Weights
A studio declares the model files it needs under weights, and its commands refer to them by name, as {models.<name>}. How the files arrived — downloaded by helmstudio, or already on the machine — is invisible to the studio: either way the placeholder becomes a real path to a directory.
Declaring a weight
| Field | Says |
|---|---|
name |
The placeholder key: {models.<name>}. |
repo |
The Hugging Face repository to download from. |
revision |
The branch, tag or commit to download. main when it is left out. |
dest |
The directory name under the shared models directory. |
size_gb |
How large it is, so free disk is checked before a byte moves. |
files |
Which paths to download — and which paths must be present when a directory is linked instead. |
selectable |
One of a set the user chooses between, bound to {models.selected}. |
optional |
A weight install does not wait for. A launch whose command uses it before it is fetched is refused. |
Process groups has a manifest that declares one.
Managed: downloaded by helmstudio
A managed weight is downloaded into <models>/<dest>, in helmstudio's shared models directory, never into the studio's checkout. Downloads resume per file after an interruption. A repository already downloaded at the same revision is not downloaded again for a second studio: both use the one copy, and it cannot be deleted while either needs it. A gated repository that refuses the download asks for a Hugging Face token rather than failing the install.
Linked: a directory you already have
Anyone who follows model releases already has the checkpoints. A weight can be linked to a directory instead of downloaded: helmstudio checks the directory is readable and holds the declared files, and makes <models>/<dest> a symbolic link to it.
A linked directory is read-only to helmstudio. It never writes into it, never completes a partial one, and never deletes it: removing a linked weight removes the link and nothing else. A linked directory that disappears — a drive unplugged, a folder moved — is recorded as missing, and a launch that needs it is refused with the path it expected.
Under helm dev
helm dev downloads nothing. Link each weight a command uses with -link <name>=<directory>; a launch whose command uses a weight that is not linked is refused, naming it. See develop in isolation.