File size: 10,679 Bytes
050bde4
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
81716d6
 
 
 
050bde4
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
---
library_name: transformers
license: other
license_name: lfm1.0
license_link: LICENSE
language:
- en
- ar
- zh
- fr
- de
- ja
- ko
- es
pipeline_tag: text-generation
tags:
- liquid
- lfm2
- edge
---

<center>
<div style="text-align: center;">
  <img 
    src="https://cdn-uploads.huggingface.co/production/uploads/61b8e2ba285851687028d395/2b08LKpev0DNEk6DlnWkY.png" 
    alt="Liquid AI"
    style="width: 100%; max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;"
  />
</div>
<div style="display: flex; justify-content: center; gap: 0.5em;">
  <a href="https://playground.liquid.ai/chat">
<a href="https://playground.liquid.ai/"><strong>Try LFM</strong></a> β€’ <a href="https://docs.liquid.ai/lfm"><strong>Documentation</strong></a> β€’ <a href="https://leap.liquid.ai/"><strong>LEAP</strong></a></a>
</div>
</center>

# LFM2-2.6B-Exp

LFM2-2.6B-Exp is an experimental checkpoint built on [LFM2-2.6B](https://huggingface.co/LiquidAI/LFM2-2.6B) using pure reinforcement learning.

Specifically trained on instruction following, knowledge, and math, it delivers particularly strong performance compared to other 3B models. 
In particular, its IFBench score surpasses DeepSeek R1-0528, a model 263 times larger.

![LFM2.6B-Exp-White_v1](https://cdn-uploads.huggingface.co/production/uploads/61b8e2ba285851687028d395/5q5J1GZ-gAfguC1qafr8S.png)

Find more information about LFM2 in our [blog post](https://www.liquid.ai/blog/liquid-foundation-models-v2-our-second-series-of-generative-ai-models).

## πŸ“„ Model details

Due to their small size, **we recommend fine-tuning LFM2 models on narrow use cases** to maximize performance. 
They are particularly suited for agentic tasks, data extraction, RAG, creative writing, and multi-turn conversations. 
However, we do not recommend using them for tasks that are knowledge-intensive or require programming skills.

| Property            | [**LFM2-350M**](https://huggingface.co/LiquidAI/LFM2-350M) | [**LFM2-700M**](https://huggingface.co/LiquidAI/LFM2-700M) | [**LFM2-1.2B**](https://huggingface.co/LiquidAI/LFM2-1.2B) | [**LFM2-2.6B**](https://huggingface.co/LiquidAI/LFM2-2.6B) |
| ------------------- | ----------------------------- | ----------------------------- | ----------------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| **Parameters**      | 354,483,968                   | 742,489,344                   | 1,170,340,608                 | 2,569,272,320                 |
| **Layers**          | 16 (10 conv + 6 attn)         | 16 (10 conv + 6 attn)         | 16 (10 conv + 6 attn)         | 30 (22 conv + 8 attn)         |
| **Context length**  | 32,768 tokens                 | 32,768 tokens                 | 32,768 tokens                 | 32,768 tokens                 |
| **Vocabulary size** | 65,536                        | 65,536                        | 65,536                        | 65,536                        |
| **Precision**       | bfloat16                      | bfloat16                      | bfloat16                      | bfloat16                      |
| **Training budget** | 10 trillion tokens            | 10 trillion tokens            | 10 trillion tokens            | 10 trillion tokens            |
| **License**         | LFM Open License v1.0         | LFM Open License v1.0         | LFM Open License v1.0         | LFM Open License v1.0         

**Supported languages**: English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.

**Generation parameters**: We recommend the following parameters:
* `temperature=0.3`
* `min_p=0.15`
* `repetition_penalty=1.05`

**Chat template**: LFM2 uses a ChatML-like chat template as follows:

```
<|startoftext|><|im_start|>system
You are a helpful assistant trained by Liquid AI.<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
What is C. elegans?<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
It's a tiny nematode that lives in temperate soil environments.<|im_end|>
```

You can automatically apply it using the dedicated [`.apply_chat_template()`](https://huggingface.co/docs/transformers/en/chat_templating#applychattemplate) function from Hugging Face transformers.

**Tool use**: It consists of four main steps:
1. **Function definition**: LFM2 takes JSON function definitions as input (JSON objects between `<|tool_list_start|>` and `<|tool_list_end|>` special tokens), usually in the system prompt
2. **Function call**: LFM2 writes Pythonic function calls (a Python list between `<|tool_call_start|>` and `<|tool_call_end|>` special tokens), as the assistant answer.
3. **Function execution**: The function call is executed and the result is returned (string between `<|tool_response_start|>` and `<|tool_response_end|>` special tokens), as a "tool" role.
4. **Final answer**: LFM2 interprets the outcome of the function call to address the original user prompt in plain text.

Here is a simple example of a conversation using tool use:

```
<|startoftext|><|im_start|>system
List of tools: <|tool_list_start|>[{"name": "get_candidate_status", "description": "Retrieves the current status of a candidate in the recruitment process", "parameters": {"type": "object", "properties": {"candidate_id": {"type": "string", "description": "Unique identifier for the candidate"}}, "required": ["candidate_id"]}}]<|tool_list_end|><|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
What is the current status of candidate ID 12345?<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
<|tool_call_start|>[get_candidate_status(candidate_id="12345")]<|tool_call_end|>Checking the current status of candidate ID 12345.<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>tool
<|tool_response_start|>[{"candidate_id": "12345", "status": "Interview Scheduled", "position": "Clinical Research Associate", "date": "2023-11-20"}]<|tool_response_end|><|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
The candidate with ID 12345 is currently in the "Interview Scheduled" stage for the position of Clinical Research Associate, with an interview date set for 2023-11-20.<|im_end|>
```

You can directly pass tools as JSON schema or Python functions with `.apply_chat_template()` as shown in [this page](https://huggingface.co/docs/transformers/en/chat_extras) to automatically format the system prompt.

**Architecture**: Hybrid model with multiplicative gates and short convolutions: 10 double-gated short-range LIV convolution blocks and 6 grouped query attention (GQA) blocks.

**Pre-training mixture**: Approximately 75% English, 20% multilingual, and 5% code data sourced from the web and licensed materials.

**Training approach**:
* Very large-scale SFT on 50% downstream tasks, 50% general domains
* Custom DPO with length normalization and semi-online datasets
* Iterative model merging
* Reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards

## πŸƒ How to run LFM2

### 1. Transformers

To run LFM2, you need to install Hugging Face [`transformers`](https://github.com/huggingface/transformers) v4.55 or a more recent version as follows:

```bash
pip install -U transformers
```

Here is an example of how to generate an answer with transformers in Python:

```python
from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer

# Load model and tokenizer
model_id = "LiquidAI/LFM2-2.6B-Exp"
model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
    model_id,
    device_map="auto",
    torch_dtype="bfloat16",
#    attn_implementation="flash_attention_2" <- uncomment on compatible GPU
)
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_id)

# Generate answer
prompt = "What is C. elegans?"
input_ids = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(
    [{"role": "user", "content": prompt}],
    add_generation_prompt=True,
    return_tensors="pt",
    tokenize=True,
).to(model.device)

output = model.generate(
    input_ids,
    do_sample=True,
    temperature=0.3,
    min_p=0.15,
    repetition_penalty=1.05,
    max_new_tokens=512,
)

print(tokenizer.decode(output[0], skip_special_tokens=False))

# <|startoftext|><|im_start|>user
# What is C. elegans?<|im_end|>
# <|im_start|>assistant
# C. elegans, also known as Caenorhabditis elegans, is a small, free-living
# nematode worm (roundworm) that belongs to the phylum Nematoda.
```

You can directly run and test the model with this [Colab notebook](https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1_q3jQ6LtyiuPzFZv7Vw8xSfPU5FwkKZY?usp=sharing).

### 2. vLLM

You need to install [`vLLM`](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm) v0.10.2 or a more recent version as follows:

```bash
uv pip install vllm==0.10.2 --extra-index-url https://wheels.vllm.ai/0.10.2/ --torch-backend=auto
```

Here is an example of how to use it for inference:

```python
from vllm import LLM, SamplingParams

prompts = [
    "What is C. elegans?",
    "Say hi in JSON format",
    "Define AI in Spanish"
]
sampling_params = SamplingParams(temperature=0.3, min_p=0.15, repetition_penalty=1.05)

llm = LLM(model="LiquidAI/LFM2-2.6B-Exp")

outputs = llm.generate(prompts, sampling_params)

for output in outputs:
    prompt = output.prompt
    generated_text = output.outputs[0].text
    print(f"Prompt: {prompt!r}, Generated text: {generated_text!r}")
```

### 3. llama.cpp

You can run LFM2 with llama.cpp using its [GGUF checkpoint](https://huggingface.co/LiquidAI/LFM2-2.6B-Exp-GGUF). Find more information in the model card.

## πŸ”§ How to fine-tune LFM2

We recommend fine-tuning LFM2 models on your use cases to maximize performance.

| Notebook | Description | Link |
|-------|------|------|
| SFT (Unsloth) | Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) notebook with a LoRA adapter using Unsloth. | <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1HROdGaPFt1tATniBcos11-doVaH7kOI3?usp=sharing"><img src="https://cdn-uploads.huggingface.co/production/uploads/61b8e2ba285851687028d395/vlOyMEjwHa_b_LXysEu2E.png" width="110" alt="Colab link"></a> |
| SFT (TRL) | Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) notebook with a LoRA adapter using TRL. | <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1j5Hk_SyBb2soUsuhU0eIEA9GwLNRnElF?usp=sharing"><img src="https://cdn-uploads.huggingface.co/production/uploads/61b8e2ba285851687028d395/vlOyMEjwHa_b_LXysEu2E.png" width="110" alt="Colab link"></a> |
| DPO (TRL) | Preference alignment with Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) using TRL. | <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1MQdsPxFHeZweGsNx4RH7Ia8lG8PiGE1t?usp=sharing"><img src="https://cdn-uploads.huggingface.co/production/uploads/61b8e2ba285851687028d395/vlOyMEjwHa_b_LXysEu2E.png" width="110" alt="Colab link"></a> |

## πŸ“¬ Contact

If you are interested in custom solutions with edge deployment, please contact [our sales team](https://www.liquid.ai/contact).

## Citation

```
@article{liquidai2025lfm2,
 title={LFM2 Technical Report},
 author={Liquid AI},
 journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.23404},
 year={2025}
}
```