llms-from-scratch-rs
Library Listed
Rust (candle) code for Build a LLM From Scratch by Sebastian Raschka
- Downloads
- 3
- Dependents
- 0
- Stars
- 340
- Forks
- 43
- Contributors
- 4
- Commits
- 511
- Latest release
- 0.1.5 ·
About
LLMs from scratch - Rust
This project aims to provide Rust code that follows the incredible text, Build An LLM From Scratch by Sebastian Raschka. The book provides arguably the most clearest step by step walkthrough for building a GPT-style LLM. Listed below are the titles for each of the 7 Chapters of the book.
- Understanding large language models
- Working with text data
- Coding attention mechanisms
- Implementing a GPT model from scratch to generate text
- Pretraining an unlabeled data
- Fine-tuning for classification
- Fine-tuning to follow instructions
The code (see associated github repo) provided in the book is all written in PyTorch (understandably so). In this project, we translate all of the PyTorch code into Rust code by using the Candle crate, which is a minimalist ML Framework.
Usage
The recommended way of using this project is by cloning this repo and using Cargo to run the examples and exercises.
# SSH
git clone git@github.com:nerdai/llms-from-scratch-rs.git
# HTTPS
git clone https://github.com/nerdai/llms-from-scratch-rs.git
Read the full README
It is important to note that we use the same datasets that is used by Sebastian
in his book. Use the command below to download the data in a subfolder called
data/ which will eventually be used by the examples and exercises of the book.
mkdir -p 'data/'
wget 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rabst/LLMs-from-scratch/main/ch02/01_main-chapter-code/the-verdict.txt' -O 'data/the-verdict.txt'
Navigating the code
Users have the option of reading the code via their chosen IDE and the cloned repo, or by using the project's docs.
NOTE: The import style used in all of the examples and exercises modules are
not by convention. Specifically, relevant imports are made under the main() method
of every Example and Exercise implementation. This is done for educational
purposes to assist the reader of the book in knowing precisely what imports are
needed for the example/exercise at hand.
Running Examples and Exercises
After cloning the repo, you can cd to the project's root directory and execute
the main binary.
# Run code for Example 05.07
cargo run example 05.07
# Run code for Exercise 5.5
cargo run exercise 5.5
If using a cuda-enabled device, you turn on the cuda feature via the --features cuda
flag:
# Run code for Example 05.07
cargo run --features cuda example 05.07
# Run code for Exercise 5.5
cargo run --features cuda exercise 5.5
Listing Examples
To list the Examples, use the following command:
cargo run list --examples
A snippet of the output is pasted below.
EXAMPLES:
+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Id | Description |
+==============================================================================+
| 02.01 | Example usage of `listings::ch02::sample_read_text` |
|-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 02.02 | Use candle to generate an Embedding Layer. |
|-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 02.03 | Create absolute postiional embeddings. |
|-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 03.01 | Computing attention scores as a dot product. |
...
|-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 06.13 | Example usage of `train_classifier_simple` and `plot_values` |
| | function. |
|-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 06.14 | Loading fine-tuned model and calculate performance on whole train, |
| | val and test sets. |
|-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 06.15 | Example usage of `classify_review`. |
+-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Listing Exercises
One can similarly list the Exercises using:
cargo run list --exercises
# first few lines of output
EXERCISES:
+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Id | Statement |
+==============================================================================+
| 2.1 | Byte pair encoding of unknown words |
| | |
| | Try the BPE tokenizer from the tiktoken library on the unknown words |
| | 'Akwirw ier' and print the individual token IDs. Then, call the decode |
| | function on each of the resulting integers in this list to reproduce |
| | the mapping shown in figure 2.11. Lastly, call the decode method on |
| | the token IDs to check whether it can reconstruct the original input, |
| | 'Akwirw ier.' |
|-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 2.2 | Data loaders with different strides and context sizes |
| | |
| | To develop more intuition for how the data loader works, try to run it |
| | with different settings such as `max_length=2` and `stride=2`, and |
| | `max_length=8` and `stride=2`. |
|-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------|
...
|-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 6.2 | Fine-tuning the whole model |
| | |
| | Instead of fine-tuning just the final transformer block, fine-tune the |
| | entire model and assess the effect on predictive performance. |
|-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 6.3 | Fine-tuning the first vs. last token |
| | |
| | Try fine-tuning the first output token. Notice the changes in |
| | predictive performance compared to fine-tuning the last output token. |
+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[Alternative Usage] Installing from crates.io
Alternatively, users have the option of installing this crate directly via
cargo install (Be sure to have Rust and Cargo installed first. See
here for
installation instructions.):
cargo install llms-from-scratch-rs
Once installed, users can run the main binary in order to run the various Exercises and Examples.
# Run code for Example 05.07
cargo run example 05.07
# Run code for Exercise 5.5
cargo run exercsise 5.5
Compatibility
- Runs on
- CUDA
What shows it
- CUDA: llms-from-scratch-rs feature cuda
- Native code
- None found
- No native code found
- Python bindings
- No Python binding crate found
- License
- MIT
Compare with similar projects
Order: strongest tier first, then most downloads, then name, with unmeasured values last. A library counts downloads over 30 days. An app counts binary downloads per release. An app with none counts its crate downloads over 30 days. ML Rust runs this catalogue, so its closest project always gets a row.
| Project | Downloads | Dependents | Stars | Latest release | Runs on (GPU) | Native code | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Rust (candle) code for Build a LLM From Scratch by Sebastian Raschka |
3 downloads over 30 days | 0 | 340 | 0.1.5 | CUDA | No native code found | MIT |
|
tch-rs Featured
Rust wrappers for the PyTorch C++ api (libtorch). Python bindings |
1,190,464 downloads over 30 days | 124 | 5,518 | 0.26.0 | CUDA | Binds native code: tch, torch-sys. Build uses a native toolchain: cc | Apache-2.0 OR MIT |
|
mlx-rs Featured
Unofficial rust wrapper for Apple's mlx machine learning library. |
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|
aprender Listed
Next-generation ML framework in pure Rust — `cargo install aprender` for the `apr` CLI |
15,442 downloads over 30 days | 31 | 140 | 0.72.3 | CUDA, WebGPU | Binds native code: libsqlite3-sys, zstd-sys, tree-sitter (feature full), alsa-sys (feature audio-alsa), nvml-wrapper-sys (feature nvml) and 1 more. Build uses a native toolchain: bindgen (feature bindgen) | MIT |
|
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398 downloads over 30 days | 2 | Not measured | 0.2.0 | Metal | No native code found | MIT |
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Trains GPT-style language models from a YAML config and a tokenized dataset: dense GQA transformers, Mamba 1, 2 and 3, MLA and MoE layers on CPU or CUDA. Runs the training loop, optimizer, checkpoints, evaluation and metrics on boostr, and builds speech corpora through voxr. |
27 downloads over 30 days | Not applicable | 8 | 0.1.1 | CUDA | Binds native code: nvml-wrapper-sys (feature cuda) | Apache-2.0 |
|
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Not measured | Not applicable | 79 | Not measured | Not measured | Not measured | MIT |
Why ListedNo archive, New or Featured rule places it, so it is Listed.
What it lacks for Featured
- It has 0 active dependents and 0 new dependents in 365 days. Featured needs 11 active dependents or 9 new dependents in 365 days. The repository route reads 340 stars, 43 forks and 4 contributors. It needs 4,539 stars, 434 forks and 79 contributors together.
What else the check found
- The last activity is on 29 Jul 2026, 103 days ago. The rules expect an update within 450 days. Dormancy rule
Exact rules: Listed, Featured library. The check on applied thresholds version 9.
Every rule outcome, as the check records it
expected-interval: version 0.1.5 base 450: E = 450 daysdormancy: last activity 2026-07-29, 103 days ago, E = 450: activefeatured: not featured: active_users 0 < 11 and new_adopters 0 < 9 and repository route stars 340 (needs 4539), forks 43 (needs 434), contributors 4 (needs 79)listed: listed: no archive, new or featured rule applies
Measurements and sources
Each signal row shows the raw value, its source and the fetch date. The Sources list gathers every distinct source on this page. Movement needs more history.
Sources6 sources
- Description: the crates.io description
- crates.io database dump, fetched
- RustSec advisory database, fetched
- GitHub repository, fetched
- crates.io package, fetched
- GitHub contributors, fetched
Adoption0 active dependents, 0 new dependents in 365 days1 not measured
| Signal | Value | Source | Fetched | Counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active dependents | 0 | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| New dependents (365 days) | 0 | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Peak active dependents | 0 | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Active dependents as a share of the peak | 1 | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Binary downloads per release | Not measured | Yes |
MaintenanceLatest human commit: 3 months ago3 not measured
| Signal | Value | Source | Fetched | Counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latest human commit | 2026-07-29 | GitHub repository | Yes | |
| Latest release | 2025-06-05 | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| First release | 2024-12-13 | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Latest version | 0.1.5 | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Days the oldest outside issue waits for a reply | 0 | GitHub repository | Yes | |
| Maintainer replies over 365 days | 4 | GitHub repository | Yes | |
| Repository archived | false | GitHub repository | Yes | |
| Repository gone | false | GitHub repository | Yes | |
| Release commit or manifest in the repo | true | crates.io package | Yes | |
| Published docs | true | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Latest release fails cargo check | Not measured | Yes | ||
| Build check date | Not measured | Yes | ||
| Build check toolchain | Not measured | Yes |
SecurityUnpatched vulnerabilities: none
| Signal | Value | Source | Fetched | Counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unpatched vulnerabilities past the grace window | none | RustSec advisory database | Yes | |
| RustSec unmaintained advisory | none | RustSec advisory database | Yes | |
| Deprecation notice | none | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Deprecated requirement | none | crates.io database dump | Yes |
Distribution11 releases, 3 downloads over 30 days5 not measured
| Signal | Value | Source | Fetched | Counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Releases | 11 | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Downloads over 30 days | 3 | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Binary downloads over the last 3 releases | Not measured | Yes | ||
| Homebrew installs on request over 365 days | Not measured | Yes | ||
| Repology repository families | Not measured | Yes | ||
| Docker pull growth over 90 days | Not measured | Yes | ||
| Docker pulls at the growth baseline | Not measured | Yes | ||
| Every version a prerelease | false | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Every version 0.0.x | false | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Every version yanked | false | crates.io database dump | Yes | |
| Crate deleted from crates.io | false | crates.io database dump | Yes |
Repository340 stars, 43 forks, 4 contributors, 511 commits. Stars alone never qualify a project.
| Signal | Value | Source | Fetched | Counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 340 | GitHub repository | Yes — one part of the repository route | |
| GitHub forks | 43 | GitHub repository | Yes — one part of the repository route | |
| Contributors with a GitHub account | 4 | GitHub contributors | Yes — one part of the repository route | |
| Commits on the default branch | 511 | GitHub repository | No | |
| Repository's main crate left out of the entry | none | crates.io database dump | Yes |
Facts that never count
| Signal | Value | Source | Fetched | Counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | crates.io database dump | No | |
| Runs on, from listed crates and their direct dependencies | CUDA | crates.io database dump | No | |
| What shows each backend | CUDA: llms-from-scratch-rs feature cuda | crates.io database dump | No | |
| Native code, from listed crates and their dependencies | No native code found | crates.io database dump | No | |
| Python bindings, from direct dependencies of listed crates | No Python binding crate found | crates.io database dump | No | |
| Crates that depend on a listed crate directly | 0 | crates.io database dump | No |
Corrections and review history
No correction applies to this entry.
Judgments
A judgment enters only through an approved issue and a merged pull request.
No judgment applies to this entry.