---
id: google-gemma/gemma-skills/gemma-trainer
version: "7c5a0542"
license: Apache-2.0
install: manual
updated: 2026-07-08
---

# gemma-trainer — Train and adapt Gemma models on consumer hardware through supervised fine-tuning, direct preference optimization, and reward modeling workflows. The skill guides you through memory-efficient setups with Unsloth and TRL, dataset formatting, multimodal training for vision and audio, and deployment via GGUF or LiteRT.

Publisher: google-gemma · Stars: 868 · Updated: 2026-07-08

Install (manual): `git clone https://github.com/google-gemma/gemma-skills`

## SKILL.md

# Gemma Training and Fine-Tuning Skill

## 1. Core Principles: Local Fine-Tuning Setup

When training locally, memory efficiency and execution speed are huge. Always guide the user to follow these best practices:

*   **Prioritize Unsloth**: For local single-GPU training, always recommend **Unsloth**. It supports Gemma 4 natively, uses up to 70% less memory, and is up to 2x faster than standard Hugging Face PEFT training.
*   **Fall Back to TRL**: For multi-GPU environments (using DDP/FSDP) or when Unsloth is unavailable, use Hugging Face **TRL** (`SFTTrainer`, `DPOTrainer`) coupled with **PEFT** and **bitsandbytes** (for QLoRA).
*   **Always use QLoRA (4-bit Quantization)**: Crucial for fitting Gemma models (like Gemma 4 12B/31B) into consumer VRAM.
*   **Manage Context Window & Max Length**: Although Gemma 4 supports up to a 256K context window, recommend training with a context window of 2048 to 8192 tokens locally to prevent Out-Of-Memory (OOM) errors.

## 2. Choosing the Right Training Method

Help the user choose the correct workflow based on their goal:

- **Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT)**: Teaching new domains, specialized task instructions, or custom output structures.
  - Prerequisites: Raw text, instruction pairs, or chat logs.
  - Output: Adaptor trained on prompt/completion pairs.
- **Direct Preference Optimization (DPO)**: Aligning model style, behavior, tone, or safety with human preferences.
  - Prerequisites: A previously SFT-trained Gemma model and preferred pairwise datasets.
  - Output: Aligning model weights directly without a separate reward head.
- **Reward Modeling (RM)**: Training a scoring system to evaluate response quality.
  - Prerequisites: Binary preference pairwise datasets.
  - Output: A classification-style reward head on top of Gemma.

## 3. Dataset Preparation & Validation

Formatting issues are the #1 cause of poor training runs. Ensure you validate files using the utility script `[assets/dataset_prep.py]`.

### Gemma Chat Prompt Format

Ensure the dataset matches Gemma's official chat template:
```
<|turn>system
Your instruction here<turn|>
<|turn>user
Your query here<turn|>
<|turn>model
Your response here<turn|>
```
To avoid formatting drift, use the tokenizer's `apply_chat_template` during dataset tokenization.

### Format Specifications

*   **SFT (Supervised Fine-Tuning)**:
    Format as a list of conversation turns.
    ```json
    {
      "messages": [
        {"role": "user", "content": "Tell me a joke."},
        {"role": "model", "content": "Why did the computer go to the doctor? It had a virus!"}
      ]
    }
    ```
*   **DPO (Direct Preference Optimization)**:
    Requires pairwise samples containing a prompt, a chosen (better) response, and a rejected (worse) response.
    ```json
    {
      "prompt": "Write a python function to compute factorial.",
      "chosen": "def factorial(n):\n    return 1 if n <= 1 else n * factorial(n - 1)",
      "rejected": "factorial is computed using recursion or loops. Just import math."
    }
    ```
*   **Reward Modeling**:
    Format identically to DPO datasets. The `RewardTrainer` evaluates the pair and learns to output a higher logit score for `chosen` than for `rejected`.

### Dataset Distillation & Synthesis (Teacher-Student)

Local knowledge distillation allows you to train small, lightweight student models (such as **Gemma 4 E2B**) using high-quality dataset outputs generated by larger, highly capable teacher models (such as **Gemma 4 31B** or **Gemma 4 26B A4B**).

Use the `[assets/distill_dataset.py]` utility script to generate fine-tuning datasets on your local machine.

## 4. Fine-Tuning Workflows

### Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT)

Use the `[assets/sft_train.py]` asset to launch a local QLoRA fine-tuning session.

*   **LoRA Hyperparameters**:
    *   Rank (`r`): `16` or `32` (Higher rank captures complex behaviors but consumes more memory).
    *   Alpha (`lora_alpha`): `32` or `64` (Rule of thumb: `lora_alpha = 2 * r`).
    *   Dropout (`lora_dropout`): `0.05` or `0.1` (Forcing the model to learn more robust features rather than relying on specific paths).
    *   Target Modules: Use PEFT's Gemma 4 defaults scope to the **LM layers**.
    *   Learning Rate: `2e-4` for QLoRA; `2e-5` for full fine-tuning.

### Direct Preference Optimization (DPO)

Use the `[assets/dpo_train.py]` template to execute alignment.

*   **Rules for DPO**:
    *   **Always** perform SFT on the base model using your instruction format before running DPO. Running DPO directly on an out-of-domain base model usually fails or degrades output formatting.
    *   Set `beta` (DPO temperature parameter) to `0.1`. Values between `0.1` and `0.5` control how strictly the model adheres to the reference policy.

### Reward Modeling (RM)

Use the `[assets/reward_train.py]` template to train an evaluation model.

*   Initializes the model with a sequence classification head (`AutoModelForSequenceClassification` with `num_labels=1`).
*   Trains the single scalar reward value to distinguish preferred responses.

## 5. Multimodal Fine-Tuning (Vision & Audio)

Gemma 4 models are natively multimodal. To fine-tune them on images or audio:

### Vision SFT

*   Use Gemma 4 E2B/E4B/12B/26B/31B models.
*   Use standard Hugging Face `SFTTrainer` with a custom visual data collator.
*   Prepare your dataset containing local image paths or PIL images, alongside corresponding conversation instructions:
    ```json
    {
      "messages": [
        {"role": "user", "content": [
            {"type": "image", "url": "path/to/image.png"},
            {"type": "text", "text": "Describe this image."}
        ]},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": [
            {"type": "text", "text": "An abstract oil painting with vibrant warm gradients."}
        ]}
      ]
    }

    ```

### Audio SFT

*   Use Gemma 4 E2B/E4B/12B models.
*   Feed raw audio arrays (sampled at 16kHz) through the model processor to produce `input_features`.
*   Maintain conversational formatting, replacing `image` type with `audio` type in the message format.
    ```json
    {
      "messages": [
        {"role": "user", "content": [
            {"type": "text", "text": "Describe this audio."},
            {"type": "audio", "url": "path/to/audio.wav"}
        ]},
        {"role": "assistant", "content": [
            {"type": "text", "text": "This is an audio file of a bird chirping."}
        ]}
      ]
    }
    ```

## 6. Post-Training & Deployment Utilities

### GGUF Conversion

Once your LoRA training is finished, you can convert your model to GGUF format.

#### Option 1: Native Export via Unsloth (Recommended)

If you trained your model using **Unsloth**, you can export directly to GGUF natively. This automatically handles merging and quantization.

Fetch [Saving to GGUF](https://unsloth.ai/docs/basics/inference-and-deployment/saving-to-gguf.md) for the best practice.

#### Option 2: Manual Conversion with llama.cpp

If you did not use Unsloth, you can convert your merged Hugging Face model directory manually using [llama.cpp](https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp).

### On-Device Deployment with LiteRT-LM (.litertlm)

**LiteRT-LM** is optimized for running models like **Gemma 4 E2B** and **Gemma 4 E4B** on mobile, web, and IoT hardware with hardware acceleration (CPU, GPU, NPU). Fetch [LiteRT-LM guide](https://developers.google.com/edge/litert-lm/models/gemma-4.md.txt) for the best practice.


[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/google-gemma/gemma-skills/gemma-trainer) · [View on GitHub](https://github.com/google-gemma/gemma-skills)