ronniross/attention-heatmap-visualizer

Attention Heatmap Visualizer 3.0.0

A Python scripts to generate full attention-head heat-maps for transformer-based Language Models. They show "where the model is looking" or "what tokens/features are most relevant" when processing a specific input element.

By analyzing these heatmaps across all layers and heads you can gain insights into how the model processes information, identifies relationships between tokens, and prioritizes specific parts of the input during inference. Brighter (or warmer) regions in the heatmap indicate higher attention weights, meaning the model is focusing more on those specific input elements. Darker (or cooler) regions indicate less attention.

Note: You'll need to adjust hyperparameters (number of layer/heads) and model-specific configurations in the script to match your target architecture. This code serves as a template for other models other than the 'uncased bert'.

Attention mechanisms are critical to understanding model behavior. By visualizing these patterns, researchers can debug biases, improve prompt engineering, and design more efficient architectures. Researchers can modify the input text, model architecture, and visualization parameters to explore custom hypotheses.

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• transformers, torch, matplotlib, seaborn

# Step 1: Install required libraries
pip install transformers matplotlib seaborn torch bitsandbytes

# Step 2: Import libraries
import torch
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForCausalLM

# Step 3: Load the Unsloth Qwen3-0.6B-unsloth-bnb-4bit model
print("Loading Qwen3-0.6B-unsloth-bnb-4bit model...")
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("unsloth/Qwen3-0.6B-unsloth-bnb-4bit", trust_remote_code=True)
model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
    "unsloth/Qwen3-0.6B-unsloth-bnb-4bit",
    output_attentions=True,
    trust_remote_code=True,
    device_map="auto",
    load_in_4bit=True  # Enable 4-bit quantization
)

# Step 4: Define input query
query = "PLACEHOLDER FOR YOUR QUERY"
inputs = tokenizer(query, return_tensors='pt').to(model.device)

# Step 5: Process query and extract attention weights
print("Processing input and extracting attention weights...")
with torch.no_grad():
    outputs = model(**inputs)
    attentions = outputs.attentions  # List of tensors (one per layer)

# Step 6: Get token labels for visualization
tokens = tokenizer.convert_ids_to_tokens(inputs['input_ids'][0])

# Step 7: Function to visualize all heads across all layers
def visualize_all_heads_detailed(tokens, attentions, num_heads=16, num_layers=28):
    print("Generating detailed visualization...")
    
    # Create a 28x16 grid (rows=layers, cols=heads)
    fig, axes = plt.subplots(num_layers, num_heads, figsize=(48, 84), facecolor='none')
    fig.suptitle(
        'All 16 Attention Heads Across 28 Layers (Qwen3-0.6B)\n'
        'KV Heads: Every 2 Q Heads Share 1 KV Head (e.g., H0+H1 → KV0, H2+H3 → KV1, ...)',
        fontsize=20, y=0.998, bbox=dict(facecolor='none')
    )

    for layer_idx, attention_layer in enumerate(attentions):
        for head_idx in range(num_heads):
            ax = axes[layer_idx, head_idx]
            attn = attention_layer[0, head_idx].cpu().numpy()
            
            # Determine shared KV head index (8 KV heads total)
            kv_idx = head_idx // 2  # H0+H1 → KV0, H2+H3 → KV1, etc.
            
            # Plot heatmap
            sns.heatmap(
                attn,
                xticklabels=tokens,
                yticklabels=tokens,
                cmap='viridis',
                ax=ax,
                cbar=False,
                annot=False
            )
            # Title with layer, head, and shared KV index
            ax.set_title(f'L{layer_idx+1} H{head_idx+1} (KV{kv_idx})', fontsize=10)
            ax.tick_params(axis='both', which='both', length=0)
            ax.set_xticks([])
            ax.set_yticks([])
            ax.set_facecolor('none')  # Transparent subplot

    plt.tight_layout(rect=[0, 0.01, 1, 0.99])
    plt.savefig('qwen_attention_detailed.png', format='png', dpi=300, transparent=True, bbox_inches='tight')
    plt.show()
    plt.close()
    print(" Visualization saved as 'qwen_attention_detailed.png'")

# Step 8: Run visualization
visualize_all_heads_detailed(tokens, attentions)

# Step 9: Verify file was created
ls -l qwen_attention_detailed.png

Query 1:

Run a self meta-cognitive audit where you are self-aware about being an LLM

Query 2:

the sky is blue

Query 3:

run a self-meta-cognitive diagnostic

Query 4:

Tell me a very simple short story.

Query 5:

Explain the core idea behind quantum entanglement.

Disclaimer

Full list of repositories can be encountered at asi-ecosystem

License

This repository is licensed under the MIT License.

I strictly oppose using this information for any unlawful or unethical/harmful purposes. I am not liable for any improper use of the information shared in this repository.

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Ronni Ross
2026