feat: skip downloading model weights if using mocker (only tokenizer)

launch/dynamo-run/src/lib.rs

@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@ pub async fn run(
         .http_port(Some(flags.http_port))
         .router_config(Some(flags.router_config()))
         .request_template(flags.request_template.clone())
-        .migration_limit(flags.migration_limit);
+        .migration_limit(flags.migration_limit)
+        .is_mocker(matches!(out_opt, Some(Output::Mocker)));
 
     // TODO: old, address this later:
     // If `in=dyn` we want the trtllm/sglang/vllm subprocess to listen on that endpoint.

lib/bindings/python/rust/llm/entrypoint.rs

@@ -156,7 +156,8 @@ pub fn make_engine<'p>(
         .request_template(args.template_file.clone())
         .kv_cache_block_size(args.kv_cache_block_size)
         .router_config(args.router_config.clone().map(|rc| rc.into()))
-        .http_port(args.http_port);
+        .http_port(args.http_port)
+        .is_mocker(matches!(args.engine_type, EngineType::Mocker));
     pyo3_async_runtimes::tokio::future_into_py(py, async move {
         let local_model = builder.build().await.map_err(to_pyerr)?;
         let inner = select_engine(distributed_runtime, args, local_model)

lib/llm/src/hub.rs

@@ -27,9 +27,19 @@ const IGNORED: [&str; 5] = [
 
 const HF_TOKEN_ENV_VAR: &str = "HF_TOKEN";
 
+/// Checks if a file is a model weight file
+fn is_weight_file(filename: &str) -> bool {
+    filename.ends_with(".bin")
+        || filename.ends_with(".safetensors")
+        || filename.ends_with(".h5")
+        || filename.ends_with(".msgpack")
+        || filename.ends_with(".ckpt.index")
+}
+
 /// Attempt to download a model from Hugging Face
 /// Returns the directory it is in
-pub async fn from_hf(name: impl AsRef<Path>) -> anyhow::Result<PathBuf> {
+/// If ignore_weights is true, model weight files will be skipped
+pub async fn from_hf(name: impl AsRef<Path>, ignore_weights: bool) -> anyhow::Result<PathBuf> {
     let name = name.as_ref();
     let token = env::var(HF_TOKEN_ENV_VAR).ok();
     let api = ApiBuilder::new()
@@ -66,6 +76,11 @@ pub async fn from_hf(name: impl AsRef<Path>) -> anyhow::Result<PathBuf> {
             continue;
         }
 
+        // If ignore_weights is true, skip weight files
+        if ignore_weights && is_weight_file(&sib.rfilename) {
+            continue;
+        }
+
         match repo.get(&sib.rfilename).await {
             Ok(path) => {
                 p = path;
@@ -83,8 +98,14 @@ pub async fn from_hf(name: impl AsRef<Path>) -> anyhow::Result<PathBuf> {
     }
 
     if !files_downloaded {
+        let file_type = if ignore_weights {
+            "non-weight"
+        } else {
+            "valid"
+        };
         return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
-            "No valid files found for model '{}'.",
+            "No {} files found for model '{}'.",
+            file_type,
             model_name
         ));
     }

lib/llm/src/local_model.rs

@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ pub struct LocalModelBuilder {
     kv_cache_block_size: u32,
     http_port: u16,
     migration_limit: u32,
+    is_mocker: bool,
 }
 
 impl Default for LocalModelBuilder {
@@ -62,6 +63,7 @@ impl Default for LocalModelBuilder {
             template_file: Default::default(),
             router_config: Default::default(),
             migration_limit: Default::default(),
+            is_mocker: Default::default(),
         }
     }
 }
@@ -119,6 +121,11 @@ impl LocalModelBuilder {
         self
     }
 
+    pub fn is_mocker(&mut self, is_mocker: bool) -> &mut Self {
+        self.is_mocker = is_mocker;
+        self
+    }
+
     /// Make an LLM ready for use:
     /// - Download it from Hugging Face (and NGC in future) if necessary
     /// - Resolve the path
@@ -169,7 +176,7 @@ impl LocalModelBuilder {
         let relative_path = model_path.trim_start_matches(HF_SCHEME);
         let full_path = if is_hf_repo {
             // HF download if necessary
-            super::hub::from_hf(relative_path).await?
+            super::hub::from_hf(relative_path, self.is_mocker).await?
         } else {
             fs::canonicalize(relative_path)?
         };

tests/conftest.py

@@ -41,11 +41,12 @@
 ]
 
 
-def download_models(model_list=None):
+def download_models(model_list=None, ignore_weights=False):
     """Download models - can be called directly or via fixture
 
     Args:
         model_list: List of model IDs to download. If None, downloads TEST_MODELS.
+        ignore_weights: If True, skips downloading model weight files. Default is False.
     """
     if model_list is None:
         model_list = TEST_MODELS
@@ -65,15 +66,33 @@ def download_models(model_list=None):
         from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download
 
         for model_id in model_list:
-            logging.info(f"Pre-downloading model: {model_id}")
+            logging.info(
+                f"Pre-downloading {'model (no weights)' if ignore_weights else 'model'}: {model_id}"
+            )
 
             try:
-                # Download the full model snapshot (includes all files)
-                # HuggingFace will handle caching automatically
-                snapshot_download(
-                    repo_id=model_id,
-                    token=hf_token,
-                )
+                if ignore_weights:
+                    # Weight file patterns to exclude (based on hub.rs implementation)
+                    weight_patterns = [
+                        "*.bin",
+                        "*.safetensors",
+                        "*.h5",
+                        "*.msgpack",
+                        "*.ckpt.index",
+                    ]
+
+                    # Download everything except weight files
+                    snapshot_download(
+                        repo_id=model_id,
+                        token=hf_token,
+                        ignore_patterns=weight_patterns,
+                    )
+                else:
+                    # Download the full model snapshot (includes all files)
+                    snapshot_download(
+                        repo_id=model_id,
+                        token=hf_token,
+                    )
                 logging.info(f"Successfully pre-downloaded: {model_id}")
 
             except Exception as e:
@@ -94,6 +113,13 @@ def predownload_models():
     yield
 
 
+@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
+def predownload_tokenizers():
+    """Fixture wrapper around download_models for all TEST_MODELS"""
+    download_models(ignore_weights=True)
+    yield
+
+
 @pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
 def logger(request):
     log_path = os.path.join(request.node.name, "test.log.txt")
@@ -127,14 +153,24 @@ def pytest_collection_modifyitems(config, items):
         # Auto-inject predownload_models fixture for serve tests only (not router tests)
         # Skip items that don't have fixturenames (like MypyFileItem)
         if hasattr(item, "fixturenames"):
-            # Only apply to tests in the serve directory
+            # Guard clause: skip if already has the fixtures
             if (
-                ("serve" in str(item.path))
-                and ("predownload_models" not in item.fixturenames)
-                and (not item.get_closest_marker("skip_model_download"))
+                "predownload_models" in item.fixturenames
+                or "predownload_tokenizers" in item.fixturenames
             ):
+                continue
+
+            # Guard clause: skip if marked with skip_model_download
+            if item.get_closest_marker("skip_model_download"):
+                continue
+
+            # Add appropriate fixture based on test path
+            if "serve" in str(item.path):
                 item.fixturenames = list(item.fixturenames)
                 item.fixturenames.append("predownload_models")
+            elif "router" in str(item.path):
+                item.fixturenames = list(item.fixturenames)
+                item.fixturenames.append("predownload_tokenizers")
 
 
 class EtcdServer(ManagedProcess):

tests/router/test_router_e2e_with_mockers.py

@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@
 import aiohttp
 import pytest
 
-from tests.conftest import download_models
 from tests.utils.managed_process import ManagedProcess
 
 pytestmark = pytest.mark.pre_merge
@@ -96,9 +95,6 @@ def test_mocker_kv_router(request, runtime_services):
     This test doesn't require GPUs and runs quickly for pre-merge validation.
     """
 
-    # Download only the Qwen model for this test
-    download_models([MODEL_NAME])
-
     # runtime_services starts etcd and nats
     logger.info("Starting mocker KV router test")