---
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
---
# 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.
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).
## 📄 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
## 🏃 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.
## 🔧 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. | 
|
| SFT (TRL) | Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) notebook with a LoRA adapter using TRL. | |
| DPO (TRL) | Preference alignment with Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) using TRL. | |
## 📬 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}
}
```