# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 # SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright contributors to the vLLM project """ Generates documentation table for attention backends showing feature support. This script parses all registered attention backends using AST (no imports needed) and generates a markdown table showing what features each backend supports, based on the checks in AttentionBackend.validate_configuration(). This approach avoids requiring CUDA/ROCm/GPU libraries to be installed. When used as a pre-commit hook, this script receives filenames as arguments and only runs the check if any of the relevant files were modified. """ import argparse import ast import fnmatch import sys from collections.abc import Callable from pathlib import Path from typing import Any # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Constants and file paths # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- REPO_ROOT = Path(__file__).parent.parent.parent RELEVANT_PATTERNS = [ "vllm/v1/attention/backends/*.py", "vllm/v1/attention/backends/**/*.py", "vllm/v1/attention/backends/fa_utils.py", "vllm/model_executor/layers/attention/mla_attention.py", "vllm/platforms/cuda.py", "tools/pre_commit/generate_attention_backend_docs.py", "docs/design/attention_backends.md", ] BACKENDS_DIR = REPO_ROOT / "vllm" / "v1" / "attention" / "backends" REGISTRY_FILE = BACKENDS_DIR / "registry.py" CUDA_PLATFORM_FILE = REPO_ROOT / "vllm" / "platforms" / "cuda.py" FA_UTILS_FILE = BACKENDS_DIR / "fa_utils.py" FLASHINFER_UTILS_FILE = REPO_ROOT / "vllm" / "utils" / "flashinfer.py" MLA_ATTENTION_FILE = ( REPO_ROOT / "vllm" / "model_executor" / "layers" / "attention" / "mla_attention.py" ) # Backends to skip during doc generation SKIP_BACKENDS = {"CUSTOM", "TORCH_SDPA"} def is_relevant_file(filepath: str) -> bool: """Check if a file matches any of the relevant patterns.""" path = Path(filepath) if path.is_absolute(): try: path = path.relative_to(REPO_ROOT) except ValueError: return False path_str = str(path) return any(fnmatch.fnmatch(path_str, pattern) for pattern in RELEVANT_PATTERNS) # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # AST utility helpers # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- def find_class_in_ast(tree: ast.AST, class_name: str) -> ast.ClassDef | None: """Find a class definition in an AST.""" for node in ast.walk(tree): if isinstance(node, ast.ClassDef) and node.name == class_name: return node return None def find_method(node: ast.ClassDef, method_name: str) -> ast.FunctionDef | None: """Find a method in a class definition.""" for item in node.body: if isinstance(item, ast.FunctionDef) and item.name == method_name: return item return None def method_returns_true(method: ast.FunctionDef | None) -> bool: """Check if a method simply returns True.""" if method is None: return False for node in ast.walk(method): if ( isinstance(node, ast.Return) and isinstance(node.value, ast.Constant) and node.value.value is True ): return True return False def check_method_overrides(node: ast.ClassDef, method_name: str) -> bool: """Check if a method is overridden and returns True.""" return method_returns_true(find_method(node, method_name)) def _find_bool_class_var(class_node: ast.ClassDef, var_name: str) -> bool | None: """Find a bool class variable in a class definition. Returns None if not found.""" for item in class_node.body: # Check for annotated assignment: attr: bool = True/False if ( isinstance(item, ast.AnnAssign) and isinstance(item.target, ast.Name) and item.target.id == var_name and isinstance(item.value, ast.Constant) and isinstance(item.value.value, bool) ): return item.value.value # Check for plain assignment: attr = True/False if isinstance(item, ast.Assign): for target in item.targets: if ( isinstance(target, ast.Name) and target.id == var_name and isinstance(item.value, ast.Constant) and isinstance(item.value.value, bool) ): return item.value.value return None def _parse_list_class_var(node: ast.ClassDef, var_name: str) -> list[str] | None: """Parse a list-type class variable, returning None if not found.""" for item in node.body: if not isinstance(item, ast.AnnAssign): continue if not isinstance(item.target, ast.Name): continue if item.target.id != var_name: continue if not (item.value and isinstance(item.value, ast.List)): continue result = [] for elt in item.value.elts: if isinstance(elt, ast.Attribute): result.append(elt.attr) elif isinstance(elt, ast.Constant): result.append(str(elt.value)) return result return None def _parse_return_list( method: ast.FunctionDef | None, handle_multiple_of: bool = False ) -> list[str]: """Extract list items from a method's return statement.""" if method is None: return [] for stmt in ast.walk(method): if not isinstance(stmt, ast.Return): continue if not isinstance(stmt.value, ast.List): continue sizes = [] for elt in stmt.value.elts: if isinstance(elt, ast.Constant): sizes.append(str(elt.value)) elif ( handle_multiple_of and isinstance(elt, ast.Call) and isinstance(elt.func, ast.Name) and elt.func.id == "MultipleOf" and elt.args and isinstance(elt.args[0], ast.Constant) ): sizes.append(f"%{elt.args[0].value}") if sizes: return sizes return [] def _get_parent_class_name(class_node: ast.ClassDef) -> str | None: """Get the first parent class name (simple name only). Handles both simple inheritance (class Foo(Bar)) and generic inheritance (class Foo(Bar[T])). """ if not class_node.bases: return None base = class_node.bases[0] if isinstance(base, ast.Name): return base.id if isinstance(base, ast.Subscript) and isinstance(base.value, ast.Name): return base.value.id return None def _resolve_import_to_file( tree: ast.AST, class_name: str, source_file: Path | None = None ) -> Path | None: """Try to resolve a class name to its source file via imports in the AST. Handles both absolute imports (from vllm.foo import Bar) and relative imports (from .foo import Bar) when source_file is provided. """ for node in ast.walk(tree): if not isinstance(node, ast.ImportFrom): continue for alias in node.names: actual_name = alias.asname or alias.name if actual_name != class_name: continue if not node.module: continue if node.level and node.level > 0 and source_file: # Relative import: resolve from the source file's directory base_dir = source_file.parent for _ in range(node.level - 1): base_dir = base_dir.parent module_path = node.module.replace(".", "/") py_file = base_dir / f"{module_path}.py" else: # Absolute import module_path = node.module.replace(".", "/") py_file = REPO_ROOT / f"{module_path}.py" if py_file.exists(): return py_file return None def _find_cc_in_function(tree: ast.AST, func_name: str) -> str | None: """Find a compute capability from is_device_capability_family() calls in a function. Looks for the pattern: current_platform.is_device_capability_family(N) and converts N (e.g. 100) to a CC string (e.g. "10.x"). """ for node in ast.walk(tree): if not isinstance(node, ast.FunctionDef) or node.name != func_name: continue for n in ast.walk(node): if ( isinstance(n, ast.Call) and isinstance(n.func, ast.Attribute) and n.func.attr == "is_device_capability_family" and n.args and isinstance(n.args[0], ast.Constant) and isinstance(n.args[0].value, int) ): return f"{n.args[0].value // 10}.x" return None # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Registry and file resolution # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- def parse_registry() -> dict[str, str]: """Parse the registry.py file to get backend names and their class paths.""" tree = ast.parse(REGISTRY_FILE.read_text()) for node in ast.walk(tree): if isinstance(node, ast.ClassDef) and node.name == "AttentionBackendEnum": return _extract_enum_values(node) return {} def _extract_enum_values(node: ast.ClassDef) -> dict[str, str]: """Extract enum name -> value mapping from a class definition.""" result: dict[str, str] = {} for item in node.body: if not isinstance(item, ast.Assign): continue for target in item.targets: if not isinstance(target, ast.Name): continue if isinstance(item.value, ast.Constant) and item.value.value: result[target.id] = item.value.value return result def get_file_from_class_path(class_path: str) -> Path | None: """Convert a class path to a file path.""" if not class_path: return None module_path = class_path.rsplit(".", 1)[0].replace(".", "/") py_file = REPO_ROOT / f"{module_path}.py" return py_file if py_file.exists() else None # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Backend feature extraction from AST # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- def parse_supported_dtypes(node: ast.ClassDef) -> str: """Parse supported_dtypes class variable.""" dtype_map = {"float16": "fp16", "bfloat16": "bf16", "float32": "fp32"} dtypes = _parse_list_class_var(node, "supported_dtypes") if dtypes is None: return "fp16, bf16" return ", ".join(dtype_map.get(d, d) for d in dtypes) def parse_kv_cache_dtypes(node: ast.ClassDef) -> str: """Parse supported_kv_cache_dtypes class var or supports_kv_cache_dtype method.""" # First try the class variable dtypes = _parse_list_class_var(node, "supported_kv_cache_dtypes") if dtypes: return ", ".join(dtypes) # Fall back to parsing the supports_kv_cache_dtype method # Look for `kv_cache_dtype in ["auto", "bfloat16"]` pattern method = find_method(node, "supports_kv_cache_dtype") if method: for n in ast.walk(method): if ( isinstance(n, ast.Compare) and len(n.ops) == 1 and isinstance(n.ops[0], ast.In) and len(n.comparators) == 1 and isinstance(n.comparators[0], ast.List) ): dtypes = [ e.value for e in n.comparators[0].elts if isinstance(e, ast.Constant) and isinstance(e.value, str) ] if dtypes: return ", ".join(dtypes) return "auto" def parse_block_sizes(node: ast.ClassDef) -> str: """Parse get_supported_kernel_block_sizes method.""" method = find_method(node, "get_supported_kernel_block_sizes") sizes = _parse_return_list(method, handle_multiple_of=True) return ", ".join(sizes) if sizes else "Any" def parse_head_sizes(node: ast.ClassDef) -> str: """Parse get_supported_head_sizes method.""" method = find_method(node, "get_supported_head_sizes") sizes = _parse_return_list(method) return ", ".join(sizes) if sizes else "Any" def parse_compute_capability(node: ast.ClassDef) -> str: """Parse supports_compute_capability method.""" method = find_method(node, "supports_compute_capability") if method is None: return "Any" min_cap: tuple[int, int] | None = None max_cap: tuple[int, int] | None = None major_list: list[int] = [] for n in ast.walk(method): if not isinstance(n, ast.Compare): continue # Handle `capability >= DeviceCapability(...)` or `capability <= ...` for op, comp in zip(n.ops, n.comparators): if not ( isinstance(comp, ast.Call) and isinstance(comp.func, ast.Name) and comp.func.id == "DeviceCapability" and comp.args and isinstance(comp.args[0], ast.Constant) ): continue major = comp.args[0].value minor = 0 if len(comp.args) > 1 and isinstance(comp.args[1], ast.Constant): minor = comp.args[1].value if isinstance(op, ast.GtE): min_cap = (major, minor) elif isinstance(op, ast.LtE): max_cap = (major, minor) # Handle `capability.major == N` or `capability.major in [N, M]` if ( isinstance(n.left, ast.Attribute) and n.left.attr == "major" and len(n.ops) == 1 and len(n.comparators) == 1 ): comp = n.comparators[0] if isinstance(n.ops[0], ast.Eq) and isinstance(comp, ast.Constant): major_list.append(comp.value) elif isinstance(n.ops[0], ast.In) and isinstance(comp, ast.List): major_list.extend( e.value for e in comp.elts if isinstance(e, ast.Constant) and isinstance(e.value, int) ) if major_list: major_list.sort() if len(major_list) == 1: return f"{major_list[0]}.x" return f"{major_list[0]}.x-{major_list[-1]}.x" if min_cap: if max_cap: return f"{min_cap[0]}.x-{max_cap[0]}.x" return f"≥{min_cap[0]}.{min_cap[1]}" return "Any" def parse_attention_types(node: ast.ClassDef) -> str: """Parse supports_attn_type method.""" method = find_method(node, "supports_attn_type") if method is None: return "Decoder" type_map = { "DECODER": "Decoder", "ENCODER": "Encoder", "ENCODER_ONLY": "Encoder Only", "ENCODER_DECODER": "Enc-Dec", } types: set[str] = set() for n in ast.walk(method): # Handle `attn_type in (AttentionType.DECODER, ...)` if not ( isinstance(n, ast.Compare) and len(n.ops) == 1 and isinstance(n.ops[0], ast.In) and len(n.comparators) == 1 and isinstance(n.comparators[0], ast.Tuple | ast.Set) ): continue for elt in n.comparators[0].elts: if isinstance(elt, ast.Attribute) and elt.attr in type_map: types.add(type_map[elt.attr]) if not types: return "Decoder" return "All" if len(types) >= 3 else ", ".join(sorted(types)) def parse_impl_bool_attr( tree: ast.AST, class_name: str, attr_name: str, default: bool = False, source_file: Path | None = None, _visited: set[str] | None = None, ) -> bool: """Parse a boolean class attribute from an impl class, following inheritance. Walks up the inheritance chain within the same file and across files (by resolving imports) to find the attribute value. """ if _visited is None: _visited = set() if class_name in _visited: return default _visited.add(class_name) class_node = find_class_in_ast(tree, class_name) if class_node is None: return default # Check directly on this class value = _find_bool_class_var(class_node, attr_name) if value is not None: return value # Check parent class parent_name = _get_parent_class_name(class_node) if parent_name: # Try parent in same file first parent_node = find_class_in_ast(tree, parent_name) if parent_node is not None: return parse_impl_bool_attr( tree, parent_name, attr_name, default, source_file, _visited ) # Try resolving cross-file import parent_file = _resolve_import_to_file(tree, parent_name, source_file) if parent_file: try: parent_tree = ast.parse(parent_file.read_text()) return parse_impl_bool_attr( parent_tree, parent_name, attr_name, default, parent_file, _visited, ) except Exception: pass return default def analyze_backend(backend_name: str, class_path: str) -> dict[str, Any] | None: """Analyze a backend class and extract feature information.""" file_path = get_file_from_class_path(class_path) if file_path is None: return None try: tree = ast.parse(file_path.read_text()) except Exception as e: print(f" Warning: Could not parse {file_path}: {e}", file=sys.stderr) return None class_name = class_path.rsplit(".", 1)[1] class_node = find_class_in_ast(tree, class_name) if class_node is None: return None # Check if this is an MLA backend by parent class or naming parent = _get_parent_class_name(class_node) mla_parents = {"MLACommonBackend", "FlashMLABackend", "FlashMLASparseBackend"} is_mla_backend = ( parent in mla_parents or ".mla." in class_path.lower() or "_mla" in backend_name.lower() ) # Determine compute capability - use N/A for non-CUDA backends is_non_cuda = backend_name.startswith(("CPU_", "ROCM_")) compute_cap = "N/A" if is_non_cuda else parse_compute_capability(class_node) # Parse impl class features (DCP support) impl_method = find_method(class_node, "get_impl_cls") impl_class_name = None if impl_method: for stmt in ast.walk(impl_method): if isinstance(stmt, ast.Return) and isinstance(stmt.value, ast.Name): impl_class_name = stmt.value.id break supports_dcp = False if impl_class_name: supports_dcp = parse_impl_bool_attr( tree, impl_class_name, "can_return_lse_for_decode", False, file_path ) return { "name": backend_name, "dtypes": parse_supported_dtypes(class_node), "kv_cache_dtypes": parse_kv_cache_dtypes(class_node), "block_sizes": parse_block_sizes(class_node), "head_sizes": parse_head_sizes(class_node), "attn_types": parse_attention_types(class_node), "compute_capability": compute_cap, "is_mla": is_mla_backend or check_method_overrides(class_node, "is_mla"), "supports_sink": check_method_overrides(class_node, "supports_sink"), "is_sparse": check_method_overrides(class_node, "is_sparse"), "supports_mm_prefix": check_method_overrides(class_node, "supports_mm_prefix"), "supports_dcp": supports_dcp, } # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Special backend variant parsers (FA2/FA3, FlashInfer TRTLLM, MLA prefill) # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- def parse_flash_attn_features() -> dict[str, dict[str, Any]]: """Parse fa_utils.py to detect FA2 vs FA3 feature differences. Returns a dict with 'fa2' and 'fa3' keys containing their respective feature overrides for compute capability, KV cache dtypes, and sink support. """ if not FA_UTILS_FILE.exists(): return {} try: tree = ast.parse(FA_UTILS_FILE.read_text()) except Exception: return {} # Analyze the functions to determine FA3-specific features fa3_supports_fp8 = False fa3_supports_sinks = False fa3_compute_cap: str | None = None for node in ast.walk(tree): if not isinstance(node, ast.FunctionDef): continue # Check flash_attn_supports_fp8 - looks for `get_flash_attn_version() == 3` if node.name == "flash_attn_supports_fp8": for n in ast.walk(node): if ( isinstance(n, ast.Compare) and isinstance(n.left, ast.Call) and isinstance(n.left.func, ast.Name) and n.left.func.id == "get_flash_attn_version" ): fa3_supports_fp8 = True break # Check flash_attn_supports_sinks - looks for `get_flash_attn_version() == 3` if node.name == "flash_attn_supports_sinks": for n in ast.walk(node): if ( isinstance(n, ast.Compare) and isinstance(n.left, ast.Call) and isinstance(n.left.func, ast.Name) and n.left.func.id == "get_flash_attn_version" ): fa3_supports_sinks = True break # Check get_flash_attn_version for FA3 compute capability # Look for the ternary: 3 if (device_capability.major == 9 ...) else 2 if node.name == "get_flash_attn_version": for n in ast.walk(node): # Look for IfExp (ternary) with `device_capability.major == 9` if isinstance(n, ast.IfExp): test = n.test # Check if test is a BoolOp (and) containing the major check if isinstance(test, ast.BoolOp): for val in test.values: if ( isinstance(val, ast.Compare) and isinstance(val.left, ast.Attribute) and val.left.attr == "major" and val.comparators and isinstance(val.comparators[0], ast.Constant) ): fa3_compute_cap = f"{val.comparators[0].value}.x" break return { "fa2": { "supports_fp8": False, "supports_sink": False, }, "fa3": { "compute_capability": fa3_compute_cap, "supports_fp8": fa3_supports_fp8, "supports_sink": fa3_supports_sinks, }, } def parse_flashinfer_trtllm_features() -> dict[str, dict[str, Any]]: """Parse flashinfer.py to detect TRTLLM-specific features. FLASHINFER uses TRTLLM attention on SM100 (Blackwell), which has different capabilities (e.g., sink support) than native FlashInfer on earlier GPUs. """ if not FLASHINFER_UTILS_FILE.exists(): return {} try: tree = ast.parse(FLASHINFER_UTILS_FILE.read_text()) except Exception: return {} trtllm_compute_cap = _find_cc_in_function(tree, "supports_trtllm_attention") if not trtllm_compute_cap: return {} return { "native": { # Native FlashInfer: everything except SM100 "supports_sink": False, }, "trtllm": { # TRTLLM pathway on Blackwell "compute_capability": trtllm_compute_cap, "supports_sink": True, }, } def parse_mla_prefill_backends() -> list[dict[str, Any]]: """Parse MLA prefill backend options from mla_attention.py. MLA uses different backends for prefill vs decode. The decode backends are registered in the registry, but prefill backends are selected at runtime based on conditions in MLACommonImpl.__init__. Returns a list of prefill backend info dicts with their requirements. """ if not MLA_ATTENTION_FILE.exists(): return [] try: tree = ast.parse(MLA_ATTENTION_FILE.read_text()) except Exception: return [] # Find compute capability requirements by parsing use_* functions trtllm_cc = _find_cc_in_function(tree, "use_trtllm_ragged_deepseek_prefill") flashinfer_cc = _find_cc_in_function(tree, "use_flashinfer_prefill") cudnn_cc = _find_cc_in_function(tree, "use_cudnn_prefill") # Build prefill backend list based on what we found # Order matches the priority in MLACommonImpl.__init__ prefill_backends: list[dict[str, Any]] = [] # TRT-LLM Ragged (highest priority if available) if trtllm_cc: prefill_backends.append( { "name": "TRT-LLM Ragged‡", "description": "TensorRT-LLM ragged attention", "compute_capability": trtllm_cc, "enable": "Default on SM100", "disable": "`-ac.use_trtllm_ragged_deepseek_prefill=0`", "notes": "DeepSeek R1 dims only", } ) # FlashInfer prefill if flashinfer_cc: prefill_backends.append( { "name": "FlashInfer", "description": "FlashInfer CUTLASS backend", "compute_capability": flashinfer_cc, "enable": "`-ac.disable_flashinfer_prefill=0`", "disable": "`-ac.disable_flashinfer_prefill=1`", "notes": "DeepSeek R1 dims only", } ) # cuDNN prefill if cudnn_cc: prefill_backends.append( { "name": "cuDNN", "description": "cuDNN-based attention", "compute_capability": cudnn_cc, "enable": "`-ac.use_cudnn_prefill=1`", "disable": "`-ac.use_cudnn_prefill=0`", "notes": "", } ) # FlashAttention is always available as fallback prefill_backends.append( { "name": "FlashAttention", "description": "FlashAttention varlen (FA2/FA3)", "compute_capability": "Any", "enable": "Default fallback", "disable": "Use other backends", "notes": "FA3 on SM90, FA2 otherwise", } ) return prefill_backends # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Backend variant expansion (FA2/FA3, FlashInfer native/TRTLLM) # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- def _expand_flash_attn_variants( all_backends: list[dict[str, Any]], fa_features: dict[str, dict[str, Any]], ) -> list[dict[str, Any]]: """Expand FLASH_ATTN into FA2 and FA3 variants with different capabilities.""" expanded = [] for backend in all_backends: if backend["name"] != "FLASH_ATTN": backend.setdefault("_sort_key", backend["name"]) backend.setdefault("_sort_order", 0) backend.setdefault("version", "") expanded.append(backend) continue # Create FA2 entry (keeps base backend's compute_capability) fa2 = backend.copy() fa2["version"] = "FA2*" fa2["_sort_key"] = "FLASH_ATTN" fa2["_sort_order"] = 0 fa2["supports_sink"] = fa_features["fa2"]["supports_sink"] # Create FA3 entry (uses parsed compute_capability from fa_utils) fa3 = backend.copy() fa3["version"] = "FA3*" fa3["_sort_key"] = "FLASH_ATTN" fa3["_sort_order"] = 1 if fa_features["fa3"]["compute_capability"]: fa3["compute_capability"] = fa_features["fa3"]["compute_capability"] fa3["supports_sink"] = fa_features["fa3"]["supports_sink"] if fa_features["fa3"]["supports_fp8"]: base_dtypes = backend["kv_cache_dtypes"].split(", ") fp8_dtypes = ["fp8", "fp8_e4m3", "fp8_e5m2"] new_dtypes = [d for d in fp8_dtypes if d not in base_dtypes] fa3["kv_cache_dtypes"] = ", ".join(base_dtypes + new_dtypes) expanded.append(fa2) expanded.append(fa3) return expanded def _expand_flashinfer_variants( all_backends: list[dict[str, Any]], fi_features: dict[str, dict[str, Any]], ) -> list[dict[str, Any]]: """Expand FLASHINFER into native and TRTLLM variants.""" expanded = [] for backend in all_backends: if backend["name"] != "FLASHINFER": expanded.append(backend) continue # Parse original compute capability to get min CC orig_cap = backend["compute_capability"] parts = orig_cap.replace(".x", "").split("-") min_cc = parts[0] if parts else "7" trtllm_cc = fi_features["trtllm"]["compute_capability"] # Create native entry (pre-Blackwell GPUs) native = backend.copy() native["version"] = "Native†" native["_sort_key"] = "FLASHINFER" native["_sort_order"] = 0 native["supports_sink"] = fi_features["native"]["supports_sink"] native["compute_capability"] = f"{min_cc}.x-9.x" # Create TRTLLM entry trtllm = backend.copy() trtllm["version"] = "TRTLLM†" trtllm["_sort_key"] = "FLASHINFER" trtllm["_sort_order"] = 1 trtllm["compute_capability"] = trtllm_cc trtllm["supports_sink"] = fi_features["trtllm"]["supports_sink"] expanded.append(native) expanded.append(trtllm) return expanded # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # CUDA priority list parsing # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- def parse_cuda_priority_lists() -> dict[str, list[str]]: """Parse priority lists from cuda.py using AST. The structure of _get_backend_priorities is: if use_mla: if device_capability.major == 10: return [MLA list for SM100] else: return [MLA list for default] else: if device_capability.major == 10: return [Standard list for SM100] else: return [Standard list for default] """ if not CUDA_PLATFORM_FILE.exists(): return {} try: source = CUDA_PLATFORM_FILE.read_text() tree = ast.parse(source) except Exception: return {} priorities: dict[str, list[str]] = {} # Find the _get_backend_priorities function for node in ast.walk(tree): if not isinstance(node, ast.FunctionDef): continue if node.name != "_get_backend_priorities": continue # Process the function body directly for stmt in node.body: if not isinstance(stmt, ast.If): continue # Check if this is the "if use_mla:" branch is_mla_branch = ( isinstance(stmt.test, ast.Name) and stmt.test.id == "use_mla" ) if is_mla_branch: _extract_priorities(stmt.body, priorities, "mla") if stmt.orelse: _extract_priorities(stmt.orelse, priorities, "standard") else: _extract_priorities([stmt], priorities, "standard") return priorities def _get_backends_from_return(stmts: list) -> list[str]: """Extract backend names from return statements in a list of statements.""" for stmt in stmts: if isinstance(stmt, ast.Return) and isinstance(stmt.value, ast.List): return [e.attr for e in stmt.value.elts if isinstance(e, ast.Attribute)] return [] def _is_sm100_check(test: ast.expr) -> bool: """Check if test is `something.major == 10`.""" return ( isinstance(test, ast.Compare) and isinstance(test.left, ast.Attribute) and test.left.attr == "major" and len(test.ops) == 1 and isinstance(test.ops[0], ast.Eq) and len(test.comparators) == 1 and isinstance(test.comparators[0], ast.Constant) and test.comparators[0].value == 10 ) def _extract_priorities(body: list, priorities: dict[str, list[str]], prefix: str): """Extract priority lists from if/else statement body.""" for stmt in body: if isinstance(stmt, ast.If): is_sm100 = _is_sm100_check(stmt.test) if_key = f"{prefix}_sm100" if is_sm100 else f"{prefix}_default" else_key = f"{prefix}_default" if is_sm100 else f"{prefix}_sm100" if backends := _get_backends_from_return(stmt.body): priorities[if_key] = backends if backends := _get_backends_from_return(stmt.orelse): priorities[else_key] = backends elif isinstance(stmt, ast.Return) and isinstance(stmt.value, ast.List): backends = [e.attr for e in stmt.value.elts if isinstance(e, ast.Attribute)] priorities[f"{prefix}_default"] = backends # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Data-driven table rendering # # Each column is a (header, formatter) pair. The formatter takes a backend # info dict and returns the cell string. Tables are assembled by selecting # which columns to include, then calling _render_table(). # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Column type alias for readability TableColumn = tuple[str, Callable[[dict[str, Any]], str]] # Shared column definitions -- order here matches the output table order _COL_BACKEND: TableColumn = ("Backend", lambda b: f"`{b['name']}`") _COL_VERSION: TableColumn = ("Version", lambda b: b.get("version", "")) _COL_DTYPES: TableColumn = ("Dtypes", lambda b: b["dtypes"]) _COL_KV_DTYPES: TableColumn = ( "KV Dtypes", lambda b: add_literal_quotes(b["kv_cache_dtypes"]), ) _COL_BLOCK_SIZES: TableColumn = ("Block Sizes", lambda b: b["block_sizes"]) _COL_HEAD_SIZES: TableColumn = ("Head Sizes", lambda b: b["head_sizes"]) _COL_SINK: TableColumn = ("Sink", lambda b: bool_to_emoji(b["supports_sink"])) _COL_SPARSE: TableColumn = ("Sparse", lambda b: bool_to_emoji(b["is_sparse"])) _COL_MM_PREFIX: TableColumn = ( "MM Prefix", lambda b: bool_to_emoji(b["supports_mm_prefix"]), ) _COL_DCP: TableColumn = ("DCP", lambda b: bool_to_emoji(b["supports_dcp"])) _COL_ATTN_TYPES: TableColumn = ("Attention Types", lambda b: b["attn_types"]) _COL_COMPUTE_CAP: TableColumn = ("Compute Cap.", lambda b: b["compute_capability"]) def add_literal_quotes(value: str) -> str: """Add literal backticks around all comma-separated items in a string.""" items = [item.strip() for item in value.split(",")] return ", ".join(f"`{item}`" for item in items) def bool_to_emoji(value: bool) -> str: """Convert a boolean to a checkmark or X emoji.""" return "✅" if value else "❌" def _build_columns(is_mla: bool, has_versions: bool) -> list[TableColumn]: """Build the column list for a backend feature table. The column selection depends on whether it's an MLA table (includes Sparse column) and whether any backend has version variants (includes Version column). """ cols: list[TableColumn] = [_COL_BACKEND] if has_versions: cols.append(_COL_VERSION) cols.extend([_COL_DTYPES, _COL_KV_DTYPES, _COL_BLOCK_SIZES, _COL_HEAD_SIZES]) cols.append(_COL_SINK) if is_mla: cols.append(_COL_SPARSE) cols.extend([_COL_MM_PREFIX, _COL_DCP, _COL_ATTN_TYPES, _COL_COMPUTE_CAP]) return cols def _sort_key(x: dict[str, Any]) -> tuple[str, int]: """Sort key that keeps parent/child rows together in order.""" return (x.get("_sort_key", x["name"]), x.get("_sort_order", 0)) def _render_table( columns: list[TableColumn], backends: list[dict[str, Any]], ) -> list[str]: """Render a markdown table from column specs and backend data.""" header = "| " + " | ".join(name for name, _ in columns) + " |" sep = "|" + "|".join("-" * (len(name) + 2) for name, _ in columns) + "|" lines = [header, sep] for info in sorted(backends, key=_sort_key): row = "| " + " | ".join(fmt(info) for _, fmt in columns) + " |" lines.append(row) return lines def generate_markdown_table( backends: list[dict[str, Any]], title: str, is_mla_table: bool = False ) -> str: """Generate a titled markdown table from backend info.""" if not backends: return f"## {title}\n\nNo backends found.\n" has_versions = any(b.get("version") for b in backends) columns = _build_columns(is_mla_table, has_versions) lines = [f"## {title}", ""] lines.extend(_render_table(columns, backends)) lines.append("") return "\n".join(lines) # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Markdown section generators (usage, priority, legend, MLA) # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- def generate_usage_section() -> str: """Generate the usage documentation section.""" return """## Setting the Attention Backend ### Command Line There are two ways to specify the backend from the command line: **Option 1: Using `--attention-backend` (simple)** ```bash vllm serve --attention-backend FLASH_ATTN ``` **Option 2: Using `--attention-config.backend` / `-ac.backend` (structured config)** ```bash # Dot notation vllm serve --attention-config.backend FLASH_ATTN vllm serve -ac.backend FLASH_ATTN # JSON format vllm serve --attention-config '{"backend": "FLASH_ATTN"}' vllm serve -ac '{"backend": "FLASH_ATTN"}' ``` > **Note:** `--attention-backend` and `--attention-config.backend` are mutually > exclusive. Use one or the other, not both. ### Python API Use `AttentionConfig` with the `LLM` class: ```python from vllm import LLM from vllm.config import AttentionConfig from vllm.v1.attention.backends.registry import AttentionBackendEnum # Method 1: Using AttentionConfig with enum llm = LLM( model="Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B", attention_config=AttentionConfig(backend=AttentionBackendEnum.FLASH_ATTN), ) # Method 2: Using attention_backend parameter with string llm = LLM( model="Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B", attention_backend="FLASH_ATTN", ) ``` ## Backend Selection Behavior ### Manual Selection When you explicitly set a backend via `--attention-backend` or `AttentionConfig`: 1. The backend is **validated** against your configuration (model dtype, head size, compute capability, etc.) 2. If the backend **doesn't support** your configuration, an error is raised with the specific reason 3. If valid, the backend is used Example error when selecting an incompatible backend: ```text ValueError: Selected backend FLASHMLA is not valid for this configuration. Reason: ['compute capability not supported'] ``` ### Automatic Selection When no backend is specified (the default): 1. vLLM iterates through backends in **priority order** (see tables below) 2. Each backend is validated against your configuration 3. The **first compatible backend** is selected 4. If no backend is compatible, an error is raised listing all backends and their incompatibility reasons """ def _priority_table(title: str, backends: list[str]) -> list[str]: """Generate a priority table for a list of backends.""" return [ f"**{title}:**", "", "| Priority | Backend |", "|----------|---------|", *[f"| {i} | `{b}` |" for i, b in enumerate(backends, 1)], "", ] def generate_priority_section(priorities: dict[str, list[str]]) -> str: """Generate the priority ranking section.""" lines = [ "## Backend Priority (CUDA)", "", "When no backend is explicitly selected, vLLM chooses the first", "compatible backend from these priority-ordered lists.", "", "Priority is **1 = highest** (tried first).", "", "### Standard Attention (MHA, MQA, GQA)", "", ] sm100 = "Blackwell (SM 10.x)" ampere = "Ampere/Hopper (SM 8.x-9.x)" if "standard_sm100" in priorities: lines.extend(_priority_table(sm100, priorities["standard_sm100"])) if "standard_default" in priorities: lines.extend(_priority_table(ampere, priorities["standard_default"])) lines.extend(["### MLA Attention (DeepSeek-style)", ""]) if "mla_sm100" in priorities: lines.extend(_priority_table(sm100, priorities["mla_sm100"])) if "mla_default" in priorities: lines.extend(_priority_table(ampere, priorities["mla_default"])) lines.append( "> **Note:** ROCm and CPU platforms have their own selection logic. " "See the platform-specific documentation for details." ) lines.append("") return "\n".join(lines) def generate_legend() -> str: """Generate a legend explaining the table columns.""" return """## Legend | Column | Description | |--------|-------------| | **Dtypes** | Supported model data types (fp16, bf16, fp32) | | **KV Dtypes** | Supported KV cache data types (`auto`, `fp8`, `fp8_e4m3`, etc.) | | **Block Sizes** | Supported KV cache block sizes (%N means multiples of N) | | **Head Sizes** | Supported attention head sizes | | **Sink** | Attention sink support (for StreamingLLM) | | **Sparse** | Sparse attention support (MLA only) | | **MM Prefix** | Multimodal prefix full attention support | | **DCP** | Decode Context Parallelism support (`--decode-context-parallel-size`) | | **Attention Types** | Supported attention patterns (Decoder, Encoder, Enc-Dec) | | **Compute Cap.** | Required CUDA compute capability (N/A for non-CUDA backends) | **Symbols:** ✅ = Supported, ❌ = Not supported """ def generate_mla_section( prefill_backends: list[dict[str, Any]], decode_backends: list[dict[str, Any]] ) -> str: """Generate the complete MLA section with prefill and decode tables.""" lines = [ "## MLA (Multi-head Latent Attention) Backends", "", "MLA uses separate backends for prefill and decode phases.", "", "### Prefill Backends", "", "The prefill backend is selected at runtime based on hardware and", "configuration.", "", "| Backend | Description | Compute Cap. | Enable | Disable | Notes |", "|---------|-------------|--------------|--------|---------|-------|", ] for backend in prefill_backends: row = "| {} | {} | {} | {} | {} | {} |".format( backend["name"], backend["description"], backend["compute_capability"], backend["enable"], backend["disable"], backend.get("notes", ""), ) lines.append(row) lines.extend( [ "", "> **‡** TRT-LLM Ragged is the default on Blackwell (SM100).", "> On other GPUs, FlashAttention is used as the default.", "", "### Decode Backends", "", ] ) # Reuse data-driven table rendering for decode backends columns = _build_columns(is_mla=True, has_versions=False) lines.extend(_render_table(columns, decode_backends)) lines.append("") return "\n".join(lines) # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Top-level orchestration # --------------------------------------------------------------------------- def generate_docs() -> str: """Generate the complete documentation.""" attention_backends_map = parse_registry() # Parse priority lists from cuda.py priorities = parse_cuda_priority_lists() # Parse FlashAttention FA2/FA3 feature differences fa_features = parse_flash_attn_features() # Parse FlashInfer TRTLLM feature differences (native vs TRTLLM on Blackwell) fi_features = parse_flashinfer_trtllm_features() # Parse MLA prefill backends mla_prefill_backends = parse_mla_prefill_backends() # Collect backend info all_backends = [] for backend_name, class_path in attention_backends_map.items(): if backend_name in SKIP_BACKENDS: continue info = analyze_backend(backend_name, class_path) if info: all_backends.append(info) # Expand backends into version variants if fa_features: all_backends = _expand_flash_attn_variants(all_backends, fa_features) if fi_features: all_backends = _expand_flashinfer_variants(all_backends, fi_features) # Split into MLA and non-MLA mla_backends = [b for b in all_backends if b["is_mla"]] non_mla_backends = [b for b in all_backends if not b["is_mla"]] # Generate documentation script_path = "tools/pre_commit/generate_attention_backend_docs.py" doc_lines = [ "# Attention Backend Feature Support", "", f"This document is auto-generated by `{script_path}`.", "It shows the feature support for each registered attention backend", "based on the checks in `AttentionBackend.validate_configuration()`.", "", "**Do not edit this file manually.** Run the following command to", "regenerate it:", "", "```bash", f"python {script_path}", "```", "", ] # Add usage documentation doc_lines.append(generate_usage_section()) # Add priority section doc_lines.append(generate_priority_section(priorities)) # Add legend and feature tables doc_lines.append(generate_legend()) standard_title = "Standard Attention (MHA, MQA, GQA) Backends" doc_lines.append( generate_markdown_table(non_mla_backends, standard_title, is_mla_table=False) ) # Add footnotes for version/variant distinctions (in table order) footnotes = [] if fi_features: footnotes.append( "> **†** FlashInfer uses TRTLLM attention on Blackwell (SM100), which " "supports sinks. Disable via `--attention-config.use_trtllm_attention=0`." ) if fa_features: footnotes.append( "> **\\*** Specify the FlashAttention version via " "`--attention-config.flash_attn_version=2` or `3`. Default is FA3 on SM90, " "FA2 otherwise." ) if footnotes: doc_lines.append("\n>\n".join(footnotes) + "\n") # Add MLA section with prefill and decode backends doc_lines.append(generate_mla_section(mla_prefill_backends, mla_backends)) return "\n".join(doc_lines) def main(): parser = argparse.ArgumentParser( description="Generate attention backend documentation table" ) parser.add_argument( "--output", "-o", type=str, default=str(REPO_ROOT / "docs" / "design" / "attention_backends.md"), help="Output file path (default: docs/design/attention_backends.md)", ) parser.add_argument( "--check", action="store_true", help="Check if the documentation is up to date (for pre-commit)", ) parser.add_argument( "files", nargs="*", help="Files to check (passed by pre-commit). If none are relevant, skip.", ) args = parser.parse_args() if args.files and not any(is_relevant_file(f) for f in args.files): sys.exit(0) output_path = Path(args.output) new_content = generate_docs() if args.check: needs_update = ( not output_path.exists() or output_path.read_text() != new_content ) if needs_update: output_path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True) output_path.write_text(new_content) print(f"🔄 Regenerated: {output_path}") sys.exit(1) print(f"✅ Up to date: {output_path}") sys.exit(0) output_path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True) output_path.write_text(new_content) print(f"Generated: {output_path}") if __name__ == "__main__": main()