nemo-mbridge-recipe-recommender

Auto Recipe — Recipe Index & Recommendation

This skill indexes every shipped recipe and helps users pick the right starting config, adjust parallelism, and avoid common pitfalls.

How to Use This Skill

1. Ask the user for: model name/size, GPU count & type, training goal (pretrain / SFT / PEFT), and sequence length (if non-default).
2. Look up the best-match recipe in the index below.
3. Recommend the recipe function name + entry-point command.
4. Provide adjustment advice (parallelism resizing, batch tuning, pitfalls).

First Answer Checklist

When recommending recipes, always include these distinctions before the long index details:

1. Library recipes under src/megatron/bridge/recipes/ are for functional training and use scripts/training/run_recipe.py.
2. Benchmark recipes under src/megatron/bridge/perf_recipes/ are for upper-bound throughput benchmarks. They own their canonical benchmark data and settings and should not be presented as production training recipes.
3. For a first-time Bridge smoke test, recommend llama3_8b_pretrain_config with mock data via --dataset mock.
4. For normal SFT recommendations, select a finetuning preset such as --dataset squad or --dataset tulu3; for pretrain and mock validation recommendations, use --dataset mock. Do not pair the pretraining-only mock preset with an SFT or PEFT mode.
5. After the recipe and dataset, give the required resizing rules: TP must divide num_key_value_heads, keep TP within one node unless using NVL72-class interconnect, enable SP when TP > 1, configure CP for long context, DP is implicit, and reduce micro_batch_size first on OOM.
6. State whether each proposed override changes the convergence contract or only the execution/performance mapping. Do not trade convergence semantics for throughput without calling it a new experiment.

Configuration Layers and Change Control

Separate training semantics from their hardware mapping before recommending or tuning a recipe.

Convergence configuration includes the starting checkpoint and trainable parameters; dataset/revision/split/order/seeds; tokenizer, masking, truncation, and packing; sequence length; global batch and token budget; objective and loss coefficients; natural or forced MoE routing and token-dropping policy; optimizer, LR, schedule, warmup, betas, epsilon, weight decay, clipping, and dropout; arithmetic and optimizer-state precision; and PEFT adapter settings. Changing one of these creates a new convergence experiment.

Execution/performance configuration includes hardware count and topology; TP/PP/VP/CP/EP/ETP/DP/SP; recompute and offload; distributed optimizer/FSDP; communication overlap; fusions and attention backends; CUDA graphs and compilation; checkpoint I/O; and MoE transport through all-to-all, DeepEP, or HybridEP when the routing policy is unchanged. These settings should preserve the objective and effective updates, although floating-point reduction order can produce small numerical drift that still needs validation.

Treat micro batch size and gradient accumulation as execution fingerprints. Tune them only with fixed global batch size, global batch membership/order, normalization, optimizer boundaries, and token budget, and validate fresh loss sentinels for each layout. Packing, precision, forced MoE load balancing, token dropping/capacity, and router/auxiliary loss changes are never performance-only knobs.

Treat mock data, forced balancing, disabled correctness checks, and timing-only schedules as benchmark-only shortcuts. They may be appropriate in perf_recipes, but their losses and checkpoints are not convergence evidence.

For comparable model-verification recipes, choose a cohort-wide convergence contract before tuning performance. Keep the same bounded data selection, preprocessing, sequence length, global batch, optimizer/schedule, precision, seeds, routing policy, optimizer-step horizon, and processed-token checkpoints where the architectures permit. Record any necessary model-specific deviation and do not present that result as apples-to-apples convergence evidence. Absolute losses from different architectures or tokenizers are not directly rankable; compare stability and trend at equal token counts.

When a recipe's batch disagrees with the chosen convergence contract, modify and validate the library recipe separately. A declared bounded-verification protocol may explicitly apply the same LR, schedule, sequence, and data overrides across a cohort, but do not make one-off convergence changes merely to improve throughput. Conversely, first try TP/PP/CP/EP, recompute/offload, dispatcher transport, overlap, fusion, and CUDA graphs when optimizing fit or throughput.

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Entry Points

Library recipes (functional training)

# Pretrain with mock data
uv run python -m torch.distributed.run --nproc_per_node=8 scripts/training/run_recipe.py \
    --recipe <recipe_function_name> \
    --dataset mock

# SFT with SQuAD
uv run python -m torch.distributed.run --nproc_per_node=8 scripts/training/run_recipe.py \
    --recipe <recipe_function_name> \
    --dataset squad

# Override any field via CLI
uv run python -m torch.distributed.run --nproc_per_node=8 scripts/training/run_recipe.py \
    --recipe llama3_8b_pretrain_config \
    --dataset mock \
    'model.tensor_model_parallel_size=2' \
    'train.global_batch_size=64'

Benchmark recipes (throughput benchmarks)

./scripts/training/train.sh \
    --nodes 2 --gpus-per-node 8 \
    --account ACCOUNT --partition PARTITION --container-image IMAGE \
    --recipe qwen3_30b_a3b_pretrain_16gpu_h100_bf16_config \
    --mode pretrain

The total GPU allocation must match the count encoded in the recipe name. The user selects the node shape, and the selected partition must provide the requested hardware. The launcher does not inject benchmark offline defaults or cluster-specific launch policy. Use --env NAME for exported offline or NCCL fabric settings and repeated --srun-arg=ARG options for srun. Configure CPU/NUMA wrappers and Slurm segment sizing through the target cluster integration, or use scripts/performance/setup_experiment.py when its compatibility policies are required. The unified launcher supports exact exported text pretraining, text SFT/PEFT, Qwen-VL pretraining, and Wan pretraining recipes and infers their forward step. Text SFT/PEFT text benchmark recipes retain the flat runner's mock-data default; Qwen-VL and Wan retain their model-specific datasets. Exported benchmark PEFT recipes are fixed LoRA configs; use a configurable library recipe for DoRA. Trailing KEY=VALUE overrides are accepted, but an overridden benchmark recipe no longer represents its canonical benchmark configuration. Use scripts/performance/setup_experiment.py for selector-based invocation, dataset replacement, topology resizing, and specialized benchmark controls.

See the Benchmark Recipe Index for important caveats before using these for anything beyond throughput benchmarking.

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Benchmark Recipe Layout

Benchmark recipes use the same Python function format as library recipes, but live in a dedicated namespace for throughput benchmarking:

• Benchmark recipes live in src/megatron/bridge/perf_recipes/<family>/<hardware>/<model>.py
• Each benchmark recipe is a self-contained Python function (e.g. llama3_8b_pretrain_8gpu_h100_bf16_config())
• Recipe names encode model, task, GPU count, hardware, precision, and optional variant
• scripts/performance/utils/utils.py derives compatibility WorkloadBaseConfig views from the flat recipe itself
• Shared helpers: _benchmark_common() (50 iters, timing, TE RNG), _perf_precision() (bf16 / fp8_cs / fp8_mx / nvfp4)

Why Python, not YAML? Previous YAML-based approaches had problems: recipe logic was split across multiple indirection layers, configs were not self-contained, and the two-level pipeline made maintenance and debugging difficult. Python functions are explicit, greppable, and composable.

The training launcher discovers library and benchmark recipes from the complete exported function name. Five legacy duplicate names select the benchmark definition; use the corresponding generic alias for those functional workloads. New recipe names should be unique across both packages.

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Library Recipe Index

All recipes live under src/megatron/bridge/recipes/. Each function returns a ConfigContainer with model, training, optimizer, and data settings.

Llama

Recipe	Mode	TP	PP	CP	SP	GPUs (min)	Seq Len
llama2_7b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	2	1	—	—	2	4K
llama3_8b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	2	1	—	✓	2	8K
llama3_8b_16k_pretrain_config	Pretrain	2	1	2	✓	4	16K
llama3_8b_64k_pretrain_config	Pretrain	2	1	4	✓	8	64K
llama3_8b_128k_pretrain_config	Pretrain	2	1	8	✓	16	128K
llama3_70b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	8	4	—	✓	32	8K
llama3_70b_16k_pretrain_config	Pretrain	8	4	2	✓	64	16K
llama3_70b_64k_pretrain_config	Pretrain	8	4	4	✓	128	64K
llama31_405b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	8	16	—	✓	128	8K
llama3_8b_sft_config	SFT	2	1	—	✓	2	8K
llama3_70b_sft_config	SFT	4	4	—	✓	16	8K
llama31_405b_sft_config	SFT	8	8	—	✓	64	8K
llama3_8b_peft_config	PEFT	1	1	—	—	1	8K
llama3_70b_peft_config	PEFT	2	4	—	✓	8	8K
llama31_405b_peft_config	PEFT	4	8	—	✓	32	8K

Qwen2 / Qwen2.5

Recipe	Mode	TP	PP	Sizes
qwen2_*_{pretrain,sft,peft}_config	All	1–8	1–4	500M, 1.5B, 7B, 14B, 32B, 72B
qwen25_*_{pretrain,sft,peft}_config	All	1–8	1–4	500M, 1.5B, 3B, 7B, 14B, 32B, 72B

Qwen3 (Dense)

Recipe	Mode	TP	PP	CP	GPUs	Sizes / notes
qwen3_8b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	1	1	—	16	Bounded convergence cohort
qwen3_8b_sft_config	SFT	4	1	—	4	2K bounded convergence cohort
qwen3_8b_sft_32k_config	SFT	4	1	2	8	Separate 32K long-context cohort
qwen3_8b_peft_config	PEFT	1	1	—	1	Bounded LoRA/DoRA cohort
qwen3_*_{pretrain,sft,peft}_config	All	1–8	1–2	—	varies	Other dense sizes, 600M–32B
qwen3_600m_sft_128k_config	SFT	1	1	8	8	600M, 128K sequence

Qwen3 MoE

Recipe	Mode	TP	PP	EP	CP	GPUs
qwen3_30b_a3b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	1	1	16	—	16
qwen3_30b_a3b_sft_config	SFT	1	1	16	—	16
qwen3_30b_a3b_peft_config	PEFT	4	1	4	—	4
qwen3_235b_a22b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	4	16	8	2	256
qwen3_235b_a22b_sft_config	SFT	4	16	4	—	64
qwen3_235b_a22b_peft_config	PEFT	1	4	4	—	16

Qwen3-Next

Recipe	Mode	TP	PP	EP
qwen3_next_80b_a3b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	1	4	8
qwen3_next_80b_a3b_sft_config	SFT	1	2	8
qwen3_next_80b_a3b_peft_config	PEFT	1	1	4

DeepSeek

Recipe	Mode	TP	PP	EP	GPUs
deepseek_v2_lite_pretrain_config	Pretrain	1	1	8	8
deepseek_v2_pretrain_config	Pretrain	1	4	32	128
deepseek_v3_pretrain_config	Pretrain	2	16	64	2048
deepseek_v3_pretrain_config_32nodes	Pretrain	2	8	32	256

GLM-4.5

Recipe	Mode	TP	PP	EP	GPUs
glm45_355b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	2	8	16	256
glm45_air_106b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	1	4	8	32
glm45_355b_sft_config	SFT	2	8	16	256
glm45_air_106b_sft_config	SFT	1	4	8	32
glm45_355b_peft_config	PEFT	2	4	4	32
glm45_air_106b_peft_config	PEFT	1	2	4	8

Gemma

Recipe	Mode	TP	PP	Sizes
gemma2_*_{pretrain,sft,peft}_config	All	2–8	1–2	2B, 9B, 27B
gemma3_1b_{pretrain,sft,peft}_config	All	1	1	1B (32K seq)

NemotronH / Nemotron

Recipe	Mode	TP	PP	EP	Notes
nemotronh_{4b,8b,47b,56b}_*_config	P/S/PEFT	1–8	1–4	—	Dense SSM-hybrid
nemotron_3_nano_*_config	P/S/PEFT	varies	1	8	MoE + Mamba
nemotron_3_super_*_config	P/S/PEFT	4	1	8	MoE + Mamba, ~40% CUDA graph gain
nemotron_nano_{9b,12b}_v2_*_config	P/S/PEFT	varies	1	—	Dense

Other Models

Recipe	Mode	Notes
moonlight_16b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	16 GPUs, TP1/PP1/EP16; bounded convergence cohort
moonlight_16b_sft_config	SFT	8 GPUs, TP1/PP1/EP8; 2K bounded convergence cohort
moonlight_16b_peft_config	PEFT	4 GPUs, TP4/PP1/EP4; bounded LoRA/DoRA cohort
moonlight_16b_sft_8k_config	SFT	8 GPUs, TP2/PP1/CP2/EP8; separate 8K cohort
olmoe_7b_{pretrain,sft,peft}_config	All	MoE EP=8
ministral3_{3b,8b,14b}_{sft,peft}_config	SFT/PEFT	Dense
gpt_oss_20b_*_config	All	MoE + FP8/MXFP8 variants
gpt_oss_120b_*_config	All	MoE
vanilla_gpt_pretrain_config	Pretrain	MLM/Bridge parity baseline
gpt3_175b_pretrain_config	Pretrain	TP=4, PP=8, VP=6
kimi_k2_pretrain_config	Pretrain	1T MoE, TP=2 PP=16 EP=32

VLM Recipes

Recipe	Mode	TP	PP	EP	GPUs
gemma3_vl_{4b,12b,27b}_{sft,peft}_config	SFT/PEFT	1–8	1–2	—	1–16
qwen25_vl_{3b,7b,32b,72b}_{sft,peft}_config	SFT/PEFT	1–8	1–4	—	1–32
qwen3_vl_{8b,30b_a3b,235b_a22b}_{sft,peft}_config	SFT/PEFT	1–4	1–8	1–32	1–512
qwen35_vl_*_{sft,peft}_config	SFT/PEFT	varies	varies	varies	varies
glm_45v_{sft,peft}_config	SFT/PEFT	1	8	4–16	64–512
nemotron_nano_v2_vl_12b_{sft,peft}_config	SFT/PEFT	2–4	1	—	8

Diffusion Recipes

Recipe	Mode	TP	CP
wan_1_3B_{pretrain,sft}_config	P/SFT	1	8
wan_14B_{pretrain,sft}_config	P/SFT	2	4
flux_12b_{pretrain,sft}_config	P/SFT	2	1

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Benchmark Recipe Index

Benchmark recipe source lives under src/megatron/bridge/perf_recipes/. The compatibility launcher in scripts/performance/ resolves those flat recipe names and derives compatibility workload views from the selected flat recipe when legacy helper paths still need them.

Important: Benchmark recipes are designed for upper-bound throughput measurements, not production training. Text benchmarks use mock data by default; Qwen-VL and Wan retain their model-specific datasets. Throughput numbers are aspirational targets, not validated convergence configs.

Llama 3 / 3.1

Model	GPUs	GPU Types	Key Features
Llama 3 8B	8	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300, R100	CUDA graphs (local), FSDP on GB variants
Llama 3 70B	64	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	TP comm overlap (userbuffers), FSDP, CUDA graphs
Llama 3.1 405B	128–1024	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	TP+CP comm overlap (userbuffers), FSDP, heavy PP/VP

SFT/LoRA variants also exist (e.g. 8B SFT with packed sequences, 70B SFT on 32 GPUs).

DeepSeek V3

Model	GPUs	GPU Types	Key Features
DeepSeek V3 (671B MoE)	256–1024	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	HybridEP dispatcher, MLA recompute, CUDA graphs (TE scoped)

Qwen3 MoE

Model	GPUs	GPU Types	Key Features
Qwen3 30B-A3B	8–16	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	MoE alltoall/flex dispatcher
Qwen3 235B-A22B	64–256	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	TP comm overlap, CUDA graphs, MoE a2a overlap
Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B	64–128	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	EP 64–128

Qwen3-VL

Model	GPUs	GPU Types	Key Features
Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B	8–16	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	VLM + MoE
Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B	64–256	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	VLM + MoE, TP comm overlap

Kimi K2

Model	GPUs	GPU Types	Key Features
Kimi K2 (1T MoE)	256–1024	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	Muon/Adam optimizer, HybridEP, pipeline layout helpers

NemotronH

Model	GPUs	GPU Types	Key Features
Nemotron 3 Nano (30B MoE+Mamba)	8–16	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	TE CUDA graphs (attn+mamba+moe), HybridEP
Nemotron 3 Super	64	H100, B200, B300, GB200, GB300	TE CUDA graphs, EP=64
NemotronH 56B	64	H100, B200, B300	TP=2–8, TE graphs (mamba+attn)

GPT-OSS

Model	GPUs	GPU Types	Key Features
GPT-OSS 120B	64	H100, B200, GB200	EP=64, HybridEP on GB200

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Recommendation Decision Tree

User wants to train a model
│
├─ Know the model name?
│   ├─ Yes → Look up in Library Recipe Index above
│   │   ├─ Has a recipe for their size + mode? → Use it directly
│   │   └─ No exact match? → Use closest size, adjust parallelism
│   └─ No → Ask for model name, size, and HF model ID
│
├─ What's the training goal?
│   ├─ Pretrain → Use *_pretrain_config
│   ├─ SFT (full fine-tune) → Use *_sft_config
│   └─ PEFT (LoRA/DoRA) → Use *_peft_config (lowest GPU requirement)
│
├─ How many GPUs?
│   ├─ 1 GPU → Only PEFT recipes work (TP=1, PP=1)
│   ├─ 8 GPUs (1 node) → Most 8B–16B models, small MoE (EP=8)
│   ├─ 16–64 GPUs → 70B dense, medium MoE
│   └─ 128+ GPUs → 405B+, large MoE (DeepSeek V3, Kimi K2)
│
├─ Want throughput benchmarks?
│   ├─ Yes → Use benchmark recipes (src/megatron/bridge/perf_recipes/)
│   │   ├─ Exact exported recipe → scripts/training/train.sh --recipe <exact function name>
│   │   └─ Selector/specialized workflow → scripts/performance/setup_experiment.py
│   └─ No → Use library recipes (scripts/training/run_recipe.py)
│
└─ Long context?
    ├─ > 8K → Need CP (context parallelism), check *_16k / *_64k / *_128k variants
    └─ ≤ 8K → Default recipes work

---

Adjustment Advice (When Recommending)

Parallelism Resizing Rules

When the user's GPU count differs from the recipe default:

1. TP must divide num_key_value_heads (GQA constraint). E.g. if num_key_value_heads=8, valid TP = {1, 2, 4, 8}.
2. TP should stay within a single node (NVLink). TP > 8 requires inter-node NVLink (e.g., GB200 NVL72).
3. PP adds pipeline bubbles. Minimize PP; only increase when TP alone can't fit the model. Use VP (virtual pipeline) to mitigate bubble overhead.
4. EP doesn't reduce dense-layer memory. Only expert parameters shard with EP. Shared attention/embeddings are replicated. For "OOM with MoE", increase EP first, not TP.
5. SP should be True whenever TP > 1. It eliminates redundant activation copies and is essentially free.
6. CP requires all-to-all or ring attention. Check cp_comm_type. For GQA models, a2a+p2p hierarchical CP allows CP > num_kv_heads.
7. Dense and expert meshes overlap. Do not multiply TP and EP together. The minimum MoE world size is PP × max(TP × CP, EP × ETP). Dense DP is world_size / (TP × PP × CP) and expert EDP is world_size / (PP × EP × ETP); both quotients must be integral, and the expert count must be divisible by EP.

Batch Size Tuning

• Start with the recipe's micro_batch_size. If OOM, reduce to 1.
• global_batch_size determines learning dynamics. Scale with DP: GBS = micro_batch_size × DP × gradient_accumulation_steps.
• For MoE, micro_batch_size=1 is typical at scale.

Common Pitfalls to Warn About

Pitfall	Symptom	Fix
TP > num_kv_heads	Crash: "TP must divide num_query_groups"	Reduce TP to a divisor of num_kv_heads
PP without VP	Poor throughput (large bubble)	Set virtual_pipeline_model_parallel_size
EP too low for large MoE	OOM on expert params	Increase EP; each expert lives on EP/num_experts ranks
CUDA graphs + packed sequences	Assert: "CUDA graph accepts only Tensor inputs"	Disable packing or use local full-iteration graphs
CUDA graphs + full recompute	Assert: "full recompute only with full iteration CUDA graph"	Disable recompute or switch to local impl
use_te_rng_tracker not set	Assert on provider init when CUDA graphs enabled	Set cfg.model.use_te_rng_tracker = True and cfg.rng.te_rng_tracker = True
FSDP + TP > 1 on H100	Possible comm bottleneck	Prefer FSDP with TP=1 or TP=2 on H100; FSDP shines on GB/B-series
Long context without CP	OOM on activations	Add CP=2/4/8; use *_16k, *_64k, or *_128k recipe variants
MoE overlap_grad_reduce on H100	May hurt throughput (False in many H100 presets)	Set overlap_grad_reduce=False for MoE on H100
VLM SFT missing image data	Runs but produces garbage	Provide actual multimodal dataset or use mock VLM data
Qwen35-VL MoE FSDP	Tested on Blackwell only	May not work on H100; validate first

Recipe Override Examples

# Scale Llama3 8B from 2 GPUs to 8 GPUs (increase DP)
uv run python -m torch.distributed.run --nproc_per_node=8 scripts/training/run_recipe.py \
    --recipe llama3_8b_pretrain_config \
    --dataset mock

# Run the native 4-GPU Qwen3-MoE 30B PEFT topology
uv run python -m torch.distributed.run --nproc_per_node=4 scripts/training/run_recipe.py \
    --recipe qwen3_30b_a3b_peft_config \
    --dataset tulu3

# Add long context to an existing recipe
uv run python -m torch.distributed.run --nproc_per_node=8 scripts/training/run_recipe.py \
    --recipe llama3_8b_pretrain_config \
    --dataset mock \
    'model.seq_length=32768' \
    'model.context_parallel_size=4'

# Enable CUDA graphs on any recipe
uv run python -m torch.distributed.run --nproc_per_node=8 scripts/training/run_recipe.py \
    --recipe qwen3_30b_a3b_pretrain_config \
    --dataset mock \
    'model.cuda_graph_impl=transformer_engine' \
    'model.cuda_graph_scope=[attn,moe_router,moe_preprocess]' \
    'model.use_te_rng_tracker=True' \
    'rng.te_rng_tracker=True'

---

Quick Reference: Which Recipe for My Situation?

I want to...	Start with	GPUs needed
Try Bridge for the first time	llama3_8b_pretrain_config + mock data	2
Fine-tune a 7-8B model	llama3_8b_sft_config or qwen3_8b_sft_config	2–4
LoRA on 1 GPU	llama3_8b_peft_config or qwen3_8b_peft_config	1
Pretrain a dense 70B	llama3_70b_pretrain_config	32–64
Train a small MoE	qwen3_30b_a3b_pretrain_config	16
Train a large MoE (235B+)	qwen3_235b_a22b_pretrain_config	256–512
Benchmark text-pretrain throughput	Benchmark recipe via train.sh --recipe <exact name>	Exact encoded count
Long-context training	llama3_8b_128k_pretrain_config or add CP override	16+
VLM fine-tuning	qwen3_vl_8b_sft_config or gemma3_vl_*_sft_config	4–8
Diffusion training	wan_1_3B_pretrain_config or flux_12b_pretrain_config	8

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Code Anchors

What	Path
Library recipes root	src/megatron/bridge/recipes/
Recipe __init__.py (all exports)	src/megatron/bridge/recipes/__init__.py
Common recipe helpers	src/megatron/bridge/recipes/common.py
Training entry point	scripts/training/run_recipe.py
Training Slurm launcher	scripts/training/train.sh
Benchmark recipes root	src/megatron/bridge/perf_recipes/
Benchmark compatibility launcher	scripts/performance/setup_experiment.py
Benchmark recipe helpers	scripts/performance/utils/utils.py
Benchmark overrides	scripts/performance/utils/overrides.py