modelcar-maker 0.5.1

A tool to build modelcar images with layers per file

modelcar-maker

Downloads Hugging Face models and packages them as minimal OCI container images with one file per layer. Designed for use with KServe as Modelcar images.

Install

Requires Python 3.11+.

pip install modelcar-maker

Usage

modelcar-maker [OPTIONS] [MODEL]

Argument / Option	Description
MODEL	Hugging Face model repo ID (e.g., meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct). Optional if models.default is configured.
-f, --file	Specific files to grab from the repo (can be specified more than once), otherwise grabs all (with some notable exceptions, skipping pytorch bins for example).
--registry	Registry for the output image. Default: quay.io.
-r, --repository	Repository within the registry. Default: jharmison/models.
-t, --tag	The tag to push with, otherwise build from normalized model name.
--backend	Build backend. Default: olot.
--base-image	Base OCI image. Default: registry.access.redhat.com/ubi10/ubi-micro:10.2.
--arch	Target architecture(s). Repeat for multiple. Default: amd64, arm64.
--pull / --no-pull	Pull base image if a newer version is available. Default: --pull.
--push / --no-push	Push the image after building. Default: --push.
-a, --authfile	Path to .docker/config.json style authfile for registry push.
--image-clean-up / --no-image-clean-up	Remove local container image after push. Default: off.
--model-clean-up / --no-model-clean-up	Remove downloaded model files after build. Default: off.
--skip-if-exists / --no-skip-if-exists	Skip if the tag already exists at the registry. Default: on.
-v	Increase logging verbosity. Repeat for more.
-V	Print version and exit.

Image tag format: {registry}/{repository}/{specified tag or normalized-model}-modelcar

When no tag is specified, the model repo ID is normalized for use as a tag: slashes become --, dots become _, and the string is lowercased before appending -modelcar. For example, meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct produces tag meta-llama--llama_3-2-3b-instruct-modelcar.

Examples:

# Build and push a model
modelcar-maker meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct

# Build locally without pushing
modelcar-maker BAAI/bge-large-en-v1.5 --no-push

# Explicit multi-arch build with cleanup
modelcar-maker mistralai/Mistral-7B --arch amd64 --arch arm64 --image-clean-up --model-clean-up

Configuration

Settings are resolved in layer order (later layers override earlier ones):

1. Built-in defaults (defaults.toml useful as a reference)
2. /usr/share/modelcar-maker/config.toml
3. /etc/modelcar-maker/config.toml
4. ~/.config/modelcar-maker/config.toml
5. ./config.toml (current working directory)
6. The config in the path described by the MODELCAR_MAKER_CONFIG environment variable
7. Environment variables with prefix MODELCAR_MAKER_
8. CLI arguments override all of the above

Any setting can be overridden via environment variable by uppercasing the section and key and joining with underscores. For example:

Env Var	Overrides
MODELCAR_MAKER_IMAGE_REGISTRY	image.registry
MODELCAR_MAKER_IMAGE_PUSH	image.push
MODELCAR_MAKER_MODELS_DEFAULT	models.default

Models may have additional configuration applied to them by using the model repository ID in a subkey under the models section of the config. This allows mapping tags and file lists to specific models via config.

Example config.toml:

[image]
registry = "quay.io"
repository = "myorg/models"
push = true
architectures = ["amd64"]

[models]
default = [
  "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct",
  "BAAI/bge-large-en-v1.5",
  "unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-MTP-GGUF",
]
"unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-MTP-GGUF".files = ["README.md", "Qwen3.5-9B-Q4_K_S.gguf"]
"unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-MTP-GGUF".tag = "unsloth--qwen3_5-9b-q4_k_s-modelcar"

Setting default models allows running modelcar-maker with no arguments to build all listed models.

Running as a Container

The tool is available as a container image at ghcr.io/jharmison-redhat/modelcar-maker:latest (versioned tags also available).

podman run --rm ghcr.io/jharmison-redhat/modelcar-maker:latest --help

For authenticated pushes, mount a credential file. For gated downloads, provide the HF_TOKEN environment variable:

podman run --rm \
  -v "$HOME/.docker/config.json:/config.json" \
  -e HF_TOKEN="$HF_TOKEN" \
  ghcr.io/jharmison-redhat/modelcar-maker:latest \
  --authfile /config.json \
  meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct

To persist downloaded model files across runs, mount a volume at /modelcar-maker:

podman run --rm \
  -v modelcar-cache:/modelcar-maker \
  -v "$HOME/.docker/config.json:/config.json" \
  -e HF_TOKEN="$HF_TOKEN" \
  ghcr.io/jharmison-redhat/modelcar-maker:latest \
  --authfile /config.json \
  --skip-if-exists \
  meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct

docker may work but is untested.

License

ISC. See LICENSE.