rank-llm-install

name	rank-llm-install
description	Set up a rank_llm development environment. Use when someone is onboarding, setting up a fresh clone, choosing extras such as cloud, api, local, or pyserini, or troubleshooting whether the packaged rank-llm CLI is ready.

rank_llm Install

Development environment setup for rank_llm and its packaged rank-llm CLI.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• Git
• Java 21 only for retrieval or evaluation workflows that use pyserini

Verify Runtime

python3 --version
command -v uv

If uv is on PATH, use it silently. If not, ask once whether to install uv or continue with a fallback pip or conda path.

Clone (if needed)

If no pyproject.toml is present:

git clone [e-mail]:castorini/rank_llm.git && cd rank_llm

Install (source - preferred)

uv path

uv python install 3.11
uv venv --python 3.11
source .venv/bin/activate
uv sync --group dev --extra cloud --extra api

pip path

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[cloud,api]"
pip install pre-commit

conda fallback

conda create -n rankllm python=3.11 -c conda-forge -y
conda activate rankllm
pip install -e ".[cloud,api]"

PyPI alternative

uv pip install rank-llm

Smoke Test

rank-llm --output json doctor
rank-llm --help

Pre-commit (source installs)

uv run pre-commit install --install-hooks --hook-type pre-commit --hook-type pre-push

Reference Files

• references/extras.md - Optional extras and when to add them

Gotchas

• rank-llm is the canonical CLI entry point. The legacy scripts under src/rank_llm/scripts/ remain available, but they are compatibility wrappers.
• cloud is the default hosted-provider stack and api is the lightweight HTTP server stack. This pair is the best default for most contributor workflows.
• pyserini requires Java 21 and is only needed for retrieval or evaluation workflows.
• local, vllm, and sglang pull in heavier inference stacks. Do not install them by default.