.. _spec_decode:

Speculative decoding in vLLM
============================

.. warning::
    Please note that speculative decoding in vLLM is not yet optimized and does
    not usually yield inter-token latency reductions for all prompt datasets or sampling parameters. The work
    to optimize it is ongoing and can be followed in `this issue. <https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/issues/4630>`_

This document shows how to use `Speculative Decoding <https://x.com/karpathy/status/1697318534555336961>`_ with vLLM.
Speculative decoding is a technique which improves inter-token latency in memory-bound LLM inference.

Speculating with a draft model
------------------------------

The following code configures vLLM to use speculative decoding with a draft model, speculating 5 tokens at a time.

.. code-block:: python

    from vllm import LLM, SamplingParams
    
    prompts = [
        "The future of AI is",
    ]
    sampling_params = SamplingParams(temperature=0.8, top_p=0.95)
    
    llm = LLM(
        model="facebook/opt-6.7b",
        tensor_parallel_size=1,
        speculative_model="facebook/opt-125m",
        num_speculative_tokens=5,
        use_v2_block_manager=True,
    )
    outputs = llm.generate(prompts, sampling_params)
    
    for output in outputs:
        prompt = output.prompt
        generated_text = output.outputs[0].text
        print(f"Prompt: {prompt!r}, Generated text: {generated_text!r}")

Speculating by matching n-grams in the prompt
---------------------------------------------

The following code configures vLLM to use speculative decoding where proposals are generated by
matching n-grams in the prompt. For more information read `this thread. <https://x.com/joao_gante/status/1747322413006643259>`_

.. code-block:: python

    from vllm import LLM, SamplingParams
    
    prompts = [
        "The future of AI is",
    ]
    sampling_params = SamplingParams(temperature=0.8, top_p=0.95)
    
    llm = LLM(
        model="facebook/opt-6.7b",
        tensor_parallel_size=1,
        speculative_model="[ngram]",
        num_speculative_tokens=5,
        ngram_prompt_lookup_max=4,
        use_v2_block_manager=True,
    )
    outputs = llm.generate(prompts, sampling_params)
    
    for output in outputs:
        prompt = output.prompt
        generated_text = output.outputs[0].text
        print(f"Prompt: {prompt!r}, Generated text: {generated_text!r}")

Resources for vLLM contributors
-------------------------------
* `A Hacker's Guide to Speculative Decoding in vLLM <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wNAgpX6z_4>`_
* `What is Lookahead Scheduling in vLLM? <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z9TvqzzBPnh5WHcRwjvK2UEeFeq5zMZb5mFE8jR0HCs/edit#heading=h.1fjfb0donq5a>`_
* `Information on batch expansion <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T-JaS2T1NRfdP51qzqpyakoCXxSXTtORppiwaj5asxA/edit#heading=h.kk7dq05lc6q8>`_
* `Dynamic speculative decoding <https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/issues/4565>`_