Codex review on the native-engine routing:
- The /images/load route took the GPU arbiter (acquire_for(DIFFUSION) -> evict chat)
unconditionally after engine selection. A native sd.cpp load on a pure-CPU host
never touches the GPU, so that needlessly tore down the resident chat model. The
handoff is now gated: diffusers always takes it, a force-native sd.cpp load on a
CUDA/XPU/MPS box still takes it, but a native sd.cpp load on a CPU host skips it.
- sd_cpp status() hardcoded offload_policy 'none' / cpu_offload False even when
_run_load computed real offload flags (balanced/low_vram/cpu_offload off-CPU), so
the setting was unverifiable. status now derives them from state.offload_flags
(still 'none' on CPU, where the flags are empty).
- _run_load committed the new state without cancelling/waiting on a generation that
started during the (slow) asset download, so a stale sd-cli run against the OLD
model could finish afterward and persist an image from the previous model once the
new load reported ready. The commit now signals the in-flight cancel and waits on
_generate_lock before swapping _state (taken only at commit, so the download never
serialises against generation), mirroring the diffusers load path.
Tests: CPU native load skips the arbiter while a GPU native load takes it; status
reports offload active when flags are set; _run_load cancels and waits for an
in-flight generation before committing.
- sd_cpp_backend: stop truncating explicit seeds to 53 bits (mask to int64);
a large requested seed was silently collapsed (2**53 -> 0) and distinct seeds
aliased to the same image. Random seeds stay 53-bit (JS-safe).
- sd_cpp_backend: sanitize empty/whitespace hf_token to None so HfApi/hf_hub
fall back to anonymous instead of failing auth on a blank token.
- sd_cpp_backend: a superseding load now cancels the in-flight generation, so the
old sd-cli can no longer return/persist an image from the previous model.
- diffusion_engine_router: run the previous engine's unload() OUTSIDE the lock so a
slow 10+ GB free / CUDA sync does not block engine selection.
- diffusion_engine_router: probe sd-cli runnability (version()) before committing to
native, so a present-but-unrunnable binary falls back to diffusers at selection.
- diffusion_device: resolve a torch-free CPU target when torch is unavailable, so a
CPU-only install can still reach the native sd.cpp engine instead of failing load.
- tests updated for the runnability probe + a not-runnable fallback case.
When no CUDA/ROCm/XPU GPU is available, route diffusion load/generate to the
native stable-diffusion.cpp engine instead of diffusers, with diffusers as the
guaranteed fallback. On CPU sd.cpp is 1.4-2.8x faster and uses 1.5-2.2x less RAM.
- diffusion_engine_router: centralised engine selection (built on the existing
select_diffusion_engine), env opt-outs, MPS gating, recorded fallback reason.
- sd_cpp_backend (SdCppDiffusionBackend): the diffusers backend method surface
backed by sd-cli, with lazy binary install, registry-driven asset fetch,
step-progress parsing, and cancellation.
- diffusion_families: per-family single-file VAE + text-encoder asset mapping.
- sd_cpp_engine: cancellation support (process-group kill + SdCppCancelled).
- routes/inference + gpu_arbiter: drive the active engine via the router; the
API now reports the active engine and any fallback reason.
- tests for the backend, router, route selection, and cancellation.
Add opt-in step caching (First-Block-Cache) for the diffusion transformer. Across
denoise steps a DiT's output settles, so once the first block's residual barely
changes the remaining blocks are skipped and their cached output reused. diffusers
ships it natively (FirstBlockCacheConfig + transformer.enable_cache, with the
standalone apply_first_block_cache hook as a fallback).
Measured on Flux.1-dev (28 steps, 1024px): ~1.4x on top of torch.compile (2.83 ->
2.03s) at LPIPS ~0.08 vs the no-cache output, well inside the quality bar.
OFF by default and a per-load opt-in: the win scales with step count, so it is for
many-step models (Flux / Qwen-Image) and pointless for few-step distilled models
(e.g. Z-Image-Turbo at ~8 steps), where a single skipped step is a large fraction
of the trajectory. It composes with regional compile only with fullgraph=False (the
cache's per-step decision is a torch.compiler.disable graph break), which the speed
layer now switches to automatically when a cache is engaged. Best-effort: a model
whose block signature the hook does not recognise is caught and the load proceeds
uncached.
- new core/inference/diffusion_cache.py: normalize_transformer_cache + apply_step_cache
(enable_cache / apply_first_block_cache fallback; threshold auto-raised for a
quantised transformer per ParaAttention's fp8 guidance; lazy diffusers import).
- diffusion_speed.py: apply_speed_optims takes cache_active; compile drops fullgraph
when a cache is engaged.
- diffusion.py: apply_step_cache before compile; thread transformer_cache /
transformer_cache_threshold through begin_load -> load_pipeline and report the
engaged mode in status().
- models/inference.py + routes/inference.py: transformer_cache (off | fbcache) and
transformer_cache_threshold request fields, engaged mode in the status response.
- hermetic tests for normalisation, the enable_cache / hook-fallback paths, threshold
selection, and best-effort failure handling, plus route threading + validation.
- scripts/fbcache_flux_probe.py: the Flux validation probe (latency / speedup / VRAM /
LPIPS vs the compiled no-cache baseline).
Add a selectable attention kernel via the diffusers set_attention_backend
dispatcher. Attention is memory-bandwidth bound, so a better kernel is an
end-to-end win orthogonal to the linear-weight quantisation (it speeds the QK/PV
matmuls torchao never touches) and composes with torch.compile.
auto picks the best exact backend for the device: cuDNN fused attention
(_native_cudnn) on NVIDIA when a speed profile is active, measured ~1.18x
end-to-end on a B200 (Z-Image 1024px/8 steps) with LPIPS ~0.004 vs the default
(below the compile/quant noise floor); native SDPA elsewhere and when speed=off
(so off stays bit-identical). Explicit native/cudnn/flash/flash3/flash4/sage/
xformers/aiter are honored, and an unavailable kernel falls back to the default
rather than failing the load.
New core/inference/diffusion_attention.py (normalize + per-device select + apply,
best-effort, lazy imports). Set on pipe.transformer BEFORE compile in load_pipeline;
attention_backend threads through begin_load / load_pipeline / status like the other
load knobs. New request field attention_backend + status field. Hermetic CPU tests
for normalize / select policy / apply fallback, plus route threading + 422. Measured
via scripts/perf_levers_probe.py.
The Phase 8 fast transformer_quant path materialises the dense bf16 transformer on
the GPU and torchao-quantises it in place, so its load peak is ~2x GGUF's (~21 vs
13.4 GB) plus a ~12 GB download. Add a pre-quantized branch: quantise once offline
(scripts/build_prequant_checkpoint.py) and at runtime build the transformer skeleton
on the meta device (accelerate.init_empty_weights) and load_state_dict(assign=True)
the quantized weights, so the dense bf16 never touches the GPU.
Measured (B200, Z-Image fp8): full-pipeline GPU load peak 21.2 -> 14.6 GB (matching
GGUF's 13.4), on-disk 12 -> 6.28 GB, output bit-identical (LPIPS 0.0). It is the same
torchao config + min_features filter the runtime path uses, applied ahead of time.
New core/inference/diffusion_prequant.py (resolve_prequant_source +
load_prequantized_transformer, best-effort, lazy imports). diffusion.py
_load_dense_quant_pipeline tries the pre-quant source first and falls back to the
dense materialise+quantise path, then to GGUF, so the default is unchanged.
DiffusionLoadRequest gains transformer_prequant_path; DiffusionFamily gains an empty
prequant_repos map for hosted checkpoints (hosting deferred). Hermetic CPU tests for
the resolver, the meta-init+assign loader, and the backend branch selection +
fallbacks; GPU verification via scripts/verify_prequant_backend.py.
Consumer/workstation GPUs (GDDR) halve fp8 FP32-accumulate throughput, so they want
fast (FP16) accumulate; data-center HBM parts (B200/H100/A100/L40) are not nerfed and
prefer the higher-precision FP32 accumulate. Add _is_consumer_gpu() (token-exact match
on the device name per NVIDIA's GPU list, so workstation A4000 != data-center A40;
GeForce/TITAN and unknown default to consumer) and gate the fp8 use_fast_accum on it.
Measured: fast accumulate is ~2x on consumer Blackwell and ~8% on B200 (0.608 vs 0.665s),
no overflow, quality below the quant noise floor. So the default leans to accuracy on
data-center; a new request field transformer_quant_fast_accum (null=auto, true/false=force)
lets the operator override per load (scripts/diffusion_bench.py --fp8-fast-accum auto|on|off).
187 diffusion tests pass (+ consumer detection, _resolve_fast_accum, and the override
threading).
Add an opt-in transformer_quant mode that loads the dense bf16 transformer and
torchao-quantises it onto the low-precision tensor cores, instead of the GGUF
transformer (which dequantises to bf16 per matmul and so runs at bf16 rate). On a
B200 (Z-Image-Turbo, 1024px/8 steps): auto picks fp8 at 0.614s vs GGUF+compile's
0.823s (1.34x), int8 0.626s (1.32x), both at lower LPIPS than GGUF's own 4-bit floor.
GGUF+compile stays the low-memory default and the fallback. The mode is gated on
CUDA + bf16 + resident VRAM headroom (the dense load peaks ~21GB vs GGUF's 13GB);
any unsupported arch/scheme, OOM, or quant failure falls back to GGUF with a logged
reason. auto picks the best scheme per GPU via a real quantise+matmul smoke probe
(Blackwell nvfp4/fp8/mxfp8, Ada/Hopper fp8, Ampere int8); a min-features filter skips
the tiny projections that crash int8's torch._int_mm. New module mirrors
diffusion_precision.py; quant runs before compile before placement.
184 -> tests pass; new test_diffusion_transformer_quant.py plus backend/route
coverage. scripts/diffusion_bench.py gains --transformer-quant; scripts/quant_probe.py
is the standalone torchao lever probe.
Add a lean, backend-agnostic memory policy that picks a CPU-offload policy and
VAE tiling/slicing from measured free device memory vs the model's estimated
resident footprint, then applies it to the built pipeline. auto stays resident
when the model fits (byte-identical to the prior resident path), and falls to
whole-module offload when tight; fast/balanced/low_vram are explicit overrides.
Sequential submodule offload is unreliable for GGUF transformers on diffusers
0.38, so it falls back to whole-module offload and status reports the policy
actually engaged.
Verified on Z-Image-Turbo Q4_K_M (B200): auto reproduces the resident image with
no VRAM/latency regression (PSNR inf); balanced/low_vram cut generation peak VRAM
47.9% (15951 -> 8318 MB) with byte-identical output, at the expected latency cost.
73 prior + 35 new CPU tests pass.
Phase 1 of porting the richer diffusion stack onto the image-generation backend.
- Add a compartmentalized device/dtype policy module (diffusion_device.py)
resolving CUDA/ROCm/XPU/MPS/CPU with capability flags. Keeps the NVIDIA
capability-based bf16 choice; ROCm and XPU are isolated; MPS uses bf16 or
fp32, never a silent fp16 that renders a black image.
- Add a per-family fp16_incompatible flag (Z-Image) and promote a resolved
float16 to float32 for those families so they do not produce black images.
- Split the backend locks: a generation holds only _generate_lock, so status,
unload, and a new load are never blocked by a long denoise. Add per-generation
cancellation via callback_on_step_end so an eviction or a superseding load
preempts a running generation; a replacement load waits for it to stop before
allocating, so two pipelines never sit in VRAM at once.
- Validate a load request before the GPU handoff so an unloadable pick never
evicts a working chat model, and reject missing local paths up front.
- Add CPU-only tests for the device policy, dtype guard, lock split and
cancellation, and validate-before-evict, plus a GPU benchmark/regression
script (scripts/diffusion_bench.py) measuring latency, peak VRAM, and PSNR
against a saved reference.
