# Running GLM-5.1 with SGLang and KT-Kernel This tutorial demonstrates how to run GLM-5.1 model inference using SGLang integrated with Ktransformers for CPU-GPU heterogeneous inference. This setup enables efficient deployment of large MoE models by offloading experts to CPU. KT-Kernel supports both BF16 and FP8 precision backends, allowing you to choose between maximum quality and reduced memory footprint. GLM-5.1 introduces thinking mode (enabled by default), interleaved and preserved thinking, and MTP (Multi-Token Prediction) weights for both precisions. ## Table of Contents - [Table of Contents](#table-of-contents) - [Prerequisites](#prerequisites) - [Step 1: Download Model Weights](#step-1-download-model-weights) - [Step 2: Launch SGLang Server](#step-2-launch-sglang-server) - [Step 3: Send Inference Requests](#step-3-send-inference-requests) - [Option A: Interactive Chat with KT CLI](#option-a-interactive-chat-with-kt-cli) - [Option B: OpenAI-Compatible API](#option-b-openai-compatible-api) - [Thinking Mode](#thinking-mode) - [Recommended Parameters](#recommended-parameters) - [Additional Resources](#additional-resources) ## Prerequisites Before starting, ensure you have: 1. **SGLang installed** Install the kvcache-ai fork of SGLang (one of): ```bash # Option A: One-click install (from ktransformers root) ./install.sh # Option B: pip install pip install sglang-kt ``` 2. **KT-Kernel installed** ```bash git clone https://github.com/kvcache-ai/ktransformers.git git submodule update --init --recursive cd kt-kernel && ./install.sh ``` 3. **CUDA toolkit** - CUDA 12.0+ recommended (12.8+ for best FP8 support) 4. **Hugging Face CLI** - For downloading models: ```bash pip install -U huggingface-hub ``` ## Step 1: Download Model Weights Download the GLM-5.1 weights from Hugging Face. Both BF16 and FP8 models include MTP weights. ```bash # FP8 hf download zai-org/GLM-5.1-FP8 \ --local-dir /path/to/GLM-5.1-FP8 # BF16 hf download zai-org/GLM-5.1 \ --local-dir /path/to/GLM-5.1 ``` **Note:** Replace `/path/to/` with your actual storage path throughout this tutorial. ## Step 2: Launch SGLang Server Start the SGLang server with KT-Kernel integration for CPU-GPU heterogeneous inference. ```bash # FP8 Precision export PYTORCH_ALLOC_CONF=expandable_segments:True export SGLANG_ENABLE_JIT_DEEPGEMM=0 python -m sglang.launch_server \ --host 0.0.0.0 \ --port 30000 \ --model /path/to/GLM-5.1-FP8 \ --kt-weight-path /path/to/GLM-5.1-FP8 \ --kt-cpuinfer 96 \ --kt-threadpool-count 2 \ --kt-num-gpu-experts 30 \ --kt-method FP8 \ --kt-gpu-prefill-token-threshold 1024 \ --kt-enable-dynamic-expert-update \ --kt-expert-placement-strategy uniform \ --trust-remote-code \ --mem-fraction-static 0.75 \ --served-model-name GLM5.1 \ --enable-mixed-chunk \ --tensor-parallel-size 8 \ --enable-p2p-check \ --disable-shared-experts-fusion \ --chunked-prefill-size 16384 \ --max-running-requests 4 \ --max-total-tokens 128000 \ --attention-backend flashinfer \ --fp8-gemm-backend cutlass \ --kv-cache-dtype bf16 \ --tool-call-parser glm47 \ --reasoning-parser glm45 \ --watchdog-timeout 3000 # BF16 Precision export PYTORCH_ALLOC_CONF=expandable_segments:True export SGLANG_ENABLE_JIT_DEEPGEMM=0 python -m sglang.launch_server \ --host 0.0.0.0 \ --port 30000 \ --model /path/to/GLM-5.1 \ --kt-weight-path /path/to/GLM-5.1 \ --kt-cpuinfer 96 \ --kt-threadpool-count 2 \ --kt-num-gpu-experts 10 \ --kt-method BF16 \ --kt-gpu-prefill-token-threshold 1024 \ --kt-enable-dynamic-expert-update \ --kt-expert-placement-strategy uniform \ --trust-remote-code \ --mem-fraction-static 0.75 \ --served-model-name GLM5.1 \ --enable-mixed-chunk \ --tensor-parallel-size 8 \ --enable-p2p-check \ --disable-shared-experts-fusion \ --chunked-prefill-size 16384 \ --max-running-requests 4 \ --max-total-tokens 128000 \ --attention-backend flashinfer \ --tool-call-parser glm47 \ --reasoning-parser glm45 \ --watchdog-timeout 3000 ``` Layerwise prefill requires one extra MoE layer's worth of VRAM. If you encounter OOM, adjust `--kt-num-gpu-experts`, `--chunked-prefill-size`, `--mem-fraction-static` and `--max-total-tokens` when launching the server. If you encounter other issues, try `kt doctor` to diagnose your setup. See [KT-Kernel Parameters](https://github.com/kvcache-ai/ktransformers/tree/main/kt-kernel#kt-kernel-parameters) for detailed parameter tuning guidelines. ## Step 3: Send Inference Requests Once the server is running (default: `http://localhost:30000`), you can interact with the model in several ways: ### Option A: Interactive Chat with KT CLI The easiest way to chat with the model: ```bash kt chat ``` This opens an interactive terminal chat session. Type your messages and press Enter to send. Use `Ctrl+C` to exit. ### Option B: OpenAI-Compatible API The server exposes an OpenAI-compatible API at `http://localhost:30000/v1`. **curl example (streaming):** ```bash curl http://localhost:30000/v1/chat/completions \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "model": "GLM5.1", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "hi, who are you?"}], "stream": true }' ``` ## Thinking Mode GLM-5.1 has **thinking mode enabled by default**. It supports two reasoning modes: - **Interleaved Thinking** - Recommended for general conversation scenarios - **Interleaved + Preserved Thinking** - Recommended for agentic workflows, especially code agents (e.g., Claude Code, Roo Code, Kilo Code) To enable **interleaved + preserved thinking** with SGLang, pass the following parameters in your API request: ```json "chat_template_kwargs": { "enable_thinking": true, "clear_thinking": false } ``` To **disable** thinking mode: ```json "chat_template_kwargs": { "enable_thinking": false } ``` ## Recommended Parameters **Default settings (suitable for most tasks):** - temperature: 1.0 - top-p: 0.95 - max new tokens: 131072 **Terminal Bench:** - temperature: 0.7 - top-p: 1.0 - max new tokens: 16384 - context length: 202752 **Tau2-Bench:** - temperature: 0 - max new tokens: 16384 For multi-turn agentic tasks (e.g., Tau2-Bench and Terminal Bench 2), enable **preserved thinking mode**. ## Additional Resources - [GLM-5.1 Model Card](https://huggingface.co/zai-org/GLM-5.1) - [KT-Kernel Documentation](../../../kt-kernel/README.md) - [SGLang GitHub](https://github.com/sgl-project/sglang) - [KT-Kernel Parameters Reference](../../../kt-kernel/README.md#kt-kernel-parameters) - [Thinking Mode Guide](https://docs.z.ai/guides/capabilities/thinking-mode)