docs(readme): slim README — move install/quick-start/data/config details to the guideline page

README now: badges + one-line pointer to docs/guideline.html, overview,
demo, sleep section, extensibility pointers, WebUI launch, citation.
All run-the-demo commands live in the guideline (which already covered
install, credentials, training, eval, outputs, data prep, and config).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Cuzyoung
2026-06-10 13:27:36 +00:00
parent 3308c4c5dc
commit b0b62fcb86
-313
View File
@@ -98,319 +98,6 @@ Deterministic proof (no API key): `python -m skillopt_sleep.experiments.run_expe
---
## Install
### Requirements
- Python 3.10+
### Option A: Install from PyPI
```bash
pip install skillopt
# With optional extras:
pip install skillopt[alfworld] # ALFWorld benchmark
pip install skillopt[webui] # Gradio monitoring dashboard
pip install skillopt[claude] # Claude model backend
```
### Option B: Install from source (for development)
```bash
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/SkillOpt.git
cd SkillOpt
pip install -e .
# For the ALFWorld benchmark (optional):
pip install -e ".[alfworld]"
alfworld-download
```
### Configure API Credentials
```bash
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your API credentials, then:
source .env
```
#### Azure OpenAI *(recommended)*
```bash
export AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT="https://your-resource.openai.azure.com/"
# Option 1: API key auth
export AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY="your-key"
# Option 2: Azure CLI auth (no API key needed)
export AZURE_OPENAI_AUTH_MODE="azure_cli"
```
> **Note:** `AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT` is required for all three modes (`api_key`, `azure_cli`, `openai_compatible`). Without it, all LLM calls will fail.
#### OpenAI-compatible endpoints
```bash
export AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT="https://api.openai.com/v1"
export AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
export AZURE_OPENAI_AUTH_MODE="openai_compatible"
```
This routes all calls through the plain OpenAI Python client (no Azure auth, no `api-version` header).
> **Note:** SkillOpt reuses the `AZURE_OPENAI_*` env var names even in this mode — there is no separate `OPENAI_API_KEY` knob.
#### Anthropic Claude
```bash
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
```
#### Qwen *(local vLLM)*
```bash
export QWEN_CHAT_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8000/v1"
export QWEN_CHAT_MODEL="Qwen/Qwen3.5-4B"
```
`qwen_chat` can also be used as the optimizer backend. When optimizer and
target should point to different local vLLM services, use the role-specific
settings:
```bash
python scripts/train.py \
--config configs/searchqa/default.yaml \
--optimizer_backend qwen_chat \
--target_backend qwen_chat \
--optimizer_model Qwen/Qwen3.5-4B \
--target_model Qwen/Qwen3.5-4B \
--optimizer_qwen_chat_base_url http://localhost:8001/v1 \
--target_qwen_chat_base_url http://localhost:8000/v1
```
#### MiniMax
```bash
export MINIMAX_BASE_URL="https://api.minimax.io/v1"
export MINIMAX_API_KEY="..."
export MINIMAX_MODEL="MiniMax-M2.7"
```
---
## Quick Start
### Training
```bash
# Minimal example — train on SearchQA:
python scripts/train.py \
--config configs/searchqa/default.yaml \
--split_dir /path/to/your/searchqa_split \
--azure_openai_endpoint https://your-resource.openai.azure.com/ \
--optimizer_model gpt-5.5 \
--target_model gpt-5.5
# Train on LiveMathematicianBench:
python scripts/train.py \
--config configs/livemathematicianbench/default.yaml \
--split_dir /path/to/your/livemath_split \
--azure_openai_endpoint https://your-resource.openai.azure.com/ \
--optimizer_model gpt-5.5 \
--target_model gpt-5.5
# Train on ALFWorld:
python scripts/train.py \
--config configs/alfworld/default.yaml \
--split_dir data/alfworld_path_split \
--azure_openai_endpoint https://your-resource.openai.azure.com/ \
--optimizer_model gpt-5.5 \
--target_model gpt-5.5
```
Key CLI arguments:
| Argument | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| `--config` | Benchmark config YAML | `configs/searchqa/default.yaml` |
| `--split_dir` | Path to data split directory | `/path/to/split` |
| `--azure_openai_endpoint` | Azure OpenAI endpoint URL | `https://your-resource.openai.azure.com/` |
| `--optimizer_model` | Optimizer model deployment name | `gpt-5.5` |
| `--target_model` | Target model deployment name | `gpt-5.5` |
| `--num_epochs` | Number of training epochs | `4` |
| `--batch_size` | Batch size per step | `40` |
| `--workers` | Parallel rollout workers | `8` |
| `--out_root` | Output directory | `outputs/my_run` |
### Eval Only
Evaluate a trained skill on specific data splits without training:
```bash
# Evaluate the packaged GPT-5.5 SearchQA skill on the test split:
python scripts/eval_only.py \
--config configs/searchqa/default.yaml \
--skill ckpt/searchqa/gpt5.5_skill.md \
--split valid_unseen \
--split_dir /path/to/searchqa_split \
--azure_openai_endpoint https://your-resource.openai.azure.com/
# Evaluate on all splits (train + val + test):
python scripts/eval_only.py \
--config configs/searchqa/default.yaml \
--skill ckpt/searchqa/gpt5.5_skill.md \
--split all \
--split_dir /path/to/searchqa_split \
--azure_openai_endpoint https://your-resource.openai.azure.com/
```
To evaluate a skill produced by your own training run, replace `--skill` with that run's best-skill path, for example `outputs/my_run/best_skill.md`.
| Split | Description |
|---|---|
| `valid_unseen` | Test set |
| `valid_seen` | Validation set |
| `train` | Training set |
| `all` | All splits combined (default) |
### Output Structure
Each training run writes to a structured output directory:
```
outputs/<run_name>/
├── config.json # Flattened runtime config
├── history.json # Per-step training history
├── runtime_state.json # Resume checkpoint
├── best_skill.md # Best validated skill document
├── skills/skill_vXXXX.md # Skill snapshot per step
├── steps/step_XXXX/ # Per-step artifacts (patches, evals)
├── slow_update/epoch_XX/ # Slow update logs
└── meta_skill/epoch_XX/ # Meta skill logs
```
Re-running the same command auto-resumes from the last completed step.
### Pretrained Skill Artifacts
We provide a subset of the paper's main Table 1 GPT-5.5 optimized skills in
[`ckpt/`](ckpt/) as reference artifacts. Use them with `scripts/eval_only.py`
to evaluate the provided skills on a matching data split without re-running
training. See [`ckpt/README.md`](ckpt/README.md) for the full per-benchmark
command. This is the first artifact batch; we plan to continue uploading
the remaining optimized skills and benchmark split manifests as they are
cleaned and verified.
---
## Data Preparation
### Directory layout
SkillOpt expects data in a **split directory** with `train/`, `val/`, `test/` subdirectories, each containing a JSON file (e.g., `items.json`):
```
data/my_split/
├── train/items.json
├── val/items.json
└── test/items.json
```
Each JSON file is an array of task items. The required fields depend on the benchmark. For example, SearchQA items look like:
```json
[
{
"id": "unique_item_id",
"question": "Who wrote the novel ...",
"context": "[DOC] relevant passage text ...",
"answers": ["expected answer"]
}
]
```
See `skillopt/envs/<benchmark>/dataloader.py` for the exact format each benchmark expects.
> **Note:** Most benchmark datasets are not included in this repository. Prepare your own data following the format above. The exact SearchQA split used in the paper is provided at [`data/searchqa_id_split/`](data/searchqa_id_split) (400 train / 200 val / 1400 test). We are preparing the remaining benchmark split manifests for upload.
### Supported Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Type | Config |
|---|---|---|
| SearchQA | QA | `configs/searchqa/default.yaml` |
| ALFWorld | Embodied agent | `configs/alfworld/default.yaml` |
| DocVQA | Document QA | `configs/docvqa/default.yaml` |
| LiveMathematicianBench | Math | `configs/livemathematicianbench/default.yaml` |
| SpreadsheetBench | Code generation | `configs/spreadsheetbench/default.yaml` |
| OfficeQA | Tool-augmented QA | `configs/officeqa/default.yaml` |
---
## Configuration
### Default settings and paper-reproduction knobs
`configs/_base_/default.yaml` is the single source of truth for SkillOpt's
runtime knobs. Out of the box, every included benchmark config inherits
from it and keeps the paper protocol visible: 4 epochs, rollout batch 40,
reflection minibatch 8, textual learning rate 4 with cosine decay, strict
hard validation gating, and slow-update + meta-skill enabled. One detail to
watch is slow-update acceptance: the current `main` default is the newer
post-submission force-accept mode, while the paper protocol and the
paper-aligned skills under `ckpt/` use the gated semantics described in
paper Section 3.6.
### Slow-update acceptance mode
The epoch-boundary slow / meta update can be applied two ways, controlled
by `optimizer.slow_update_gate_with_selection`:
```yaml
optimizer:
slow_update_gate_with_selection: false # current main default
```
- **`false`** *(current `main` default)*: force-accept. The
slow-update guidance is injected into both `current_skill` and
`best_skill` unconditionally at the epoch boundary. This is the newer
post-submission behavior on `main`.
- **`true`** *(paper / ckpt-skill reproduction)*: gated, matching paper
Section 3.6 verbatim. The slow-update candidate is evaluated on the
selection split and accepted only if it passes the same validation gate
as a step-level edit. Use this setting when re-running optimization to
match the paper protocol and the provenance of the provided `ckpt/` skills.
The trainer prints which mode is active at startup
(`[slow update] acceptance=...`). See issue #22 for the discussion that
led to the flag.
### Gate metric (`hard` / `soft` / `mixed`)
The validation gate compares candidate vs. current skills on the selection
split using `gate_metric`:
- **`hard`** *(default, paper)*: exact-match accuracy, strictly greater
than the current score is required.
- **`soft`**: per-item soft / partial-credit score. Useful when the
selection split is small (e.g. ≤10 items) and the reward is continuous,
where the discrete hard gate often rejects every candidate.
- **`mixed`**: weighted average, `(1 - w) * hard + w * soft`, with `w`
set by `gate_mixed_weight` (default `0.5`).
Default is `hard`. Use the optional feature config below to switch.
### Optional feature configs
These are **not** default SkillOpt settings — they are optional feature configs
contributed by users for specific scenarios. The paper-reported numbers
were obtained with the default settings, not these.
- **[`configs/features/soft_gate.yaml`](configs/features/soft_gate.yaml)**
*(PR #25, contributed by [@lvbaocheng](https://github.com/lvbaocheng))*
switches `gate_metric` to `soft` (or `mixed`). See the comment at the
top of the file for when to use and when not to.
---
## Extensibility & WebUI
### Adding a new backend