docs: QLoRA Documentation and Notebooks

Author: RexBearIU

.github/workflows/run_jupyter_notebooks.yml

@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ jobs:
           # Run Hugging Face authentication
           hf auth login --token "$HF_TOKEN"
 
-          for notebook in "$MAXTEXT_NOTEBOOKS_ROOT"/{sft,rl}*.ipynb; do
+          for notebook in "$MAXTEXT_NOTEBOOKS_ROOT"/{sft,rl,lora}*.ipynb; do
             filename=$(basename "$notebook")
             # TODO: Update runnner to v6e-8 as RL with LLama3.1-8b doesn't fit on v6e-4
             if [[ "$filename" == "sft_llama3_demo_gpu.ipynb" || "$filename" == "maxtext_with_gepa.ipynb" ]]; then

docs/guides.md

@@ -63,6 +63,13 @@ Interactive development guides for running MaxText on Google Colab or local Jupy
 A step-by-step guide for the community to help expand MaxText's model library.
 :::
 
+:::{grid-item-card} 🎗️ LoRA Model Bringup
+:link: guides/lora_model_bringup
+:link-type: doc
+
+Learn how to integrate Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) support for a new model architecture.
+:::
+
 :::{grid-item-card} 🎓 Distillation
 :link: guides/distillation
 :link-type: doc
@@ -89,6 +96,7 @@ guides/checkpointing_solutions.md
 guides/monitoring_and_debugging.md
 guides/run_python_notebook.md
 guides/model_bringup.md
+guides/lora_model_bringup.md
 guides/distillation.md
 guides/eval_framework.md
 ```

docs/guides/lora_model_bringup.md

@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+<!--
+ Copyright 2026 Google LLC
+
+ Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+      https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+ Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ limitations under the License.
+ -->
+
+# Adding a New Model for LoRA Fine-Tuning
+
+This guide explains how to add Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) support for a new model architecture in MaxText.
+
+MaxText leverages [Tunix](https://github.com/google/tunix) and [Qwix](https://github.com/google/qwix) to support Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT) on JAX/NNX model definitions. Since the architecture uses modular APIs, adding LoRA support for a new model is highly streamlined.
+
+______________________________________________________________________
+
+## 1. Step-by-Step Bring-up Guide for NNX LoRA
+
+To enable LoRA support for a new model, follow these two simple steps:
+
+### Step 1.1: Verify Base Model Support
+
+The target model architecture must already be implemented and supported as a base model in MaxText.
+
+- The JAX/NNX model definition should be located under `src/maxtext/models/` (e.g., \[gemma3.py\](file:///home/jackyf_google_com/maxtext/src/maxtext/models/gemma3.py)).
+- The model configurations must be registered and runnable for baseline pre-training or full fine-tuning.
+
+### Step 1.2: Define Trainable LoRA Target Modules
+
+Add a recommended target pattern for your model architecture prefix in \[src/maxtext/configs/post_train/lora_module_path.yml\](file:///home/jackyf_google_com/maxtext/src/maxtext/configs/post_train/lora_module_path.yml):
+
+```yaml
+your_model_prefix: "decoder/layers/.*(self_attention/(query|key|value|out)|mlp/(wi_0|wi_1|wo))"
+```
+
+> [!NOTE]
+> MaxText's `_get_lora_module_path` in `lora_utils.py` automatically handles both **scanned** (e.g., `layers/0/self_attention/...`) and **unscanned** (e.g., `layers/self_attention/...`) layer formats by injecting an optional layer index regex. You only need to define standard, unscanned paths.
+
+If no prefix matches your model name, MaxText falls back to the `default` pattern:
+
+```yaml
+default: "decoder/layers/.*(self_attention/(query|key|value|out)|mlp/(wi_0|wi_1|wo))"
+```
+
+______________________________________________________________________
+
+## 2. Integrating Custom Weight Mappings (When is it needed?)
+
+Determining whether you need to implement custom weight mappings depends entirely on your downstream workflow:
+
+### Scenario A: SFT Training & Conversion to PEFT (No Mapping Needed)
+
+If you only need to run SFT fine-tuning with LoRA and then export the adapter back to Hugging Face format using `to_huggingface.py`, **you do not need to write any custom weight mappings.**
+
+- The conversion utility automatically maps, scales, and formats the LoRA adapter parameters back into standard Hugging Face PEFT format based on the base model's existing weight mapping.
+
+### Scenario B: Decoding with the MaxText vLLM Adapter (Mapping is Required)
+
+If you want to perform decoding or run high-performance serving on your adapted model using the **MaxText vLLM adapter** (e.g., via `vllm_decode`), **you must define and register a custom weight mapping.** This allows the vLLM JAX wrapper to dynamically map and feed weights to the vLLM engine.
+
+To add weight mapping for vLLM decode:
+
+1. **Create a Weight Mapping Config**:
+   Create a new file in \[src/maxtext/integration/tunix/weight_mapping/\](file:///home/jackyf_google_com/maxtext/src/maxtext/integration/tunix/weight_mapping/) (e.g., `your_model.py`) defining a mapping dataclass. You can refer to \[gemma3.py\](file:///home/jackyf_google_com/maxtext/src/maxtext/integration/tunix/weight_mapping/gemma3.py) or \[llama3.py\](file:///home/jackyf_google_com/maxtext/src/maxtext/integration/tunix/weight_mapping/llama3.py) as templates.
+
+   Your class should specify:
+
+   - `to_hf_mapping()`: Maps MaxText base parameters to Hugging Face parameters and specifies their sharding axes.
+   - `to_hf_hook_fns()`: Custom hook functions for complex weight transformations (e.g., RoPE reordering or query scaling).
+   - `lora_to_hf_mappings()`: Custom mapping for LoRA weights if they require different handling.
+
+2. **Register the Mapping**:
+   Register your new class in \[src/maxtext/integration/tunix/weight_mapping/__init__.py\](file:///home/jackyf_google_com/maxtext/src/maxtext/integration/tunix/weight_mapping/__init__.py) inside the `StandaloneVllmWeightMapping` class:
+
+   ```python
+   # Inside StandaloneVllmWeightMapping
+   if name.startswith("your_model_name"):
+       return YOUR_MODEL_VLLM_MAPPING
+   ```

docs/guides/model_bringup.md

@@ -134,6 +134,10 @@ Please ensure all items on the following checklist are completed before finalizi
 
 - [ ] Create a user guide and post an announcement in the MaxText repo.
 
+5. (Optional) LoRA Support
+
+- [ ] Integrate LoRA support for the newly onboarded model by following the [LoRA Model Bringup Guide](lora_model_bringup.md).
+
 ## Community Q&A (FAQ)
 
 **Q: How do I debug code inside a JAX JIT function?**

docs/tutorials/post_training_index.md

@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ MaxText was co-designed with key Google led innovations to provide a unified pos
   - [SFT on Multi-Host TPUs](./posttraining/sft_on_multi_host.md)
 - **LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation)**
   - [LoRA on Single-Host TPUs](./posttraining/lora.md)
+  - [LoRA on Multi-Host TPUs](./posttraining/lora_on_multi_host.md)
 - **DPO (Direct Preference Optimization) and ORPO (Odds-Ratio Policy Optimization)**
   - [DPO/ORPO on Single-Host TPUs](./posttraining/dpo.md)
 - **Multimodal SFT**

docs/tutorials/posttraining/lora.md

@@ -60,7 +60,6 @@ export DATASET_NAME=<DATASET_NAME> # e.g., openai/gsm8k
 export TRAIN_SPLIT=<TRAIN_SPLIT> # e.g., train
 export HF_DATA_DIR=<DATASET_PATH> # e.g., main
 export TRAIN_DATA_COLUMNS=<DATA_COLUMNS> # e.g., ['question','answer']
-export CHAT_TEMPLATE_PATH=<TEMPLATE_PATH> # e.g., maxtext/examples/chat_templates/math_qa.json
 
 # -- LoRA Conversion configuration (Optional) --
 export HF_LORA_ADAPTER_PATH=<HF_LORA_ADAPTER_PATH> # e.g., 'username/adapter-name'
@@ -118,7 +117,6 @@ python3 -m maxtext.trainers.post_train.sft.train_sft \
     per_device_batch_size="${PER_DEVICE_BATCH_SIZE?}" \
     max_target_length="${MAX_TARGET_LENGTH?}" \
     learning_rate="${LEARNING_RATE?}" \
-    chat_template_path="${CHAT_TEMPLATE_PATH?}" \
     enable_nnx=True \
     pure_nnx_decoder=True \
     lora.enable_lora=True \
@@ -176,7 +174,6 @@ python3 -m maxtext.trainers.post_train.sft.train_sft \
     per_device_batch_size="${PER_DEVICE_BATCH_SIZE?}" \
     max_target_length="${MAX_TARGET_LENGTH?}" \
     learning_rate="${LEARNING_RATE?}" \
-    chat_template_path="${CHAT_TEMPLATE_PATH?}" \
     enable_nnx=True \
     pure_nnx_decoder=True \
     lora.enable_lora=True \