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Summary

Serverless GPU cloud for ML jobs and model APIs

SKILL.md

Serverless GPU cloud for ML jobs and model APIs.

Skill metadata

SourceOptional — install with hermes skills install official/mlops/modal
Pathoptional-skills/mlops/modal
Version1.0.1
AuthorOrchestra Research
LicenseMIT
Dependenciesmodal>=1.0
Platformslinux, macos, windows
TagsInfrastructure, Serverless, GPU, Cloud, Deployment, Modal

Reference: full SKILL.md

info

The following is the complete skill definition that Hermes loads when this skill is triggered. This is what the agent sees as instructions when the skill is active.

Modal Serverless GPU

Comprehensive guide to running ML workloads on Modal's serverless GPU cloud platform.

When to use Modal

Use Modal when:

  • Running GPU-intensive ML workloads without managing infrastructure
  • Deploying ML models as auto-scaling APIs
  • Running batch processing jobs (training, inference, data processing)
  • Need pay-per-second GPU pricing without idle costs
  • Prototyping ML applications quickly
  • Running scheduled jobs (cron-like workloads)

Key features:

  • Serverless GPUs: T4, L4, A10G, L40S, A100, H100, H200, B200 on-demand
  • Python-native: Define infrastructure in Python code, no YAML
  • Auto-scaling: Scale to zero, scale to 100+ GPUs instantly
  • Sub-second cold starts: Rust-based infrastructure for fast container launches
  • Container caching: Image layers cached for rapid iteration
  • Web endpoints: Deploy functions as REST APIs with zero-downtime updates

Use alternatives instead:

  • RunPod: For longer-running pods with persistent state
  • Lambda Labs: For reserved GPU instances
  • SkyPilot: For multi-cloud orchestration and cost optimization
  • Kubernetes: For complex multi-service architectures

Quick start

Installation

pip install modal
modal setup # Opens browser for authentication

Hello World with GPU

import modal

app = modal.App("hello-gpu")

@app.function(gpu="T4")
def gpu_info():
import subprocess
return subprocess.run(["nvidia-smi"], capture_output=True, text=True).stdout

@app.local_entrypoint()
def main():
print(gpu_info.remote())

Run: modal run hello_gpu.py

Basic inference endpoint

import modal

app = modal.App("text-generation")
image = modal.Image.debian_slim().pip_install("transformers", "torch", "accelerate")

@app.cls(gpu="A10G", image=image)
class TextGenerator:
@modal.enter()
def load_model(self):
from transformers import pipeline
self.pipe = pipeline("text-generation", model="gpt2", device=0)

@modal.method()
def generate(self, prompt: str) -> str:
return self.pipe(prompt, max_length=100)[0]["generated_text"]

@app.local_entrypoint()
def main():
print(TextGenerator().generate.remote("Hello, world"))

Core concepts

Key components

ComponentPurpose
AppContainer for functions and resources
FunctionServerless function with compute specs
ClsClass-based functions with lifecycle hooks
ImageContainer image definition
VolumePersistent storage for models/data
SecretSecure credential storage

Execution modes

CommandDescription
modal run script.pyExecute and exit
modal serve script.pyDevelopment with live reload
modal deploy script.pyPersistent cloud deployment

GPU configuration

Available GPUs

GPUVRAMBest For
T416GBBudget inference, small models
L424GBInference, Ada Lovelace arch
A10G24GBTraining/inference, 3.3x faster than T4
L40S48GBRecommended for inference (best cost/perf)
A100-40GB40GBLarge model training
A100-80GB80GBVery large models
H10080GBFastest, FP8 + Transformer Engine
H200141GBAuto-upgrade from H100, 4.8TB/s bandwidth
B200LatestBlackwell architecture

GPU specification patterns

# Single GPU
@app.function(gpu="A100")

# Specific memory variant
@app.function(gpu="A100-80GB")

# Multiple GPUs (up to 8)
@app.function(gpu="H100:4")

# GPU with fallbacks
@app.function(gpu=["H100", "A100", "L40S"])

# Any available GPU
@app.function(gpu="any")

Container images

# Basic image with pip
image = modal.Image.debian_slim(python_version="3.11").pip_install(
"torch==2.1.0", "transformers==4.36.0", "accelerate"
)

# From CUDA base
image = modal.Image.from_registry(
"nvidia/cuda:12.1.0-cudnn8-devel-ubuntu22.04",
add_python="3.11"
).pip_install("torch", "transformers")

# With system packages
image = modal.Image.debian_slim().apt_install("git", "ffmpeg").pip_install("whisper")

Persistent storage

volume = modal.Volume.from_name("model-cache", create_if_missing=True)

@app.function(gpu="A10G", volumes={"/models": volume})
def load_model():
import os
model_path = "/models/llama-7b"
if not os.path.exists(model_path):
model = download_model()
model.save_pretrained(model_path)
volume.commit() # Persist changes
return load_from_path(model_path)

Web endpoints

FastAPI endpoint decorator

@app.function()
@modal.fastapi_endpoint(method="POST")
def predict(text: str) -> dict:
return {"result": model.predict(text)}

Full ASGI app

from fastapi import FastAPI
web_app = FastAPI()

@web_app.post("/predict")
async def predict(text: str):
return {"result": await model.predict.remote.aio(text)}

@app.function()
@modal.asgi_app()
def fastapi_app():
return web_app

Web endpoint types

DecoratorUse Case
@modal.fastapi_endpoint()Simple function → API
@modal.asgi_app()Full FastAPI/Starlette apps
@modal.wsgi_app()Django/Flask apps
@modal.web_server(port)Arbitrary HTTP servers

Dynamic batching

@app.function()
@modal.batched(max_batch_size=32, wait_ms=100)
async def batch_predict(inputs: list[str]) -> list[dict]:
# Inputs automatically batched
return model.batch_predict(inputs)

Secrets management

# Create secret
modal secret create huggingface HF_TOKEN=hf_xxx
@app.function(secrets=[modal.Secret.from_name("huggingface")])
def download_model():
import os
token = os.environ["HF_TOKEN"]

Scheduling

@app.function(schedule=modal.Cron("0 0 * * *")) # Daily midnight
def daily_job():
pass

@app.function(schedule=modal.Period(hours=1))
def hourly_job():
pass

Performance optimization

Cold start mitigation

# Modal 1.0 autoscaler params: scaledown_window (was container_idle_timeout).
# Input concurrency moved to the @modal.concurrent decorator.
@app.function(scaledown_window=300) # Keep warm 5 min
@modal.concurrent(max_inputs=10) # Handle concurrent requests per container
def inference():
pass

Model loading best practices

@app.cls(gpu="A100")
class Model:
@modal.enter() # Run once at container start
def load(self):
self.model = load_model() # Load during warm-up

@modal.method()
def predict(self, x):
return self.model(x)

Parallel processing

@app.function()
def process_item(item):
return expensive_computation(item)

@app.function()
def run_parallel():
items = list(range(1000))
# Fan out to parallel containers
results = list(process_item.map(items))
return results

Common configuration

@app.function(
gpu="A100",
memory=32768, # 32GB RAM
cpu=4, # 4 CPU cores
timeout=3600, # 1 hour max
scaledown_window=120, # Keep warm 2 min (was container_idle_timeout)
retries=3, # Retry on failure
max_containers=10, # Max concurrent containers (was concurrency_limit)
min_containers=1, # Keep N containers warm (was keep_warm)
)
def my_function():
pass

Modal 1.0 autoscaler renames (see the migration guide):

  • container_idle_timeoutscaledown_window
  • concurrency_limitmax_containers
  • keep_warmmin_containers
  • allow_concurrent_inputs=N → the @modal.concurrent(max_inputs=N) decorator

Debugging

# Test locally
if __name__ == "__main__":
result = my_function.local()

# View logs
# modal app logs my-app

Common issues

IssueSolution
Cold start latencyIncrease scaledown_window, use @modal.enter()
GPU OOMUse larger GPU (A100-80GB), enable gradient checkpointing
Image build failsPin dependency versions, check CUDA compatibility
Timeout errorsIncrease timeout, add checkpointing

References

Resources