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https://github.com/Lightning-AI/lightning-thunder

Make PyTorch models up to 40% faster! Thunder is a source to source compiler for PyTorch. It enables using different hardware executors at once; across one or thousands of GPUs.
https://github.com/Lightning-AI/lightning-thunder

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Make PyTorch models up to 40% faster! Thunder is a source to source compiler for PyTorch. It enables using different hardware executors at once; across one or thousands of GPUs.

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README

        

# Give your PyTorch models superpowers ⚡


Thunder
Thunder



 

Source-to-source compiler for PyTorch.
Fast. Understandable. Extensible.

______________________________________________________________________

**Thunder** makes optimizing PyTorch models easy, augmenting them with custom kernels, fusions, quantization, distributed strategies, and more.

For **end users**, Thunder comes with plugins that provide model speed-ups out of the box, for optimal utilization of last generation hardware.

For **performance experts**, Thunder is the most ergonomic framework for understanding, modifying, and optimizing AI models through composable transformations.


✅ Run PyTorch 40% faster ✅ Quantization ✅ Kernel fusion
✅ Training recipes ✅ FP4/FP6/FP8 precision ✅ Distributed TP/PP/DP
✅ Inference recipes ✅ Ready for NVIDIA Blackwell ✅ CUDA Graphs
✅ LLMs, non LLMs and more ✅ Custom Triton kernels ✅ Compose all the above

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Quick start
Examples
Features
Performance

Docs

 



Get started

 


Thunder

# Quick start

Install Thunder via pip ([more options](https://lightning.ai/docs/litserve/home/install)):

```bash
pip install torch==2.6.0 torchvision==0.21 nvfuser-cu124-torch26

pip install lightning-thunder
```

Advanced install options

### Blackwell support

For Blackwell you'll need CUDA 12.8

```bash
pip install --pre torch torchvision --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/nightly/cu128
pip install --pre nvfuser-cu128 --extra-index-url https://pypi.nvidia.com

pip install lightning-thunder
```

### Install additional executors

These are optional, feel free to mix and match

```bash
# cuDNN SDPA
pip install nvidia-cudnn-frontend

# Float8 support (this will compile from source, be patient)
pip install "transformer_engine[pytorch]"
```

### Install Thunder bleeding edge

```bash
pip install git+https://github.com/Lightning-AI/lightning-thunder.git@main
```

### Install Thunder for development

```bash
git clone https://github.com/Lightning-AI/lightning-thunder.git
cd lightning-thunder
pip install -e .
```

### Hello world

Define a function or a torch module:

```python
import torch.nn as nn

model = nn.Sequential(nn.Linear(2048, 4096), nn.ReLU(), nn.Linear(4096, 64))
```

Optimize it with thunder:

```python
import thunder

thunder_model = thunder.compile(model)

x = torch.randn(64, 2048)

y = thunder_model(x)

assert y == model(x)
```

## Examples

### Speed up LLM training

```python
import thunder
import torch
import litgpt

with torch.device("cuda"):
model = litgpt.GPT.from_name("Llama-3.2-1B").to(torch.bfloat16)

thunder_model = thunder.compile(model)

inp = torch.ones((1, 2048), device="cuda", dtype=torch.int64)

out = thunder_model(inp)
out.sum().backward()
```

### Speed up HuggingFace BERT inference

```python
import thunder
import torch
import transformers

model_name = "bert-large-uncased"

tokenizer = transformers.AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_name)

with torch.device("cuda"):
model = transformers.AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
model_name, torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16
)
model.requires_grad_(False)
model.eval()

inp = tokenizer(["Hello world!"], return_tensors="pt")

thunder_model = thunder.compile(model, plugins="reduce-overhead")

out = thunder_model(**inp)
print(out)
```

### Speed up HuggingFace DeepSeek R1 distill inference

```python
import torch
import transformers
import thunder

model_name = "deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B"

tokenizer = transformers.AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_name)

with torch.device("cuda"):
model = transformers.AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
model_name, torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16
)
model.requires_grad_(False)
model.eval()

inp = tokenizer(["Hello world! Here's a long story"], return_tensors="pt")

thunder_model = thunder.compile(
model, recipe="hf-transformers", plugins="reduce-overhead"
)

out = thunder_model.generate(
**inp, do_sample=False, cache_implementation="static", max_new_tokens=100
)
print(out)
```

### Speed up Vision Transformer inference

```python
import thunder
import torch
import torchvision as tv

with torch.device(device):
model = tv.models.vit_b_16()
model.requires_grad_(False)
model.eval()

inp = torch.randn(128, 3, 224, 224)

out = model(inp)

thunder_model = thunder.compile(model, plugins="reduce-overhead")

out = thunder_model(inp)
```

## Plugins

Plugins are a way to apply optimizations to a model, such as parallelism and quantization.

Thunder comes with a few plugins included of the box, but it's easy to write new ones.

- scale up with distributed strategies with DDP, FSDP, TP ()
- optimize numerical precision with FP8, MXFP8
- save memory with quantization
- reduce latency with CUDAGraphs
- debugging and profiling

## How it works

Thunder works in three stages:

1. ⚡️ It acquires your model by interpreting Python bytecode and producing a straight-line Python program

1. ️⚡️ It transforms the computation trace to make it distributed, change precision

1. ⚡️ It routes parts of the trace for execution

- fusion (`NVFuser`, `torch.compile`)
- specialized libraries (e.g. `cuDNN SDPA`, `TransformerEngine`)
- custom Triton and CUDA kernels
- PyTorch eager operations

 


Thunder

 

This is how the trace looks like for a simple MLP:

```python
import thunder
import torch.nn as nn

model = nn.Sequential(nn.Linear(1024, 2048), nn.ReLU(), nn.Linear(2048, 256))

thunder_model = thunder.compile(model)
y = thunder_model(torch.randn(4, 1024))

print(thunder.last_traces(thunder_model)[-1])
```

This is the acquired trace, ready to be transformed and executed:

```python
def computation(input, t_0_bias, t_0_weight, t_2_bias, t_2_weight):
# input: "cuda:0 f32[4, 1024]"
# t_0_bias: "cuda:0 f32[2048]"
# t_0_weight: "cuda:0 f32[2048, 1024]"
# t_2_bias: "cuda:0 f32[256]"
# t_2_weight: "cuda:0 f32[256, 2048]"
t3 = ltorch.linear(input, t_0_weight, t_0_bias) # t3: "cuda:0 f32[4, 2048]"
t6 = ltorch.relu(t3, False) # t6: "cuda:0 f32[4, 2048]"
t10 = ltorch.linear(t6, t_2_weight, t_2_bias) # t10: "cuda:0 f32[4, 256]"
return (t10,)
```

Note how Thunder's intermediate representation is just (a subset of) Python!

## Performance

Thunder is fast. Here are the speed-ups obtained on a pre-training task using LitGPT on H100 and B200 hardware, relative to PyTorch eager.


Thunder

# Community

Thunder is an open source project, developed in collaboration with the community with significant contributions from NVIDIA.

💬 [Get help on Discord](https://discord.com/invite/XncpTy7DSt)
📋 [License: Apache 2.0](https://github.com/Lightning-AI/litserve/blob/main/LICENSE)