| name | stoneburner-inference-env |
| description | Use Stoneburner's inference.env standard and brain utilities to route model evaluation through a selected backend. Use when reading or writing INFERENCE_BACKEND, INFERENCE_URL, INFERENCE_MODEL, INFERENCE_THINK, /opt/agentic/inference.env, atomics.inference, provider_from_target, brain-status, brain-switch, or brain-vllm. |
Stoneburner Inference Env
Use this skill when a task involves the vendor-neutral inference.env control
file or the brain/ inference backend utilities.
Control File Purpose
inference.env lets any app, evaluator, or bootstrapper describe the current
inference target without hardcoding provider-specific variables.
Default search order:
$INFERENCE_ENV$BRAIN_ENV/opt/agentic/inference.env/etc/agentic/inference.env
Canonical fields:
INFERENCE_BACKEND=ollama|vllm|openai|claude|bedrock|brain-gateway
INFERENCE_URL=<endpoint-base-url>
INFERENCE_MODEL=<model-tag>
INFERENCE_THINK=true|false
INFERENCE_API_KEY=<optional-token>
Intent/provenance fields such as INFERENCE_DIFFICULTY, INFERENCE_POOL,
INFERENCE_RESOLVED_AT, and INFERENCE_RESOLVED_BY are useful for audit but
should not replace the resolved fields.
Python Usage
Prefer the reference helpers:
from atomics.inference import load_control_file, provider_from_target
target = load_control_file()
if target is not None:
provider = provider_from_target(target)
Do not hand-roll parser logic unless the reference helper cannot be used.
CLI/Ops Usage
Provider health:
uv run atomics provider-test --provider ollama --model <model>
uv run atomics provider-test --provider vllm --model <model>
Brain utilities:
./brain/brain-status
./brain/brain-status --json
./brain/brain-switch status
./brain/brain-switch ollama
./brain/brain-switch openai
./brain/brain-vllm status
On a single-GPU host, avoid running Ollama and a vLLM fleet in a way that causes
unexpected VRAM contention. Stop or switch backends intentionally before
benchmarking.
Backend Semantics
ollama: native Ollama API.vllm: any local OpenAI-compatible gateway such as vLLM, LiteLLM, or
llama.cpp server.openai: cloud OpenAI API.brain-gateway: gateway endpoint used to route through another orchestrator.
Do not conflate local OpenAI-compatible gateways with the OpenAI cloud service.
Safety Rules
- Do not commit real control files with private endpoints or credentials.
- Use sanitized examples in docs.
- Keep local machine or customer-specific values in
.env, $INFERENCE_ENV, or
other ignored local files.
- When validating a model switch, record both the resolved target and the
evidence command output in sanitized form.
