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Shengliang Xu 1cceb950d6 [OMNIML-3689] PTQ quant_cfg semantic correction. Design in doc _quant_cfg.rst (#1094)
### What does this PR do?

#### Summary

Redesigns the `quant_cfg` configuration format in ModelOpt's PyTorch
quantization stack, replacing the previous dict-based format with an
**ordered list of typed `QuantizerCfgEntry` dicts**.

##### Motivation

The old `quant_cfg` dict had several pain points:
- **Ambiguous precedence**: no explicit way to reason about which entry
wins when multiple keys match a quantizer
- **Mixed key namespaces**: wildcard paths and PyTorch class names lived
in the same dict level, requiring ad-hoc dispatch
- **Magic `"default"` key**: an implicit, undocumented catch-all that
was easy to misuse
- **Poor composability**: merging two configs required dict updates that
silently discarded keys
- **No YAML round-trip fidelity**: the nested structure couldn't be
expressed cleanly in YAML

##### New format

`quant_cfg` is now an ordered list of `QuantizerCfgEntry` TypedDicts.
Each entry has:
- `quantizer_name` *(required)*: `fnmatch` wildcard matched against
quantizer module names
- `cfg` *(optional)*: dict (or list of dicts) of
`QuantizerAttributeConfig` fields
- `enable` *(optional)*: toggles quantizer on/off independently of `cfg`
- `parent_class` *(optional)*: restricts match to quantizers whose
parent module is of the given PyTorch class (e.g. `"nn.BatchNorm2d"`)

Entries are applied in list order; later entries override earlier ones.
The canonical pattern is deny-all first (`_base_disable_all`), then
selectively re-enable and configure, then apply standard exclusions
(`_default_disabled_quantizer_cfg`).

##### Changes

**Core library (`modelopt/torch/quantization/`)**

- **`config.py`**:
- Added `QuantizerCfgEntry` TypedDict (line 163) and
`find_quant_cfg_entry_by_path()` helper for exact-match lookup of
entries by path.
- Added `normalize_quant_cfg_list()` (line 1539) that converts legacy
formats (flat dict, single-key dicts, `nn.*`-scoped dicts, `"default"`
key) to canonical `QuantizerCfgEntry` lists. After normalization every
entry is guaranteed to have explicit `quantizer_name`, `enable`, and
`cfg` keys.
- Converted `_default_disabled_quantizer_cfg` and
`_mamba_moe_disabled_quantizer_cfg` from dicts to lists of
`QuantizerCfgEntry`.
- Added `_base_disable_all` (line 205): canonical deny-all entry
(`[{"quantizer_name": "*", "enable": False}]`).
- Converted all ~30 built-in config constants (`INT8_DEFAULT_CFG`,
`FP8_DEFAULT_CFG`, `NVFP4_DEFAULT_CFG`, etc.) to list format using
`*_base_disable_all` and `*_default_disabled_quantizer_cfg` unpacking.
- KV-cache configs (`FP8_KV_CFG`, `NVFP4_KV_CFG`, etc.) are now minimal
lists designed to be concatenated with a primary config — they
intentionally omit `_base_disable_all` and `"algorithm"`.
- Added two `QuantizeConfig` Pydantic field validators: a
`mode="before"` validator that calls `normalize_quant_cfg_list()`, and a
`mode="after"` validator that validates `cfg` dicts against
`QuantizerAttributeConfig`.
- Updated `need_calibration()` to iterate the normalized list instead of
the old dict.
- Changed `QuantizeQuantCfgType` alias from `dict[str | Callable, ...]`
to `list[QuantizerCfgEntry]`.

- **`conversion.py`**:
- Rewrote `set_quantizer_by_cfg()` (line 217) to iterate the list
directly. Each entry's `parent_class` is resolved via
`QuantModuleRegistry[parent_class_name]` (the existing `_DMRegistryCls`
registry).
- Added `set_quantizer_attributes_full()` (line 314): full replacement
of quantizer attributes from a `QuantizerAttributeConfig`. Unspecified
fields revert to defaults, enforcing entry atomicity. Can also upgrade
`TensorQuantizer` → `SequentialQuantizer` or downgrade the reverse.
- Added `set_quantizer_attributes_partial()` (line 384): merges a
partial `dict` of attributes into existing quantizer state. Does NOT
change quantizer structure. Used for enable-only entries.
- Added `set_quantizer_by_cfg_context()` context manager (line 447) that
temporarily applies a `quant_cfg` list and restores original quantizer
state on exit.
- Deprecated `set_quantizer_attribute()` (line 525) with a
`DeprecationWarning` pointing to the new functions.

- **`tensor_quantizer.py`**:
- `TensorQuantizer.set_from_attribute_config()`: narrowed type hint from
`dict` to `dict[str, Any]`.
- Added `_axis_setter` and `_block_sizes_setter` custom setters so that
`axis` and `block_sizes` changes properly propagate to the calibrator
and maintain mutual exclusivity.
- `SequentialQuantizer.set_from_attribute_config()`: narrowed signature
to `list[QuantizerAttributeConfig] | list[dict[str, Any]]` (removed the
old union with single values).

- **`algorithms.py`**:
- Updated `_match_quantizer_cfg()` to iterate the list and return
`(matched_cfg, matched_enable)` tuple with last-match-wins.
- Updated `_cfg_to_dict()`, `estimate_quant_compression()`, and
`QuantRecipe` to work with the list-based format.
- Updated `get_auto_quantize_config()` to emit list-format `quant_cfg`.

- **`model_quant.py`**: `disable_quantizer()` / `enable_quantizer()` now
call `set_quantizer_attributes_partial()` directly instead of the
deprecated `set_quantizer_attribute()`. Updated docstrings and code
examples to show the list format.

- **`utils/core_utils.py`**: `disable_lora_quantizers_in_config()` and
`update_quant_cfg_with_kv_cache_quant()` updated to append
`QuantizerCfgEntry` dicts to the list.

- **Other**: minor updates to `backends/fp8_per_tensor_gemm.py`,
`backends/nvfp4_gemm.py`, `compress.py`, `model_calib.py`,
`export/unified_export_hf.py`, and
`sparsity/attention_sparsity/conversion.py` to use the list format.

- **`onnx/llm_export_utils/quantization_utils.py`**: Updated
quantization config construction to use list format.

**YAML recipes (`modelopt_recipes/`)**

- Converted all 5 general PTQ recipes to the new list format:
  - `general/ptq/fp8_default-fp8_kv.yml`
  - `general/ptq/nvfp4_default-fp8_kv.yml`
  - `general/ptq/nvfp4_experts_only-fp8_kv.yml`
  - `general/ptq/nvfp4_mlp_only-fp8_kv.yml`
  - `general/ptq/nvfp4_omlp_only-fp8_kv.yml`
- Converted model-specific recipe:
`models/Step3.5-Flash/nvfp4-mlp-only.yaml`

**Documentation (`docs/`)**

- New guide: `docs/source/guides/_quant_cfg.rst` — comprehensive
reference covering entry format, ordering semantics, entry atomicity,
`enable` vs `cfg` independence, `parent_class` filtering, and common
patterns (deny-all-then-enable, customizing a built-in config, building
from scratch).
- Updated `_pytorch_quantization.rst` code examples to show the list
format with `copy.deepcopy` and `.append()`.
- Added `_quant_cfg.rst` to the quantization guide table of contents.

**Examples**

- Updated all quantization examples to use the list format:
`deepseek/ptq.py`, `diffusers/quantization/config.py`,
`llm_ptq/hf_ptq.py`, `llm_qat/main.py`, `vllm_serve/vllm_ptq_utils.py`,
`llm_autodeploy/run_auto_quantize.py`, `llm_eval/quantization_utils.py`,
`llm_ptq/example_utils.py`,
`windows/torch_onnx/diffusers/qad_example/sample_example_qad_diffusers.py`,
and 2 notebooks.

**Tests**

- New test file:
`tests/unit/torch/quantization/test_config_validation.py` — unit tests
for `need_calibration()`, `normalize_quant_cfg_list()` (new format,
legacy format conversions, error cases),
`find_quant_cfg_entry_by_path()`, `_match_quantizer_cfg()`, and
`QuantizeConfig` Pydantic validators.
- Extended `tests/unit/torch/quantization/test_quantize_cpu.py` with
tests for `set_quantizer_attributes_full()` (atomicity, parent_class
filtering, SequentialQuantizer creation), list ordering, enable-only
entry behavior, and end-to-end legacy dict format.
- Updated 20+ existing test files across `tests/unit/`, `tests/gpu/`,
`tests/gpu_megatron/`, and `tests/_test_utils/` to use the list format.

##### Backward compatibility

`normalize_quant_cfg_list()` is called automatically by the
`QuantizeConfig` Pydantic `mode="before"` validator, so existing code
passing the old dict-based format (flat dict like `{"*weight_quantizer":
{"num_bits": 8}}`, single-key dict lists, or `nn.*`-scoped dicts with
`parent_class` semantics) continues to work without modification. The
legacy `"default"` key is converted to `quantizer_name: "*"`.

`set_quantizer_attribute()` is preserved as a deprecated wrapper around
`set_quantizer_attributes_partial()`.

#### Test coverage

- **Unit tests**: new `test_config_validation.py` with tests for
normalization, validation, path lookup, and cfg matching. Extended
`test_quantize_cpu.py` with tests for full/partial attribute setting,
ordering, atomicity, and legacy backward compatibility.
- **System testing**:

```
python examples/llm_ptq/hf_ptq.py \
      --model Qwen/Qwen3-8B  \
      --recipe general/ptq/fp8_default-fp8_kv \
      --export_path=build/fp8_default-fp8_kv42  \
      --calib_size=16 \
      --batch_size=0 \
      --trust_remote_code \
      --export_fmt=hf
```

### Additional Information
<!-- E.g. related issue. -->

---------

Signed-off-by: Shengliang Xu <shengliangx@nvidia.com>
2026-04-06 15:38:44 -07:00

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ReStructuredText

Quantization
############
ModelOpt quantization toolkit supports quantization for NVIDIA's hardware and software stack.
Currently ModelOpt supports quantization in PyTorch and ONNX frameworks.
ModelOpt is based on simulated quantization in the original precision to simulate, test, and
optimize for the best trade-off between the accuracy of the model and different low-precision
formats. To achieve actual speedups and memory savings, the model with simulated quantization can be
exported to deployment frameworks, like TensorRT or TensorRT-LLM. Please refer to the
`Model-Optimizer GitHub repository <https://github.com/NVIDIA/Model-Optimizer>`_
for more details and examples.
Below, you can find the documentation for the quantization toolkit in ModelOpt:
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 1
./_basic_quantization.rst
./_choosing_quant_methods.rst
./_pytorch_quantization.rst
./_quant_cfg.rst
./_customized_model_quantization.rst
./_compress_quantized_models.rst
./_onnx_quantization.rst
./windows_guides/_ONNX_PTQ_guide.rst