Introduction
Transformer Lab is a fully open-source, cross-platform desktop app that makes it easy to download, run, fine-tune, and evaluate large models (LLM/VLM/Diffusion) locally or in the cloud. It integrates multiple inference engines, a plugin ecosystem, and dataset-building tools with a GUI for exploration and debugging.
Key features
- One-click download and management of popular models (Llama, Gemma, Qwen, Phi, Mistral, etc.).
- Multi-engine support (MLX, FastChat, vLLM, Llama CPP) with easy engine switching.
- Visualization and debugging tools: inspect model architecture, activations, attention, and inference logs.
- Fine-tuning and training workflows across different hardware (Apple Silicon via MLX, GPU via Hugging Face).
Use cases
- Local model exploration, inference, and debugging for research or teaching.
- Lightweight fine-tuning on constrained devices or full training on remote/cloud hardware.
- Dataset construction, RAG workflows, and batch model evaluation.
Technical details
- Built with Electron + React for cross-platform desktop deployment.
- Integrates Hugging Face, MLX, and model conversion tools (HuggingFace/MLX/GGUF).
- License: AGPL-3.0 (note distribution restrictions for commercial use).