/trl-fine-tuning

name: fine-tuning-with-trl
description: Fine-tune LLMs using reinforcement learning with TRL - SFT for instruction tuning, DPO for preference alignment, PPO/GRPO for reward optimization, and reward model training. Use when need RLHF, align model with preferences, or train from human feedback. Works with HuggingFace Transformers. Also covers GRPO with TRL and SimPO (guides in references/).
version: 1.0.0
author: Orchestra Research
license: MIT
tags: [Post-Training, TRL, Reinforcement Learning, Fine-Tuning, SFT, DPO, PPO, GRPO, RLHF, Preference Alignment, HuggingFace]
dependencies: [trl, transformers, datasets, peft, accelerate, torch]

TRL - Transformer Reinforcement Learning

Quick start

TRL provides post-training methods for aligning language models with human preferences.

**Installation**:

pip install trl transformers datasets peft accelerate

**Supervised Fine-Tuning** (instruction tuning):

from trl import SFTTrainer

trainer = SFTTrainer(
    model="Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B",
    train_dataset=dataset,  # Prompt-completion pairs
)
trainer.train()

**DPO** (align with preferences):

from trl import DPOTrainer, DPOConfig

config = DPOConfig(output_dir="model-dpo", beta=0.1)
trainer = DPOTrainer(
    model=model,
    args=config,
    train_dataset=preference_dataset,  # chosen/rejected pairs
    processing_class=tokenizer
)
trainer.train()

Common workflows

Workflow 1: Full RLHF pipeline (SFT → Reward Model → PPO)

Complete pipeline from base model to human-aligned model.

Copy this checklist:

RLHF Training:
- [ ] Step 1: Supervised fine-tuning (SFT)
- [ ] Step 2: Train reward model
- [ ] Step 3: PPO reinforcement learning
- [ ] Step 4: Evaluate aligned model

**Step 1: Supervised fine-tuning**

Train base model on instruction-following data:

from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer
from trl import SFTTrainer, SFTConfig
from datasets import load_dataset

# Load model
model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained("Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B")
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B")

# Load instruction dataset
dataset = load_dataset("trl-lib/Capybara", split="train")

# Configure training
training_args = SFTConfig(
    output_dir="Qwen2.5-0.5B-SFT",
    per_device_train_batch_size=4,
    num_train_epochs=1,
    learning_rate=2e-5,
    logging_steps=10,
    save_strategy="epoch"
)

# Train
trainer = SFTTrainer(
    model=model,
    args=training_args,
    train_dataset=dataset,
    tokenizer=tokenizer
)
trainer.train()
trainer.save_model()

**Step 2: Train reward model**

Train model to predict human preferences:

from transformers import AutoModelForSequenceClassification
from trl import RewardTrainer, RewardConfig

# Load SFT model as base
model = AutoModelForSequenceClassification.from_pretrained(
    "Qwen2.5-0.5B-SFT",
    num_labels=1  # Single reward score
)
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("Qwen2.5-0.5B-SFT")

# Load preference data (chosen/rejected pairs)
dataset = load_dataset("trl-lib/ultrafeedback_binarized", split="train")

# Configure training
training_args = RewardConfig(
    output_dir="Qwen2.5-0.5B-Reward",
    per_device_train_batch_size=2,
    num_train_epochs=1,
    learning_rate=1e-5
)

# Train reward model
trainer = RewardTrainer(
    model=model,
    args=training_args,
    processing_class=tokenizer,
    train_dataset=dataset
)
trainer.train()
trainer.save_model()

**Step 3: PPO reinforcement learning**

Optimize policy using reward model:

python -m trl.scripts.ppo \
    --model_name_or_path Qwen2.5-0.5B-SFT \
    --reward_model_path Qwen2.5-0.5B-Reward \
    --dataset_name trl-internal-testing/descriptiveness-sentiment-trl-style \
    --output_dir Qwen2.5-0.5B-PPO \
    --learning_rate 3e-6 \
    --per_device_train_batch_size 64 \
    --total_episodes 10000

**Step 4: Evaluate**

from transformers import pipeline

# Load aligned model
generator = pipeline("text-generation", model="Qwen2.5-0.5B-PPO")

# Test
prompt = "Explain quantum computing to a 10-year-old"
output = generator(prompt, max_length=200)[0]["generated_text"]
print(output)

Workflow 2: Simple preference alignment with DPO

Align model with preferences without reward model.

Copy this checklist:

DPO Training:
- [ ] Step 1: Prepare preference dataset
- [ ] Step 2: Configure DPO
- [ ] Step 3: Train with DPOTrainer
- [ ] Step 4: Evaluate alignment

**Step 1: Prepare preference dataset**

Dataset format:

{
  "prompt": "What is the capital of France?",
  "chosen": "The capital of France is Paris.",
  "rejected": "I don't know."
}

Load dataset:

from datasets import load_dataset

dataset = load_dataset("trl-lib/ultrafeedback_binarized", split="train")
# Or load your own
# dataset = load_dataset("json", data_files="preferences.json")

**Step 2: Configure DPO**

from trl import DPOConfig

config = DPOConfig(
    output_dir="Qwen2.5-0.5B-DPO",
    per_device_train_batch_size=4,
    num_train_epochs=1,
    learning_rate=5e-7,
    beta=0.1,  # KL penalty strength
    max_prompt_length=512,
    max_length=1024,
    logging_steps=10
)

**Step 3: Train with DPOTrainer**

from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer
from trl import DPOTrainer

model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained("Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct")
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct")

trainer = DPOTrainer(
    model=model,
    args=config,
    train_dataset=dataset,
    processing_class=tokenizer
)

trainer.train()
trainer.save_model()

**CLI alternative**:

trl dpo \
    --model_name_or_path Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct \
    --dataset_name argilla/Capybara-Preferences \
    --output_dir Qwen2.5-0.5B-DPO \
    --per_device_train_batch_size 4 \
    --learning_rate 5e-7 \
    --beta 0.1

Workflow 3: Memory-efficient online RL with GRPO

Train with reinforcement