seed-ssim-references

name

seed-ssim-references

description

Seed HF reference artefacts for a single newly-added SSIM test (pixel `.mp4` for `run_text_to_video_similarity_test`-style tests, or latent `.pt` for `run_text_to_latent_similarity_test`-style tests). Runs the test on Modal L40S, downloads the generated artefacts via `modal volume get`, pauses for the user to verify (visual eyeball for mp4, numerics dump for pt), then uploads only that test's files to `FastVideo/ssim-reference-videos`. Use when a new `fastvideo/tests/ssim/test_*_similarity.py` has just been added and has no references on HF yet.

Seed SSIM Reference Artefacts (mp4 or pt)

Purpose

A brand-new SSIM test in fastvideo/tests/ssim/ fails forever until its reference artefacts exist on the HF dataset (FastVideo/ssim-reference-videos). The dataset hosts two kinds of artefacts side-by-side per (model_id, backend, prompt):

• .mp4 — pixel ground-truth for tests that call run_text_to_video_similarity_test / run_image_to_video_similarity_test in inference_similarity_utils.py. Compared via SSIM.
• .pt — pre-VAE latent bundle (fp16 full latent + fp32 slice + metadata + slice_spec + format_version) for tests that call run_text_to_latent_similarity_test in latent_similarity_utils.py. Compared via cosine distance on the slice and the full tensor.

This skill:

1. Detects which artefact type the test produces (pixel vs latent).
2. Runs the test on Modal's L40S pool to generate the artefacts.
3. Downloads them to the local repo via modal volume get.
4. Pauses so the user can verify quality:
   • mp4: visual eyeball in a video player.
   • pt: numerics dump (shape, slice stats, NaN/Inf check, metadata).
5. Uploads only the new test's files to HF, with a guard that refuses to overwrite anything already present.

The skill is run manually, once per new test. Before invoking it, the user has already sanity-tested the new test locally — it launches VideoGenerator and writes an artefact without crashing (the missing-reference assertion at the end is expected). The skill does not re-test locally; it goes straight to the manual legacy Modal L40S reference-maintenance target. Active CI runs on the Slinky Slurm cluster and only consumes the resulting references.

When to use

• A new test_*_similarity.py file has been added in fastvideo/tests/ssim/ and the HF dataset has no reference_videos/default/L40S_reference_videos/<model_id>/ subtree for it yet.

When not to use

• Regular CI runs — once refs exist, pytest fastvideo/tests/ssim/ downloads them automatically.
• Re-seeding an existing test. That requires --force on the upload step, and is out of scope here; treat as a separate, deliberate operation.

Inputs

The skill has one required input: the path to the new SSIM test file. Prompt the user for it if they didn't supply it.

Parameter	Required	Description
test_file	Yes	e.g. fastvideo/tests/ssim/test_ltx2_similarity.py. The skill's first action is to ask for this if missing.

Everything else is fixed:

• Modal maintenance GPU: L40S (hardcoded in fastvideo/tests/modal/ssim_test.py; this is not the active CI compute path).
• Device folder: L40S_reference_videos.
• Quality tier: default (the tier CI runs). The full_quality tier is not seeded by this skill.
• HF repo: FastVideo/ssim-reference-videos (dataset).
• Multi-model test files: all model ids in *_MODEL_TO_PARAMS are seeded together; the Modal run produces one mp4 per (model, prompt, backend) and the upload scopes by --model-id, looping if there is more than one.

Prerequisites

The user has confirmed:

• modal CLI authenticated.
• HF_API_KEY (or HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN / HF_TOKEN) exported with write access to FastVideo/ssim-reference-videos.
• The test file runs locally end-to-end (generates an mp4; SSIM assertion failure due to missing reference is expected and fine).

Fail fast if the token env var is missing.

Steps

1. Ask for the test file, then detect artefact type

If the user didn't name one, ask: "Which SSIM test file do you want to seed references for? (e.g. fastvideo/tests/ssim/test_ltx2_similarity.py)".

Validate:

• Path exists and matches fastvideo/tests/ssim/test_*_similarity.py.
• File defines a *_MODEL_TO_PARAMS dict — grep it to extract the set of model ids. Those ids drive step 5.

Detect artefact type by inspecting the file's imports / helper call:

• latent (.pt) — file imports run_text_to_latent_similarity_test from fastvideo.tests.ssim.latent_similarity_utils (or any other helper that ends with _latent_similarity_test).
• pixel (.mp4) — file imports run_text_to_video_similarity_test / run_image_to_video_similarity_test from fastvideo.tests.ssim.inference_similarity_utils, OR uses the legacy custom-inline helper pattern (see test_gamecraft, test_longcat, etc.). Default to pixel when both heuristics fail.

Record ARTEFACT_TYPE ∈ {pixel, latent} for use in step 4. Steps 2, 3, 5, and 6 are artefact-type-agnostic — _iter_reference_files, copy_generated_to_reference, and upload_reference_videos already walk both .mp4 and .pt (see reference_videos_cli.py).

If either check fails, stop and tell the user what's wrong.

2. Run the test on Modal L40S

Pick a subdir name so repeated runs don't collide:

SHORT_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse --short=12 HEAD)
TIMESTAMP=$(date -u +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
SUBDIR="${TIMESTAMP}_${SHORT_COMMIT}"

Then launch the Modal run. The IMAGE_VERSION and BUILDKITE_* env-prefix must match what CI exports in .buildkite/scripts/pr_test.sh, otherwise fastvideo/tests/modal/ssim_test.py resolves a different GHCR image tag (default is latest, CI is py3.12-latest) and bakes different values into the image's frozen env block (ssim_test.py:17-18, 38-46). Mismatched image or env produces SSIM drift that doesn't show up until the same commit runs in CI.

IMAGE_VERSION="py3.12-latest" \
BUILDKITE_REPO="$(git config --get remote.origin.url)" \
BUILDKITE_COMMIT="$(git rev-parse HEAD)" \
BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST="${BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST:-false}" \
modal run fastvideo/tests/modal/ssim_test.py \
    --git-repo="$(git config --get remote.origin.url)" \
    --git-commit="$(git rev-parse HEAD)" \
    --hf-api-key="$HF_API_KEY" \
    --test-files="<test_file>" \
    --sync-generated-to-volume \
    --generated-volume-subdir="$SUBDIR" \
    --skip-reference-download \
    --no-fail-fast

Env prefix rationale (parity with CI; see .buildkite/pipeline.yml:1-3 and .buildkite/scripts/pr_test.sh:62-83):

• IMAGE_VERSION=py3.12-latest: pins the Modal image tag to the same one CI uses. The published py3.12-latest and latest tags point at Python 3.12 / CUDA 12.6.3 / cu126; py3.12-cuda12.6.3-latest is the explicit alias for the same image. CUDA 13 / cu130 is available under the explicit py3.12-cuda13.0.0-latest tag. This tag policy comes from infra-build-image.yml; the unparameterized docker/Dockerfile build itself still defaults to CUDA 13 / cu130.
• BUILDKITE_REPO/BUILDKITE_COMMIT/BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST: mirror what Buildkite exports. ssim_test.py:38-46 bakes these into the image's .env(...) block; mismatched values can perturb in-container code paths that branch on PR-vs-non-PR. false for BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST matches Buildkite's "non-PR build" sentinel.

Flag rationale:

• --skip-reference-download: no refs exist yet, so conftest must not try to pull them.
• --no-fail-fast: lets the test finish generation before _assert_similarity raises FileNotFoundError: Reference video folder does not exist. The expected failure is what we want — the mp4 has already been written.
• --sync-generated-to-volume + --generated-volume-subdir: copies the generated mp4s to the hf-model-weights Modal volume under ssim_generated_videos/default/<SUBDIR>/generated_videos/ so we can pull them locally.

The Modal run will end with a nonzero exit (expected) and print a modal volume get hf-model-weights ssim_generated_videos/default/<SUBDIR>/generated_videos ./generated_videos_modal/default command. Capture that <SUBDIR> — you need it for step 3.

3. Download generated videos locally

modal volume get --force hf-model-weights \
    ssim_generated_videos/default/"$SUBDIR"/generated_videos \
    ./generated_videos_modal/default

--force is required when the parent ./generated_videos_modal/default already exists; without it, modal volume get errors with [Errno 21] Is a directory. Safe to pass on the first run too.

After this, the mp4s live at ./generated_videos_modal/default/generated_videos/L40S_reference_videos/<model_id>/<backend>/<prompt>.mp4. The extra generated_videos/ level comes from the volume layout in _sync_generated_videos_to_volume (ssim_test.py) — the command copies <repo>/fastvideo/tests/ssim/generated_videos/<tier> to ssim_generated_videos/<tier>/<SUBDIR>/generated_videos/, and modal volume get preserves that trailing generated_videos/ segment.

4. PAUSE — user reviews quality

Type-aware verification.

For ARTEFACT_TYPE = pixel — list the downloaded mp4s and ask the user to open them in a video player:

"Generated videos downloaded to ./generated_videos_modal/default/generated_videos/L40S_reference_videos/. Please open them and confirm the quality looks correct. Reply upload to continue, or anything else to abort."

For ARTEFACT_TYPE = latent — .pt files are not human-watchable. Print a numerics dump for each .pt so the user can sanity-check shape, distribution, and metadata:

import torch
from pathlib import Path
ROOT = Path("./generated_videos_modal/default/generated_videos/L40S_reference_videos")
for p in sorted(ROOT.rglob("*.pt")):
    d = torch.load(p, map_location="cpu", weights_only=False)
    s = d["expected_slice"]
    L = d["latent"].float()
    print(f"=== {p.relative_to(ROOT)} ===")
    print(f"  format_version: {d['format_version']}")
    print(f"  shape:          {d['shape']}")
    print(f"  dtype_original: {d['dtype_original']}")
    print(f"  slice_spec:     {d['slice_spec']}")
    print(f"  slice  shape={tuple(s.shape)}  mean={s.mean():+.4f}  std={s.std():.4f}  min={s.min():+.4f}  max={s.max():+.4f}")
    print(f"  latent shape={tuple(L.shape)}  mean={L.mean():+.4f}  std={L.std():f}  min=  max=")
    (
          )
    ()

Sanity criteria:

• format_version == 1 (matches LATENT_REFERENCE_FORMAT_VERSION).
• shape matches what the model produces (e.g. LTX-2 distilled = [1, 128, T_lat, H_lat, W_lat]; Stable Audio Open 1.0 = [1, 64, 1024]).
• slice_spec.kind matches a registered kind (corner_3x3_first_frame for video, audio_first_8_timesteps for audio).
• No NaN/Inf. mean ≈ 0, std ≈ 1 (denoised latents stay close to the initial Gaussian distribution; very wide deviations suggest numerical drift).
• metadata.prompt matches the test's prompt.

Then ask:

"Numerics look right? Reply upload to continue, or anything else to abort."

Do not proceed until the user explicitly says upload. If they abort, leave everything on disk so they can inspect further — no cleanup.

5. Copy into the local reference layout

Scoped copy — only the new test's artefacts. Single command works for both artefact types because _iter_reference_files walks .mp4 and .pt:

python fastvideo/tests/ssim/reference_videos_cli.py copy-local \
    --quality-tier default \
    --device-folder L40S_reference_videos \
    --generated-dir ./generated_videos_modal/default/generated_videos/L40S_reference_videos

(The --generated-dir points at the device-folder root inside the downloaded tree; copy-local walks all <model>/<backend>/*.{mp4,pt} underneath it. Since the Modal run was scoped to a single test file via --test-files, only that test's model(s) are present — so the copy is implicitly per-test.)

Result for pixel: fastvideo/tests/ssim/reference_videos/default/L40S_reference_videos/<model_id>/<backend>/<prompt>.mp4. Result for latent: same path with .pt extension.

6. Upload to HF — scoped per model_id, with overwrite guard

For each <model_id>:

python fastvideo/tests/ssim/reference_videos_cli.py upload \
    --quality-tier default \
    --device-folder L40S_reference_videos \
    --model-id "<model_id>"

The upload command:

• Uploads only reference_videos/default/L40S_reference_videos/<model_id>/.
• Refuses if any file already exists at that path on HF (this is the guard — seeding a new test should never clobber existing refs). To override, the user must re-run with --force. If the guard fires, stop and report exactly which files exist; do not silently --force.

Reads the HF token from HF_API_KEY / HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN / HF_TOKEN.

7. Report success

List what was uploaded (paths in repo) and remind the user to push any related code changes. Do not auto-verify by re-running Modal — the user can run pytest fastvideo/tests/ssim/<test_file> later to confirm end-to-end; it will auto-download the refs they just uploaded.

Failure modes and how to handle them

• HF_API_KEY unset. Stop before step 2. The Modal run needs it (passed via --hf-api-key), and step 6 needs it for upload. If the user ran hf auth login instead of exporting an env var, read the cached token via huggingface_hub.get_token() and forward it to Modal as --hf-api-key="$CACHED_TOKEN".
• Modal run fails before generation. No artefacts on the volume — nothing to download. Fix the test locally (pytest fastvideo/tests/ssim/<test_file>) and retry from step 2.
• ./generated_videos_modal/default/L40S_reference_videos/ missing after modal volume get. The run didn't produce artefacts (most likely the test crashed before writing, or REQUIRED_GPUS exceeded the partition capacity — see Modal logs).
• Latent test crashed with FSDP / inference_mode error (RuntimeError: Inference tensors do not track version counter). The test must pass init_kwargs_override={"use_fsdp_inference": False} when sp_size == 1 — see test_stable_audio_similarity.py for the pattern. Fix in the test, push, retry.
• Upload guard fires (files already exist). The test name / model id collides with something already on HF. Verify the user actually wants to replace existing refs; if so, re-run the upload with --force. If not, rename the model id in *_MODEL_TO_PARAMS and re-seed.
• Quality looks wrong in step 4. Abort. The artefacts stay on disk for inspection. The fix is usually in the test's params (resolution, steps, seed) — edit the test, then re-run the skill.
  • For latent: also check slice_spec.kind matches the latent rank (corner_3x3_first_frame requires 5-D, audio_first_8_timesteps requires 3-D); a rank/kind mismatch raises in _extract_expected_slice.

Design notes (for future skill maintainers)

• The skill deliberately runs on Modal, not locally, because the CI runner is L40S. Seeding from a different GPU SKU produces refs that CI's L40S runs can't match (pixel SSIM drifts across SKUs; latent cosine has tighter cross-SKU bf16 drift but the configured tolerances assume same-SKU seed → same-SKU verify).
• The skill is default-tier only. full_quality refs are seeded by a separate, deliberate operation — they double runtime and aren't what CI gates on.
• The overwrite guard in reference_videos_cli.py upload is default-on specifically because this skill exists. Re-seeding is a distinct operation that requires explicit --force.
• Both artefact types share the same Modal flow: the orchestrator sets --skip-reference-download + --no-fail-fast, runs pytest, the test's helper writes the artefact (.mp4 via imageio for pixel, save_latent_reference → torch.save for latent) BEFORE the missing-reference assertion raises. _sync_generated_videos_to_volume in ssim_test.py does a shutil.copytree of the whole generated_videos/ tree, picking up .mp4, .pt, and the *_ssim.json / *_latent.json metric files alongside.

References

• fastvideo/tests/modal/ssim_test.py — Modal orchestrator; see --sync-generated-to-volume, --generated-volume-subdir, --skip-reference-download, --no-fail-fast.
• fastvideo/tests/ssim/reference_videos_cli.py — copy-local, upload (with --model-id, --force), download, ensure subcommands. Extension allowlist is REFERENCE_EXTENSIONS = VIDEO_EXTENSIONS + LATENT_EXTENSIONS (.pt).
• fastvideo/tests/ssim/README.md — reference layout, HF repo conventions.
• fastvideo/tests/ssim/inference_similarity_utils.py — pixel helpers (run_text_to_video_similarity_test, run_image_to_video_similarity_test, build_init_kwargs).
• fastvideo/tests/ssim/latent_similarity_utils.py — latent helper (run_text_to_latent_similarity_test), slice spec dispatch (_extract_expected_slice), reference schema (save_latent_reference / load_latent_reference), LATENT_REFERENCE_FORMAT_VERSION.

Changelog

Date	Change
2026-04-17	Initial version (Modal sync-to-volume flow).
2026-04-21	Rewrite: single-test scope, explicit user-review pause, per-model_id upload, HF overwrite guard. Dropped scripts/seed_ssim.sh.
2026-04-21	Post-first-run fixes: modal volume get needs --force when parent exists; download tree has an extra generated_videos/ level so --generated-dir must reflect it.
2026-05-01	Latent (*.pt) artefact support: artefact-type detection in step 1, type-aware verification (visual eyeball for mp4, numerics dump for pt) in step 4, FSDP+inference_mode failure-mode added, design notes for the unified Modal flow. Triggered by PR #1253 (LTX-2 latent migration + Stable Audio latent test).