benchmark-model

Testing & Quality

Scaffold the setup + eval scripts to run one model on the TabArena benchmark cluster. Use this skill whenever a maintainer wants to benchmark an already-integrated model — e.g. "benchmark TabM", "run Nori on the cluster", "create a setup/eval script for DenseLight", "I want to launch <model> on TabArena and evaluate it". Generates a single `tmp_scripts/run_<model>.py` with `setup` and `eval` subcommands that share one benchmark_name + paths (so they cannot drift), auto-filling GPU/CPU, eval subsets, the install reminder, foundation-model prefetch from the model's registry `info.py`, and — mandatory for GPU models — the VRAM budget (`fake_memory_for_estimates`; asks the user when the partition's VRAM is not inferable). Complements `add-model` (integrate a model) and `upload-method` (publish its results).

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Benchmark a Model on TabArena

This skill scaffolds the throwaway experiment scripts a maintainer runs to launch one already-integrated model on the SLURM cluster and then evaluate it. It replaces the old two-file pattern (run_setup_<model>.py + run_eval_<model>.py) with one tmp_scripts/run_<model>.py exposing setup and eval subcommands.

Why one file: setup and eval must use the same benchmark_name and PathSetup (workspace + python_path) — the eval side reads the raw results from path_setup.get_output_path(benchmark_name)/data that setup wrote. Splitting them across two files makes that identity drift. Here it is defined once at the top (BENCHMARK_NAME, WORKSPACE, PYTHON_PATH, MODEL) and read by both.

The generated file is a verbatim, self-contained plan (no hidden helpers) so its setup() body can be copied into packages/tabflow_slurm/BENCHMARK_LOG.md, and it lands in gitignored tmp_scripts/.

The golden template is references/run_benchmark_template.py — copy it and fill the <...> / # EDIT markers. Do not hand-write the structure.

Step 0: Gather inputs

Parse $ARGUMENTS. Collect (ask only for what's missing or a genuine judgment call):

Input	Example	Default / source
`MODEL`	`"TabM"`	required — the registry name (see Step 1)
`BENCHMARK_NAME`	`"tabm_26062026"`	`<model-lowercased>_<DDMMYYYY>` using today's date
`NUM_CONFIGS`	`0`, `25`, `"all"`	`0` if the model has no HPO search space, else ask (foundation models → `0`; tunable models → `"all"` or a capped int under compute limits)
task scope	full / lite / regression / dataset names	`TaskSubset()` — the full task set (all splits); `TaskSubset(subset="lite")` for a quick first-split smoke run
`gpu_partition`	`"gpurtxpro6000spotinteractive"`	that partition (the current default GPU node); ask if a bigger GPU is needed
`fake_memory_for_estimates`	`96`	required for every GPU model — the partition's VRAM in GB (see Step 1a); ask the user if you cannot determine the VRAM from context
per-run overrides	`time_limit`	none unless the model/partition needs them

WORKSPACE and PYTHON_PATH default to the values in the template (the shared cluster workspace + the tabarena_18062026 venv). Keep them unless the user names a different venv/workspace.

Step 1: Introspect the model registry (auto-fill the mechanical bits)

Given MODEL, read the model's contribution under packages/tabarena/src/tabarena/models/<key>/ and derive:

Derived value	Where to read it	Drives
compute (`"cpu"`/`"gpu"`)	`info.py` → `ModelDescriptor(compute=...)` / `MethodMetadata.compute`	`resources={"num_gpus": 1}` + `name="gpu"` for GPU; drop the override + `name="cpu"` for CPU
problem types	`model.py` → `supported_problem_types()` (a classmethod returning a subset of `["binary","multiclass","regression"]`, or `None`/absent = all types)	the eval `subsets`: all-types → `[[], ["binary"], ["multiclass"], ["regression"]]` (`[]` = the full set / overall leaderboard); regression-only (e.g. Nori) → `[["regression"]]` and scope setup with `task_subset=TaskSubset(subset="regression")`
HPO search space	`info.py` → `search_space` (a `gen_<key>` generator); empty/absent ⇒ no HPO	default `NUM_CONFIGS` (foundation models with no real search space → `0`)
pip extra	`info.py` → `ModelInfo(pip_extra=...)`	the "install into the run venv" reminder in the docstring + Step 4
weights prefetch	`info.py` → `ModelInfo(prefetch_weights=...)` (not `None` ⇒ foundation model)	a docstring note that the checkpoint is fetched from HF by the registry before the fits (no per-script action)
static memory estimate	`model.py` → `_estimate_memory_usage_static` / `can_estimate_memory_usage_static`	whether `fake_memory_for_estimates` can actually cap fold-parallelism (Step 1a caveat)

Prefer reading these files over importing the model (no optional deps needed). If the venv already has the model installed, you may confirm quickly with: <PYTHON_PATH> -c "from tabarena.models.utils import get_model_info_from_name as g; i=g('<MODEL>'); print(i.method_metadata.compute, i.pip_extra, i.prefetch_weights, i.model_cls.supported_problem_types())"

Step 1a: GPU model ⇒ always set `fake_memory_for_estimates`

Every GPU job must carry "fake_memory_for_estimates": <VRAM_GB> in its ModelJob.resources. AutoGluon budgets parallel bagging folds by comparing the model's memory estimate against the reported memory limit (node RAM by default) and splits the GPU only fractionally — VRAM is never accounted. On a RAM-rich node, 8 folds co-schedule on one card and OOM it (this killed every APSFailure fit of the first tabm_26062026 TabM run: ~12 GiB VRAM × 8 folds on a 95 GiB card). Reporting the VRAM as the budget makes the same scheduling arithmetic cap folds by VRAM; RAM-wise it only makes the budget more conservative, which is safe on the VRAM<RAM nodes we use.

Determine <VRAM_GB> from context: the chosen gpu_partition (gpurtxpro6000spotinteractive → RTX PRO 6000 → 96), the user's request, or the node notes in packages/tabflow_slurm/src/tabflow_slurm/setup/resources.py (BeyondArenaResourcesSetup: 40/80/96 GB nodes). If the partition's VRAM cannot be determined from context, ask the user — do not guess.
CPU models: never set it (their estimate must be compared against real RAM).
Caveat — the cap works through the model's estimate: if can_estimate_memory_usage_static=False (e.g. TabFM, TabSwift), AutoGluon falls back to a small data-size estimate and fold-parallelism stays at 8 regardless. Still set the value, but tell the maintainer to sanity-check per-fold VRAM × 8 (or pin num_folds_parallel via ag_args_ensemble) before launching.

Step 2: Generate `tmp_scripts/run_<model>.py`

Copy references/run_benchmark_template.py to tmp_scripts/run_<model-key>.py and fill every marker: the module docstring notes, BENCHMARK_NAME, MODEL, NUM_CONFIGS, the ModelJob resources (GPU: num_gpus plus the mandatory fake_memory_for_estimates from Step 1a; any time_limit), task_subset, gpu_partition, and the eval subsets. The template defaults to the full task set (TaskSubset()) and emits both PDF and PNG figures (figure_file_type=("pdf", "png")); narrow task_subset and subsets to lite for a quick smoke run. Remove the guidance comments that don't apply so the result reads like the existing per-model scripts. Keep it importable and lint-clean (from __future__ import annotations, 120-col).

For a CPU model: drop resources={"num_gpus": 1}, set name="cpu", and use scheduler_setup=GCPSlurmSetup(cpu_partition=...). For a local, no-SLURM run, swap GCPSlurmSetup for LocalSequentialSetup(continue_on_error=True) and python_path=sys.executable (see packages/tabflow_slurm/experiments/run_tabarena_v0pt1_local.py).

Step 3: Report the workflow + reminders

Give the maintainer the two commands and the pre-req:

# 1. one-time: install the model's extra into the run venv (if pip_extra is non-empty)
<PYTHON_PATH> -m pip install <pip_extra...>
# 2. launch on the cluster
<PYTHON_PATH> tmp_scripts/run_<model>.py setup
# 3. after the run completes, evaluate
<PYTHON_PATH> tmp_scripts/run_<model>.py eval

Then offer to record the run in packages/tabflow_slurm/BENCHMARK_LOG.md (newest-first entry, current git SHA, the verbatim setup() body, and the why in the notes) — that log is committed even though the script is not.

Notes

The scripts target TabArena-v0.1 (TabArenaContext + TabArenaV0pt1ExperimentBundle + TabArenaEvalConfig). BeyondArena is a different eval shape (BeyondArenaContext, BeyondArenaEvalConfig, BenchmarkRun comparisons) — for that, adapt packages/tabflow_slurm/experiments/run_beyondarena.py instead.
benchmark_name is a cache key: reuse it unchanged across reruns/eval; change it only for a genuinely new run.
ModelJob(name=...) groups jobs by hardware — models with the same name share one sbatch command. Give GPU and CPU models different names to split them.