website/docs/user-guide/skills/optional/mlops/mlops-saelens.md
Train sparse autoencoders to interpret model features.
| Source | Optional — install with hermes skills install official/mlops/saelens |
| Path | optional-skills/mlops/saelens |
| Version | 1.0.1 |
| Author | Orchestra Research |
| License | MIT |
| Dependencies | sae-lens>=6.0.0, transformer-lens>=2.0.0, torch>=2.0.0 |
| Platforms | linux, macos, windows |
| Tags | Sparse Autoencoders, SAE, Mechanistic Interpretability, Feature Discovery, Superposition |
:::info The following is the complete skill definition that Hermes loads when this skill is triggered. This is what the agent sees as instructions when the skill is active. :::
SAELens is the primary library for training and analyzing Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) - a technique for decomposing polysemantic neural network activations into sparse, interpretable features. Based on Anthropic's groundbreaking research on monosemanticity.
GitHub: jbloomAus/SAELens (1,100+ stars)
Individual neurons in neural networks are polysemantic - they activate in multiple, semantically distinct contexts. This happens because models use superposition to represent more features than they have neurons, making interpretability difficult.
SAEs solve this by decomposing dense activations into sparse, monosemantic features - typically only a small number of features activate for any given input, and each feature corresponds to an interpretable concept.
Use SAELens when you need to:
Consider alternatives when:
pip install sae-lens
Requirements: Python 3.10+, transformer-lens>=2.0.0
SAEs are trained to reconstruct model activations through a sparse bottleneck:
Input Activation → Encoder → Sparse Features → Decoder → Reconstructed Activation
(d_model) ↓ (d_sae >> d_model) ↓ (d_model)
sparsity reconstruction
penalty loss
Loss Function: MSE(original, reconstructed) + L1_coefficient × L1(features)
In "Towards Monosemanticity", human evaluators found 70% of SAE features genuinely interpretable. Features discovered include:
from transformer_lens import HookedTransformer
from sae_lens import SAE
# 1. Load model and pre-trained SAE
model = HookedTransformer.from_pretrained("gpt2-small", device="cuda")
# In sae-lens v6, SAE.from_pretrained() returns JUST the SAE (not a tuple).
sae = SAE.from_pretrained(
release="gpt2-small-res-jb",
sae_id="blocks.8.hook_resid_pre",
device="cuda"
)
# If you also need the cfg dict and feature sparsity, use:
# sae, cfg_dict, sparsity = SAE.from_pretrained_with_cfg_and_sparsity(...)
# 2. Get model activations
tokens = model.to_tokens("The capital of France is Paris")
_, cache = model.run_with_cache(tokens)
activations = cache["resid_pre", 8] # [batch, pos, d_model]
# 3. Encode to SAE features
sae_features = sae.encode(activations) # [batch, pos, d_sae]
print(f"Active features: {(sae_features > 0).sum()}")
# 4. Find top features for each position
for pos in range(tokens.shape[1]):
top_features = sae_features[0, pos].topk(5)
token = model.to_str_tokens(tokens[0, pos:pos+1])[0]
print(f"Token '{token}': features {top_features.indices.tolist()}")
# 5. Reconstruct activations
reconstructed = sae.decode(sae_features)
reconstruction_error = (activations - reconstructed).norm()
| Release | Model | Layers |
|---|---|---|
gpt2-small-res-jb | GPT-2 Small | Multiple residual streams |
gemma-2b-res | Gemma 2B | Residual streams |
| Various on HuggingFace | Search tag saelens | Various |
from sae_lens import (
LanguageModelSAETrainingRunner,
LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig,
StandardTrainingSAEConfig,
LoggingConfig,
)
# 1. Configure training (v6 uses a NESTED config: SAE-specific options live in a
# `sae=` sub-config, and logging options live in a `logger=` sub-config).
# Note: `architecture`, `d_sae`, `l1_coefficient` etc. are now on the SAE sub-config,
# and legacy flat options like `hook_layer`, `activation_fn`, `log_to_wandb` were removed.
cfg = LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig(
# SAE architecture + sparsity (nested)
sae=StandardTrainingSAEConfig(
d_in=768, # Model dimension
d_sae=768 * 8, # Expansion factor of 8
l1_coefficient=8e-5, # Sparsity penalty
apply_b_dec_to_input=True,
normalize_activations="expected_average_only_in",
),
# Data-generating function (model + hook point)
model_name="gpt2-small",
hook_name="blocks.8.hook_resid_pre", # layer is inferred from hook_name (no hook_layer)
# Training
lr=4e-4,
l1_warm_up_steps=1000,
train_batch_size_tokens=4096,
training_tokens=100_000_000,
# Data
dataset_path="monology/pile-uncopyrighted",
context_size=128,
# Logging (nested)
logger=LoggingConfig(
log_to_wandb=True,
wandb_project="sae-training",
),
# Checkpointing
checkpoint_path="checkpoints",
n_checkpoints=5,
)
# 2. Train
trainer = LanguageModelSAETrainingRunner(cfg) # SAETrainingRunner still works as an alias
sae = trainer.run()
# 3. Evaluate
print(f"L0 (avg active features): {trainer.metrics['l0']}")
print(f"CE Loss Recovered: {trainer.metrics['ce_loss_score']}")
v6 migration note: For other SAE types swap the
sae=sub-config —GatedTrainingSAEConfig,TopKTrainingSAEConfig(setkdirectly), orJumpReLUTrainingSAEConfig(usesl0_coefficient). Legacy flat options (architecture,expansion_factor,hook_layer,activation_fn/activation_fn_kwargs,use_ghost_grads, ghost grads, b_dec/decoder init options) were removed in v6.
| Parameter | Typical Value | Effect |
|---|---|---|
d_sae | 4-16× d_model | More features, higher capacity |
l1_coefficient | 5e-5 to 1e-4 | Higher = sparser, less accurate |
lr | 1e-4 to 1e-3 | Standard optimizer LR |
l1_warm_up_steps | 500-2000 | Prevents early feature death |
| Metric | Target | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| L0 | 50-200 | Average active features per token |
| CE Loss Score | 80-95% | Cross-entropy recovered vs original |
| Dead Features | <5% | Features that never activate |
| Explained Variance | >90% | Reconstruction quality |
from transformer_lens import HookedTransformer
from sae_lens import SAE
import torch
model = HookedTransformer.from_pretrained("gpt2-small", device="cuda")
sae = SAE.from_pretrained( # v6 returns just the SAE
release="gpt2-small-res-jb",
sae_id="blocks.8.hook_resid_pre",
device="cuda"
)
# Find what activates a specific feature
feature_idx = 1234
test_texts = [
"The scientist conducted an experiment",
"I love chocolate cake",
"The code compiles successfully",
"Paris is beautiful in spring",
]
for text in test_texts:
tokens = model.to_tokens(text)
_, cache = model.run_with_cache(tokens)
features = sae.encode(cache["resid_pre", 8])
activation = features[0, :, feature_idx].max().item()
print(f"{activation:.3f}: {text}")
def steer_with_feature(model, sae, prompt, feature_idx, strength=5.0):
"""Add SAE feature direction to residual stream."""
tokens = model.to_tokens(prompt)
# Get feature direction from decoder
feature_direction = sae.W_dec[feature_idx] # [d_model]
def steering_hook(activation, hook):
# Add scaled feature direction at all positions
activation += strength * feature_direction
return activation
# Generate with steering
output = model.generate(
tokens,
max_new_tokens=50,
fwd_hooks=[("blocks.8.hook_resid_pre", steering_hook)]
)
return model.to_string(output[0])
# Which features most affect a specific output?
tokens = model.to_tokens("The capital of France is")
_, cache = model.run_with_cache(tokens)
# Get features at final position
features = sae.encode(cache["resid_pre", 8])[0, -1] # [d_sae]
# Get logit attribution per feature
# Feature contribution = feature_activation × decoder_weight × unembedding
W_dec = sae.W_dec # [d_sae, d_model]
W_U = model.W_U # [d_model, vocab]
# Contribution to "Paris" logit
paris_token = model.to_single_token(" Paris")
feature_contributions = features * (W_dec @ W_U[:, paris_token])
top_features = feature_contributions.topk(10)
print("Top features for 'Paris' prediction:")
for idx, val in zip(top_features.indices, top_features.values):
print(f" Feature {idx.item()}: {val.item():.3f}")
All examples below use the v6 nested config: SAE-specific options go in the
sae=sub-config (StandardTrainingSAEConfig/TopKTrainingSAEConfig/ etc.), training knobs stay on the top-levelLanguageModelSAERunnerConfig.
from sae_lens import LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig, StandardTrainingSAEConfig
# WRONG: no warm-up, features die early
cfg = LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig(
sae=StandardTrainingSAEConfig(d_in=768, d_sae=768*8, l1_coefficient=1e-4),
l1_warm_up_steps=0, # Bad!
)
# RIGHT: warm up the L1 penalty (v6 removed ghost grads; warm-up is the lever now)
cfg = LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig(
sae=StandardTrainingSAEConfig(d_in=768, d_sae=768*8, l1_coefficient=8e-5),
l1_warm_up_steps=1000, # Gradually increase
)
# Reduce sparsity penalty and/or add capacity (both on the SAE sub-config)
cfg = LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig(
sae=StandardTrainingSAEConfig(
d_in=768,
d_sae=768 * 16, # More capacity
l1_coefficient=5e-5, # Lower = better reconstruction
),
)
from sae_lens import LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig, StandardTrainingSAEConfig, TopKTrainingSAEConfig
# Increase sparsity (higher L1)
cfg = LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig(
sae=StandardTrainingSAEConfig(d_in=768, d_sae=768*8, l1_coefficient=1e-4),
)
# Or use a TopK SAE (k is set directly in v6, not via activation_fn_kwargs)
cfg = LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig(
sae=TopKTrainingSAEConfig(d_in=768, d_sae=768*8, k=50), # Exactly 50 active features
)
cfg = LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig(
sae=StandardTrainingSAEConfig(d_in=768, d_sae=768*8, l1_coefficient=8e-5),
train_batch_size_tokens=2048, # Reduce batch size
store_batch_size_prompts=4, # Fewer prompts in buffer
n_batches_in_buffer=8, # Smaller activation buffer
)
Browse pre-trained SAE features at neuronpedia.org:
# Features are indexed by SAE ID
# Example: gpt2-small layer 8 feature 1234
# → neuronpedia.org/gpt2-small/8-res-jb/1234
| Class | Purpose |
|---|---|
SAE | Sparse Autoencoder model |
LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig | Top-level training configuration (nests sae= and logger=) |
StandardTrainingSAEConfig / TopKTrainingSAEConfig / GatedTrainingSAEConfig / JumpReLUTrainingSAEConfig | SAE-type-specific sub-configs (v6) |
LoggingConfig | Logging/W&B sub-config (v6) |
LanguageModelSAETrainingRunner | Training loop manager (alias: SAETrainingRunner) |
ActivationsStore | Activation collection and batching |
HookedSAETransformer | TransformerLens + SAE integration |
For detailed API documentation, tutorials, and advanced usage, see the references/ folder:
| File | Contents |
|---|---|
| references/README.md | Overview and quick start guide |
| references/api.md | Complete API reference for SAE, TrainingSAE, configurations |
| references/tutorials.md | Step-by-step tutorials for training, analysis, steering |
| Architecture | Description | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | ReLU + L1 penalty | General purpose |
| Gated | Learned gating mechanism | Better sparsity control |
| TopK | Exactly K active features | Consistent sparsity |
from sae_lens import LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig, TopKTrainingSAEConfig
# TopK SAE (exactly 50 features active) — `k` is set on the SAE sub-config in v6
cfg = LanguageModelSAERunnerConfig(
sae=TopKTrainingSAEConfig(d_in=768, d_sae=768*8, k=50),
)