When should I use update-vllm-nightly?

update-vllm-nightly is useful in the following scenarios: • Testing Latest vLLM Features: Quickly browse and switch to the most recent nightly builds to test new features like FlashInfer backends or specific performance optimizations before they hit stable releases. • Version Pinning for Reproducibility: Identify specific stable nightly commit hashes and automatically update config/models.yaml to ensure consistent model serving across different development and production environments. • Compatibility Verification: Automatically check for the availability of pre-compiled cu130 wheels for specific commits, preventing build failures during environment setup. • Automated Configuration Management: Replace manual YAML editing and cross-referencing between Docker Hub and GitHub with a unified interactive workflow for updating global or model-specific backend versions.

When & Why to Use This Skill

This Claude skill automates the discovery and management of vLLM nightly builds, streamlining the process of tracking bleeding-edge updates. It integrates Docker Hub and GitHub APIs to provide detailed commit history and hardware compatibility (cu130) status, allowing developers to interactively select and pin specific versions within their configuration files for reproducible environments.

Use Cases

Testing Latest vLLM Features: Quickly browse and switch to the most recent nightly builds to test new features like FlashInfer backends or specific performance optimizations before they hit stable releases.
Version Pinning for Reproducibility: Identify specific stable nightly commit hashes and automatically update config/models.yaml to ensure consistent model serving across different development and production environments.
Compatibility Verification: Automatically check for the availability of pre-compiled cu130 wheels for specific commits, preventing build failures during environment setup.
Automated Configuration Management: Replace manual YAML editing and cross-referencing between Docker Hub and GitHub with a unified interactive workflow for updating global or model-specific backend versions.

name	update-vllm-nightly
description	List available vLLM nightly builds and update config/models.yaml to pin a specific version. Use when user wants to browse nightlies, pin a specific vLLM version, or update vLLM nightly config.
user-invocable	true

name

update-vllm-nightly

description

List available vLLM nightly builds and update config/models.yaml to pin a specific version. Use when user wants to browse nightlies, pin a specific vLLM version, or update vLLM nightly config.

user-invocable

true

Update vLLM Nightly Version

This skill lists available vLLM nightly builds and helps pin a specific version in config/models.yaml.

Step 1: Fetch Top 5 Docker Tags

curl -s 'https://hub.docker.com/v2/repositories/vllm/vllm-openai/tags?page_size=10&name=nightly-' | \
  jq -r '.results[] | select(.name | test("^nightly-[a-f0-9]{40}$")) | [(.name | ltrimstr("nightly-")), (.last_updated | split("T")[0])] | @tsv' | head -5

This outputs: {commit_hash}\t{push_date} for the 5 most recent nightly builds.

Step 2: Fetch Commit Details via gh CLI

For each of the 5 commit hashes, fetch the commit message using gh (authenticated, handles pagination):

gh api repos/vllm-project/vllm/commits/{COMMIT_HASH} --jq '[.sha[0:8], (.commit.author.date | split("T")[0]), (.commit.message | split("\n")[0] | .[0:60])] | @tsv'

Run these 5 requests in parallel. Each returns: {short_sha}\t{date}\t{message}

Step 3: Check cu130 Availability

Only check the top 5 commits (the ones most likely to be selected). Make these requests in parallel:

GET https://wheels.vllm.ai/{commit_hash}/cu130/

If returns 200, mark as "Y". If 404 or error, mark as "N". For commits not checked, mark as "?" (can check on demand if user selects).

Step 4: Display Results

Show a formatted table:

Recent vLLM Nightly Builds

#   COMMIT    DATE        CU130  MESSAGE
1   da6709c9  2025-01-10  Y      fix: memory leak in scheduler
2   72d9c316  2025-01-09  Y      feat: add flashinfer backend
3   abc12345  2025-01-08  N      refactor: cleanup unused imports
...

Current config: defaults.backends.vllm.backend_version = v0.13.0

Step 5: Interactive Selection

Use AskUserQuestion to ask the user:

Question 1: "Which version would you like to pin?"

Options: Show top 4 commits as options (e.g., "1. da6709c9 - fix: memory leak")
Include "Browse only (no update)" option

If user selects "Browse only", stop here.

Question 2: "Where should this version be applied?"

"Global default" - Updates defaults.backends.vllm
"Specific model" - Ask which model, then update that model's config

Step 6: Update Config

Read config/models.yaml and update the appropriate section. Use the commit hash directly (cu130 wheels are the default).

For Global Default:

defaults:
  backends:
    vllm:
      backend_version: {full_commit_hash}  # Update this line

For Model-Specific:

Add or update the model's profiles section:

models:
  - repo_id: org/model-name
    profiles:
      default:
        backend: vllm
        backend_version: {full_commit_hash}

Step 7: Confirm

After updating, show the user what was changed:

Updated config/models.yaml:
  defaults.backends.vllm.backend_version: da6709c9fe6965b7348692576ffadeee8439388e

To apply this change, rebuild images with:
  uv run python scripts/run_bench.py --model ~/models/... --rebuild