llama-stack-mirror/docs/source/providers/external.md

External Providers Guide

Llama Stack supports external providers that live outside of the main codebase. This allows you to:

• Create and maintain your own providers independently
• Share providers with others without contributing to the main codebase
• Keep provider-specific code separate from the core Llama Stack code

Configuration

To enable external providers, you need to add module into your build yaml, allowing Llama Stack to install the required package corresponding to the external provider.

an example entry in your build.yaml should look like:

- provider_id: ramalama
  provider_type: remote::ramalama
  module: ramalama_stack

Additionally you can configure the external_providers_dir in your Llama Stack configuration. This method is in the process of being deprecated in favor of the module method. If using this method, the external provider directory should contain your external provider specifications:

external_providers_dir: ~/.llama/providers.d/

Directory Structure

The external providers directory should follow this structure:

providers.d/
  remote/
    inference/
      custom_ollama.yaml
      vllm.yaml
    vector_io/
      qdrant.yaml
    safety/
      llama-guard.yaml
  inline/
    inference/
      custom_ollama.yaml
      vllm.yaml
    vector_io/
      qdrant.yaml
    safety/
      llama-guard.yaml

Each YAML file in these directories defines a provider specification for that particular API.

Provider Types

Llama Stack supports two types of external providers:

1. Remote Providers: Providers that communicate with external services (e.g., cloud APIs)
2. Inline Providers: Providers that run locally within the Llama Stack process

Known External Providers

Here's a list of known external providers that you can use with Llama Stack:

Name	Description	API	Type	Repository
KubeFlow Training	Train models with KubeFlow	Post Training	Remote	llama-stack-provider-kft
KubeFlow Pipelines	Train models with KubeFlow Pipelines	Post Training	Inline and Remote	llama-stack-provider-kfp-trainer
RamaLama	Inference models with RamaLama	Inference	Remote	ramalama-stack
TrustyAI LM-Eval	Evaluate models with TrustyAI LM-Eval	Eval	Remote	llama-stack-provider-lmeval

Remote Provider Specification

Remote providers are used when you need to communicate with external services. Here's an example for a custom Ollama provider:

adapter:
  adapter_type: custom_ollama
  pip_packages:
  - ollama
  - aiohttp
  config_class: llama_stack_ollama_provider.config.OllamaImplConfig
  module: llama_stack_ollama_provider
api_dependencies: []
optional_api_dependencies: []

Adapter Configuration

The adapter section defines how to load and configure the provider:

• adapter_type: A unique identifier for this adapter
• pip_packages: List of Python packages required by the provider
• config_class: The full path to the configuration class
• module: The Python module containing the provider implementation

Inline Provider Specification

Inline providers run locally within the Llama Stack process. Here's an example for a custom vector store provider:

module: llama_stack_vector_provider
config_class: llama_stack_vector_provider.config.VectorStoreConfig
pip_packages:
  - faiss-cpu
  - numpy
api_dependencies:
  - inference
optional_api_dependencies:
  - vector_io
provider_data_validator: llama_stack_vector_provider.validator.VectorStoreValidator
container_image: custom-vector-store:latest  # optional

Inline Provider Fields

• module: The Python module containing the provider implementation
• config_class: The full path to the configuration class
• pip_packages: List of Python packages required by the provider
• api_dependencies: List of Llama Stack APIs that this provider depends on
• optional_api_dependencies: List of optional Llama Stack APIs that this provider can use
• provider_data_validator: Optional validator for provider data
• container_image: Optional container image to use instead of pip packages

Required Implementation

All Providers

All providers must contain a get_provider_spec function in their provider module. This is a standardized structure that Llama Stack expects and is necessary for getting things such as the config class. The get_provider_spec method returns a structure identical to the adapter. An example function may look like:

from llama_stack.providers.datatypes import (
    ProviderSpec,
    Api,
    AdapterSpec,
    remote_provider_spec,
)


def get_provider_spec() -> ProviderSpec:
    return remote_provider_spec(
        api=Api.inference,
        adapter=AdapterSpec(
            adapter_type="ramalama",
            pip_packages=["ramalama>=0.8.5", "pymilvus"],
            config_class="ramalama_stack.config.RamalamaImplConfig",
            module="ramalama_stack",
        ),
    )

Remote Providers

Remote providers must expose a get_adapter_impl() function in their module that takes two arguments:

1. config: An instance of the provider's config class
2. deps: A dictionary of API dependencies

This function must return an instance of the provider's adapter class that implements the required protocol for the API.

Example:

async def get_adapter_impl(
    config: OllamaImplConfig, deps: Dict[Api, Any]
) -> OllamaInferenceAdapter:
    return OllamaInferenceAdapter(config)

Inline Providers

Inline providers must expose a get_provider_impl() function in their module that takes two arguments:

1. config: An instance of the provider's config class
2. deps: A dictionary of API dependencies

Example:

async def get_provider_impl(
    config: VectorStoreConfig, deps: Dict[Api, Any]
) -> VectorStoreImpl:
    impl = VectorStoreImpl(config, deps[Api.inference])
    await impl.initialize()
    return impl

Dependencies

The provider package must be installed on the system. For example:

$ uv pip show llama-stack-ollama-provider
Name: llama-stack-ollama-provider
Version: 0.1.0
Location: /path/to/venv/lib/python3.10/site-packages

Example using external_providers_dir: Custom Ollama Provider

Here's a complete example of creating and using a custom Ollama provider:

1. First, create the provider package:

mkdir -p llama-stack-provider-ollama
cd llama-stack-provider-ollama
git init
uv init

2. Edit pyproject.toml:

[project]
name = "llama-stack-provider-ollama"
version = "0.1.0"
description = "Ollama provider for Llama Stack"
requires-python = ">=3.10"
dependencies = ["llama-stack", "pydantic", "ollama", "aiohttp"]

3. Create the provider specification:

# ~/.llama/providers.d/remote/inference/custom_ollama.yaml
adapter:
  adapter_type: custom_ollama
  pip_packages: ["ollama", "aiohttp"]
  config_class: llama_stack_provider_ollama.config.OllamaImplConfig
  module: llama_stack_provider_ollama
api_dependencies: []
optional_api_dependencies: []

4. Install the provider:

uv pip install -e .

5. Configure Llama Stack to use external providers:

external_providers_dir: ~/.llama/providers.d/

The provider will now be available in Llama Stack with the type remote::custom_ollama.

Example using module: ramalama-stack

ramalama-stack is a recognized external provider that supports installation via module.

To install Llama Stack with this external provider a user can provider the following build.yaml:

version: 2
distribution_spec:
  description: Use (an external) Ramalama server for running LLM inference
  container_image: null
  providers:
    inference:
    - provider_id: ramalama
      provider_type: remote::ramalama
      module: ramalama_stack==0.3.0a0
image_type: venv
image_name: null
external_providers_dir: null
additional_pip_packages:
- aiosqlite
- sqlalchemy[asyncio]

No other steps are required other than llama stack build and llama stack run. The build process will use module to install all of the provider dependencies, retrieve the spec, etc.

The provider will now be available in Llama Stack with the type remote::ramalama.

Best Practices

1. Package Naming: Use the prefix llama-stack-provider- for your provider packages to make them easily identifiable.

2. Version Management: Keep your provider package versioned and compatible with the Llama Stack version you're using.

3. Dependencies: Only include the minimum required dependencies in your provider package.

4. Documentation: Include clear documentation in your provider package about:

   • Installation requirements
   • Configuration options
   • Usage examples
   • Any limitations or known issues

5. Testing: Include tests in your provider package to ensure it works correctly with Llama Stack. You can refer to the integration tests guide for more information. Execute the test for the Provider type you are developing.

Troubleshooting

If your external provider isn't being loaded:

1. Check that module points to a published pip package with a top level provider module including get_provider_spec.
2. Check that the external_providers_dir path is correct and accessible.
3. Verify that the YAML files are properly formatted.
4. Ensure all required Python packages are installed.
5. Check the Llama Stack server logs for any error messages - turn on debug logging to get more information using LLAMA_STACK_LOGGING=all=debug.
6. Verify that the provider package is installed in your Python environment if using external_providers_dir.