LitModel(L.LightningModule):
# ... (training_step, etc.)
def configure_optimizers(self):
optimizer = torch.optim.Adam(self.parameters(), lr=1e-3)
# Cosine annealing
scheduler = torch.optim.lr_scheduler.CosineAnnealingLR(
optimizer,
T_max=100,
eta_min=1e-5
)
return {
'optimizer': optimizer,
'lr_scheduler': {
'scheduler': scheduler,
'interval': 'epoch', # Update per epoch
'frequency': 1
}
}
# Learning rate auto-logged!
trainer = L.Trainer(max_epochs=100)
trainer.fit(model, train_loader)# Add to training_step
def training_step(self, batch, batch_idx):
if batch_idx == 0:
print(f"Batch shape: {batch[0].shape}")
print(f"Labels: {batch[1]}")
loss = ...
return losstrainer = L.Trainer(
accumulate_grad_batches=4, # Effective batch = batch_size × 4
precision='bf16' # Or 'fp16', reduces memory 50%
)# WRONG
trainer.fit(model, train_loader)
# CORRECT
trainer.fit(model, train_loader, val_loader)# Test on CPU first
trainer = L.Trainer(accelerator='cpu', devices=1)
# Then GPU
trainer = L.Trainer(accelerator='gpu', devices=1)