litert-cli

name	litert-cli
description	LiteRT CLI tool to download, convert, quantize, run, benchmark, and visualize LiteRT models.

LiteRT-CLI Agent Skill

This skill allows the agent to download, convert, quantize, run, benchmark, and visualize LiteRT models using the litert command on desktop, device, or Google Cloud.

Setup & Prerequisites (Agent Auto-Setup Guide)

Before running any litert commands, you must ensure a Python virtual environment is active and the litert-cli package is correctly installed.

Option 1: Install from Local Clone (Editable Mode)

Use this method if you are developing inside the cloned repository clone:

Using uv (Recommended - Super Fast)

# Create a venv with seed packages (critical for dynamic deps.py auto-installers)
uv venv --clear --python=3.13 --seed
source .venv/bin/activate

# Install local clone
uv pip install -e .

Using standard venv & pip

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
pip install -e .

Option 2: Install Standalone from PyPI (Nightly)

Use this method if you are installing the published package:

Using uv

uv venv --clear --python=3.13 --seed
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install litert-cli-nightly

Using standard venv & pip

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
pip install litert-cli-nightly

[!TIP]

If you encounter package resolution or network errors with uv, set the standard PyPI index URL first: export UV_INDEX_URL=https://pypi.org/simple

Core Commands

💡 The Model Reference (model-ref) System

To avoid handling complex and fragile absolute filesystem paths, the LiteRT CLI uses a centralized Model Reference (model-ref) catalog.

When you download or import a model to the centralized cache, you can assign it a reference alias (and optional sub-references):

• Format: <alias_name> or <alias_name>:<sub_reference> (e.g., mobilenet, resnet18:gpu, efficientnet:int8).
• Default alias: For HuggingFace downloads, if --model-ref is omitted, the CLI automatically assigns a flattened repository ID (e.g., litert-community__MobileNet-v3-large) as the default alias.

Once a model is registered, all CLI commands (including run, benchmark, compile, delete, list) accept this <model_ref> directly instead of a file path! The CLI will automatically resolve it to the correct absolute cache file path on the fly.

Here are some examples of using model references in action:

# Run inference using the central alias directly
litert run mobilenet --android --cpu

# Benchmark using a specific sub-reference GPU file
litert benchmark resnet18:gpu --android --gpu

# Compile for NPU directly using the reference alias
litert compile efficientnet --target sm8750

# Delete from the central cache
litert delete mobilenet

1. Download

Download public LiteRT models from HuggingFace Hub or a direct URL.

# Download public models using repo path
litert download repo_id_or_url --output ./models

# Download only .tflite files from HuggingFace
litert download litert-community/MobileNet-v3-large --file "*.tflite" --output ./models

# Download models with a custom model-ref alias
litert download litert-community/MobileNet-v3-large --model-ref my_model_ref

[!NOTE]

If --output is omitted during HuggingFace downloads, the model is downloaded to ~/.cache/litert-cli/models/ and cataloged automatically via metadata.json (associating it with the repo ID as the model-ref). If --output is provided, it is treated as a standalone folder and is not cataloged.

2. Convert (PyTorch to LiteRT)

Convert a PyTorch or HuggingFace model into a TFLite model.

# Automated HF model conversion
litert convert Qwen/Qwen1.5-0.5B-Chat --output /tmp/qwen

# Conversion with INT8 Weight-Only Quantization
litert convert Qwen/Qwen1.5-0.5B-Chat --quantize-recipe weight_only_wi8_afp32 --output /tmp/qwen_w8

# From a custom local PyTorch script
litert convert my_model.py --quantize-recipe dynamic_wi8_afp32 --output /tmp/mymodel

[!NOTE]

Custom Python Script Interface (my_model.py): To convert from a custom Python script, the file must expose functions to return the instantiated PyTorch model and generate sample inputs for tracer graph execution: * --model-func: Function name returning the model (torch.nn.Module). Default: get_model. * --input-func: Function name returning sample trace inputs (tuple/dict). Default: get_args.

Minimal Script Example:

import torch

def get_model() -> torch.nn.Module: return MyPyTorchModel()

def get_args() -> tuple: return (torch.randn(1, 3, 224, 224),)

3. Quantize

Quantize a TFLite model using optimized recipes.

# Dynamic Range Quantization (dynamic_wi8_afp32) (Default)
litert quantize model.tflite --recipe dynamic_wi8_afp32 --output dynamic.tflite

# Weight-Only Quantization
litert quantize model.tflite --recipe weight_only_wi8_afp32 --output weight_only.tflite

# Static Range Quantization (requires calibration data)
litert quantize model.tflite --recipe static_wi8_ai8 --calibration-data calib_data.py --output static.tflite

# Custom JSON Recipe
litert quantize model.tflite --custom-recipe recipe.json --output recipe.tflite

4. Compile (NPU Offline AOT Compilation)

Apply Ahead-of-Time (AOT) offline compilation to a standard TFLite model for edge SoC target NPUs.

[!NOTE]

Currently only supported on Linux hosts for Qualcomm targets. Other targets are coming soon!

# Basic offline compile for Qualcomm sm8750 NPU
litert compile model.tflite --target sm8750

# Compile for multiple NPUs and export as Android AI Pack
litert compile model.tflite --target sm8750 --target mt6989 --export-aipack my_npu_models

# Download the latest SoC metadata target maps from GitHub
litert compile --update-targets main

5. Run (Inference)

Run a TFLite model locally on desktop or on an adb-connected Android device.

Desktop Execution:

# Run locally on desktop (CPU)

litert run model.tflite --desktop --cpu

# Run using registered model-ref

litert run my_model_ref --desktop --cpu

# Enable GPU acceleration with CPU fallback (multi-accelerator)

litert run model.tflite --desktop --accelerator gpu,cpu

• Output logs are clean by default. To enable C++ verbose debug logs, set the environment variable:export LITERT_VERBOSE=1.

Android Execution (CPU, GPU, or NPU):

# Run on connected Android device (CPU side)

litert run model.tflite --android --cpu

# Enable GPU acceleration with CPU fallback

litert run model.tflite --android --accelerator gpu,cpu

# Enable NPU acceleration with CPU fallback (JIT compilation mode)

litert run standard_model.tflite --android --accelerator npu,cpu

• NPU Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) execution mode: Pass an already NPU-compiled TFLite model (compiled offline via litert compile). The on-device runtime loads the compiled binary block directly, avoiding graph-compilation warmup overhead:

litert run resnet18_compiled_sm8750.tflite --android --npu

Custom Inputs and Formats:

# Run multiple iterations and print output tensors
litert run model.tflite --iterations 5 --print-tensors

# Multi-Input Formats using literals or numpy arrays

litert run model.tflite --desktop --input inputs="[0.5, 0.5, 0.5]"

# Multi-Input Formats using files (numpy arrays, raw binaries, or images)

litert run model.tflite --desktop --input "image.png" --print-tensors

6. Benchmark

Benchmark LiteRT models on different platforms (Android, Google Cloud, or Desktop).

# Benchmark on connected Android device via CPU
litert benchmark model.tflite --android --cpu

# Benchmark on Android GPU using OpenCL/OpenGL delegates
litert benchmark model.tflite --android --gpu

# Benchmark on Android NPU (JIT compilation mode)
litert benchmark model.tflite --android --npu

# Benchmark compiled AOT model on Android NPU
litert benchmark model_compiled.tflite --android --npu

# Benchmark on macOS CPU
litert benchmark my_model_ref --desktop --cpu

# Benchmark on Google AI Edge Portal (Google Cloud)
# Note: You must join EAP program first, authenticate using 'gcloud auth login', and configure
# --gcp-project and --gcp-bucket.
litert benchmark model.tflite --gcp --device "pixel 7" --gcp-project "your-gcp-project-id" --gcp-bucket "your-gcp-bucket"

7. Large Language Models (LM)

Interact with LLM generative models (like Qwen 1.5 or Gemma 4) using native litert-lm utilities.

[!TIP]

Non-interactive / Background Execution: When running LLM inferences in scripts or background tasks, the process will block waiting for chat prompts on stdin. To prevent hanging, always redirect stdin from /dev/null (i.e. append < /dev/null to the end of command).

# Run a generative model loading from Hugging Face
litert lm run --from-huggingface-repo=litert-community/gemma-4-E2B-it-litert-lm --prompt="What is the capital of France?" < /dev/null

# Run using a local compiled LLM (.litertlm) file
litert lm run gemma-4-E2B-it.litertlm --prompt "Hello, how are you?" < /dev/null

# Benchmark a generative LLM model
litert lm benchmark gemma-4-E2B-it.litertlm

8. Visualize

Launch Model Explorer to visualize the model structure.

# Open model structure graph in web browser
litert visualize model.tflite

# Clean up and stop all background visualization servers
litert visualize --stop-all

9. Import

Import a local model file or folder into the centralized cache.

# Import a local file into the cache
litert import my_model.tflite --model-ref my_model

# Import a directory and associate with a Hugging Face repository ID
litert import ./my_model_dir --model-ref my_model --hf-id my_org/my_model

10. List

List managed model references or view details of a specific model.

# List all models in the catalog
litert list

# Show detailed configurations of a specific model
litert list my_model

11. Delete

Delete a managed model reference from the centralized catalog.

# Delete a model reference from the cache
litert delete my_model

12. Clean

Clean up local caches, downloads, and temporary directories.

# Clean up local caches, downloaded files, and temporary on-device directories
litert clean

🧪 Testing

Agents should run tests after modifying code to ensure no regressions.

To run unit tests locally:

python litert_cli/litert_test.py
python litert_cli/litert_help_test.py

To run comprehensive end-to-end regression tests:

./examples/run_smoke_tests.sh ./examples/run_commands.sh
./examples/run_models.sh

Best Practices for Agents

• Pipe outputs to text files or grep them if you are looking for specific tensor shapes or runtime metrics.
• Avoid hanging background processes: When executing the litert lm run command in a script or in the background, always append < /dev/null to redirect standard input. Otherwise, the process will block indefinitely waiting on stdin.
• Explore Demos: Refer to the examples/ directory to explore comprehensive per-command demos (under examples/commands/) and model-specific demos (under examples/models/) for complete automation patterns.
• Read Troubleshooting Guides: Refer to the main project README.md file's Troubleshooting & Tips section for platform-specific environmental setup guides, adb port recoveries, and NPU offline compiler clang version requirements.

🤖 Example Agent Prompts

These prompts demonstrate how developers can leverage this skill. You can copy and use them directly in your agent queries:

• "Download LiteRT model litert-community/efficientnet_b1 and run it on CPU"
• "Benchmark LiteRT model litert-community/efficientnet_b1 on my Android GPU"
• "Compile LiteRT model litert-community/efficientnet_b1 for NPU target sm8750"
• "Visualize LiteRT model litert-community/efficientnet_b1"
• "Download the FP32 EfficientNet model litert-community/efficientnet_b1 from HuggingFace. Quantize it to INT8 dynamic range (--recipe dynamic_wi8_afp32), then benchmark both the FP32 and INT8 models on my Android GPU, comparing the throughput speedup."
• "Convert the model Qwen/Qwen1.5-0.5B-Chat from HuggingFace Hub to LiteRT format, and run it locally with the prompt 'Explain edge machine learning in one sentence'."
• "Download litert-community/efficientnet_b1, offline compile (AOT) it for the sm8750 target NPU into ./models/compiled, then run on-device inference and benchmark on the NPU, confirming zero JIT warmup latency."