Tao Finetune Kumo Forecast
NVIDIAOfficialCreated by NVIDIA Corporation
- Skill
- Tool integration
- Data and AI
- Apache-2.0
- Medium risk
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
Kumo-Forecast provides a robust framework for multivariate time series forecasting using transformer-based models. It supports standard inference, context-enhanced kNN retrieval (DARR mode) for improved accuracy, and a model-agnostic interpretability framework that generates detailed diagnostic reports. The skill includes fine-tuning capabilities to adapt pretrained models to specific domains, supporting both standard and cross-channel architectures. It is designed for integration with AutoML workflows for hyperparameter optimization.
What it does
- Performs multivariate time series forecasting using transformer-based models.
- Enables DARR (context-enhanced kNN retrieval) to blend direct predictions with historical context.
- Provides model-agnostic interpretability, including lag-horizon attribution and semantic flow analysis.
- Supports fine-tuning of forecasting heads on custom datasets with optional cross-channel layer adaptation.
- Integrates with AutoML runners for hyperparameter optimization of training and inference parameters.
- Generates diagnostic reports and visualizations for model performance and stability.
When to use it
- When you need to perform multivariate time series forecasting on structured data.
- When you want to improve forecast accuracy by leveraging historical context via DARR.
- When you require interpretability features to understand model predictions and lag-horizon dependencies.
- When you need to adapt a pretrained forecasting model to a specific domain through fine-tuning.
- When you are setting up hyperparameter optimization for forecasting models.
Advantages
- Leverages powerful transformer backbones with pretrained weights.
- Flexible inference modes including standard and context-enhanced retrieval.
- Comprehensive interpretability tools for diagnostic analysis.
- Supports fine-tuning with configurable encoder/embedder freezing.
- AutoML-ready for efficient hyperparameter search.
Usage examples
- “Forecast with Kumo-Forecast using my sensor data.”
- The agent will execute the perform_forecasting function using your CSV data and the default Kumo-Forecast checkpoint to generate a forecast DataFrame.
- “Run DARR mode forecasting with my historical context.”
- The agent will use the provided context_df to build a kNN memory and blend it with the direct model prediction based on your specified alpha and k parameters.
- “Fine-tune Kumo-Forecast on my custom dataset.”
- The agent will initiate a training run using your CSV, adapting the forecasting head to your data while optionally using cross-channel attention.
- “Explain the interpretability features of Kumo-Forecast.”
- The agent will describe how to enable interpretability mode to generate lag-horizon attribution, semantic flow, and trajectory stability reports.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/nvidia/tao-finetune-kumo-forecast/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip tao-finetune-kumo-forecast.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by NVIDIA Corporation
Kumo-Forecast
Transformer-based multivariate time series forecasting using self-supervised pretraining on diverse temporal data. Three inference modes: standard (direct forecast), DARR (context-enhanced kNN retrieval blending), and interpretability (latent trajectory extraction, semantic flow, lag×horizon attribution, trajectory stability, and diagnostic ratios — full explanation bundle with PDF report). Fine-tuning adapts the forecasting head — and optionally the cross-channel layer — to your domain.
Source code: https://github.com/NVIDIA/Kumo-TS Pretrained weights: https://huggingface.co/nvidia/Kumo-Forecast
External dependencies
| Dependency | Purpose | Install |
|---|---|---|
| Python 3.10+ | Runtime | https://www.python.org/downloads/ |
| uv | Package + environment manager | pip install uv |
| CUDA toolkit (optional) | GPU acceleration | https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads |
| matplotlib (optional) | Interpretability PDF report, heatmap PNG, flow + stability charts | uv add matplotlib |
Credentials
nvidia/Kumo-Forecast is a public repo — no token required for downloading weights.
If you hit a 401/403 (gated access or license not accepted) or a 504 on first download, see the Known pitfalls section.
Quick start
git clone --branch main --single-branch https://github.com/NVIDIA/Kumo-TS Kumo-TS
cd Kumo-TS/Kumo-Forecast
uv sync --group dev
uv pip install -e . # editable install — required for clean sdk.* imports
# Standard inference (auto-downloads weights from HF on first run, no auth needed)
uv run python sdk/quick_example.pyInference
Import and call perform_forecasting from sdk/forecasting.py. It auto-downloads weights,
standardizes input, runs autoregressive rollout for long horizons, and returns a DataFrame
with {target_column}_forecast rows for the requested horizon.
import sys, pandas as pd
sys.path.append("/path/to/Kumo-TS/Kumo-Forecast") # clone Kumo-TS with --branch main
from sdk.forecasting import ForecastingConfig, perform_forecasting
df = pd.read_csv("your_data.csv") # must have timestamp + numeric target column
config = ForecastingConfig(
timestamp_column="timestamp", # parseable datetime column
target_column="target", # primary target to forecast
seq_len=512, # input context length (rows consumed)
forecast_horizon=72, # steps ahead to predict (max 512)
model_horizon=72, # native model horizon; change when using custom weights
standardizer_pkl="standardizer.pkl", # auto-downloaded from HF if missing
ckpt="run8_best_model_cr.pt", # auto-downloaded; see Checkpoints table
)
results = perform_forecasting(df=df, config=config)
# Returns DataFrame: timestamp | {target_column}_forecast (forecast_horizon rows)
print(results.head())For regular inference, put forecasting arguments in YAML and pass the file as
config. Start from the fully commented
template in sdk/forecasting_inference_config.yaml.
inference:
# Number of historical rows consumed for the input context window.
seq_len: 512
# Number of future rows to predict.
forecast_horizon: 72
# Native horizon used when training the checkpoint.
model_horizon: 72
# Enable cross-channel attention for multivariate forecasting.
use_cross_channel: trueresults = perform_forecasting(df=df, config="sdk/forecasting_inference_config.yaml")The YAML can be flat or use a top-level inference: section inside a larger
TAO/AutoML spec. Unknown keys raise ValueError.
Checkpoints
| File | Mode | Downloaded when |
|---|---|---|
run8_best_model_cr.pt | Default (cross-channel on) | use_cross_channel=True (default) |
moment_head_512_6hr.pt | Standard (no cross-channel) | use_cross_channel=False |
standardizer.pkl | Both | Always |
Set use_cross_channel=False in ForecastingConfig or YAML to use the standard checkpoint:
results = perform_forecasting(df=df, config=ForecastingConfig(use_cross_channel=False))DARR mode (context-enhanced forecasting)
Supply context_df to enable DARR: the SDK builds a kNN memory from historical windows and
blends direct predictions with retrieved neighbors (alpha * direct + (1 - alpha) * kNN).
context_df = pd.read_csv("historical_data.csv") # needs ≥ seq_len + model_horizon rows
config = ForecastingConfig(
forecast_horizon=72,
alpha=0.2, # 0.2 = 20% direct, 80% kNN (default: 0.01)
k=64, # number of nearest neighbors
temperature=0.05, # kNN softmax temperature
)
results = perform_forecasting(df=df, config=config, context_df=context_df)Context and input datasets do not need identical columns — the SDK aligns to common features
and warns when columns differ. Both must share timestamp_column and target_column.
Interpretability
Set interpretability=True to activate the Model-Agnostic Interpretability Framework. It produces localized, horizon-specific, time-aware explanations — including lag×horizon attribution, semantic flow, trajectory stability, diagnostic ratios, and (for multivariate inputs) channel-axis attribution and coupling analysis.
For the full parameter reference, output bundle, and component descriptions, see
Kumo-Forecast/README.md.
Fine-tuning
Fine-tune the forecasting head (encoder/embedder frozen by default) on your own time series.
--ckpt-init auto warm-starts from the published Kumo-Forecast checkpoint; --ckpt-init none
trains a fresh head from the base backbone.
cd /path/to/Kumo-TS/Kumo-Forecast
# Without cross-channel (uses moment_head_512_6hr.pt)
uv run python examples/finetune_example.py \
--csv /path/to/timeseries.csv \
--timestamp-col timestamp \
--target-cols target \
--seq-len 512 --forecast-horizon 72 \
--epochs 5 --batch-size 8 --lr 1e-4 \
--output-dir artifacts/finetune_my_data
# With cross-channel layer (uses run8_best_model_cr.pt)
uv run python examples/finetune_example.py \
--csv /path/to/timeseries.csv \
--timestamp-col timestamp \
--target-cols sensor_1,sensor_2,sensor_3 \
--use-cross-channel --cross-channel-heads 8 \
--epochs 5 \
--output-dir artifacts/finetune_cross_channelFine-tuning arguments
| Argument | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
--run-config | — | YAML config from AutoMLRunner ({config_path}). CLI flags override file values. |
--csv | required* | Single CSV split temporally into train/val |
--train-csv | required* | Training CSV (mutually exclusive with --csv) |
--val-csv | — | Validation CSV when --train-csv is used |
--timestamp-col | timestamp | Datetime column to exclude from features |
--target-cols | all numeric | Comma-separated columns to forecast |
--model-name | AutonLab/MOMENT-1-large | Backbone model identifier |
--ckpt-init | auto | auto = published Kumo-Forecast weights; none = fresh head; or path to .pt |
--standardizer-init | standardizer.pkl | Standardizer pickle used when --ckpt-init auto |
--repo-id | nvidia/Kumo-Forecast | HuggingFace repo for auto-download |
--seq-len | 512 | Input context length |
--forecast-horizon | 72 | Steps ahead to predict |
--stride | forecast_horizon | Sliding window stride (None → horizon) |
--val-ratio | 0.1 | Validation fraction when --csv is used |
--test-ratio | 0.0 | Test holdout fraction when --csv is used |
--no-standardize | false | Disable per-dataset standardization |
--epochs | 5 | Training epochs |
--batch-size | 8 | Per-GPU batch size |
--lr | 1e-4 | AdamW learning rate (OneCycleLR scheduler) |
--weight-decay | 0.0 | AdamW weight decay |
--head-dropout | 0.1 | Forecasting head dropout |
--max-norm | 5.0 | Gradient norm clip |
--num-workers | 0 | DataLoader workers |
--seed | 13 | Random seed |
--output-dir | artifacts/finetune | Output directory |
--local-files-only | false | Do not download backbone weights from HuggingFace |
--unfreeze-encoder | false | Train the transformer encoder too |
--unfreeze-embedder | false | Train the patch embedder too |
--use-cross-channel | false | Add cross-channel attention layer |
--cross-channel-heads | 8 | Attention heads in cross-channel layer |
--cross-channel-dropout | 0.1 | Dropout in the cross-channel layer |
--num-gpus | all available | Number of GPUs for DDP fine-tuning; set 1 to force single-GPU |
*One of --csv or --train-csv is required.
Inference with fine-tuned checkpoint
config = ForecastingConfig(
timestamp_column="timestamp",
target_column="target",
seq_len=512,
forecast_horizon=72,
model_horizon=72,
standardizer_pkl="artifacts/finetune_my_data/standardizer.pkl",
ckpt="artifacts/finetune_my_data/best_model.pt",
use_cross_channel=False, # set True if trained with --use-cross-channel
)
results = perform_forecasting(df=df, config=config)Data requirements
| Property | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Rows | ≥ seq_len (default 512) for inference; validation split must also have ≥ seq_len + forecast_horizon rows |
| Columns | timestamp + one or more numeric columns; NULLs filled with zeros automatically |
| Timestamp | Parseable by pandas; no NULLs; uniform frequency inferred from mode of diffs |
| Target | Must be numeric; NULLs filled with zeros |
forecast_horizon | Max 512 steps; beyond model's native 72 triggers autoregressive rollout |
| DARR context | ≥ seq_len + model_horizon rows; must share timestamp + target columns with input |
Output structure
Inference (standard / DARR):
DataFrame: timestamp | {target_column}_forecast (forecast_horizon rows)Fine-tuning (--output-dir artifacts/finetune_my_data):
artifacts/finetune_my_data/
├── best_model.pt # checkpoint with lowest validation MSE
├── standardizer.pkl # normalization statistics for this dataset
├── finetune_metadata.json # model config, channels, best epoch, all args
├── metrics.json # scalar summary: {"val_mse": float, "val_mae": float} — consumed by AutoML runner
└── epoch_metrics.json # per-epoch list: [{epoch, train_mse, val_mse, val_mae}, ...]Hardware
| Tier | Setup | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 1× CPU | Functional; slow for long horizons |
| Recommended | 1× NVIDIA GPU (≥8 GB VRAM) | Strongly recommended for fine-tuning |
| Apple Silicon | MPS | Auto-detected; on par with CPU for this workload |
| Multi-GPU fine-tuning | 2+× NVIDIA GPUs | Auto DDP via --num-gpus (defaults to all visible GPUs) |
AutoML (HPO: hyperparameter optimization)
This skill is AutoML-enabled for both fine-tuning and DARR inference. When an HPO request arrives, route it through tao-skill-bank:tao-run-automl with this model's skill_dir.
Read references/automl.md when the user asks for AutoML/HPO setup, tunable parameters, runner examples, inference trial scripts, DARR HPO, or AutoML result handoff details.
Known pitfalls
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
ModuleNotFoundError: backbone | Editable install missing | Run uv pip install -e . from Kumo-Forecast/ |
HfHubHTTPError: 401 / 403 | Model license not accepted or gated fork | Accept license on HF repo page; or huggingface-cli login |
504 / timeout on first weight download | HF CDN throttles unauthenticated requests — public repos are still subject to this on first download | Set export HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN="$HF_TOKEN" before running; authenticated requests use a more reliable CDN path |
ValueError: DataFrame has X rows but seq_len requires Y | Input too short | Provide ≥ seq_len (512) rows or reduce --seq-len |
ValueError: forecast_horizon must be <= 512 | Horizon too large | Split into multiple perform_forecasting calls |
ValueError: No common numeric columns (DARR) | Context has no overlapping features | Ensure context shares ≥ 1 numeric column with input |
ValueError: Context DataFrame has X rows but requires Y | Context too small | Context needs ≥ seq_len + model_horizon rows |
Interpretability PDF skipped: matplotlib not installed | Missing optional dep | uv add matplotlib or use interpretability_output="json" |
ValueError: No training windows (finetune) | Data too short for windows | Reduce --seq-len / --forecast-horizon, or increase dataset size |
Stale environment errors mentioning backbone package | Old lock file | uv cache clean && uv sync --group dev |
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer948 B
- BENCHMARK.md7.2 KiB
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer11.2 KiB
- SKILL.md13.5 KiB
- config/skillspector-baseline.yaml834 B
- evals/evals.json1.2 KiB
- references/automl.md14.7 KiB
- references/skill_info.yaml1.5 KiB
- references/spec_template_inference_hpo.yaml1.4 KiB
- references/spec_template_train.yaml642 B
- schemas/inference_hpo.schema.json6.0 KiB
- schemas/train.schema.json10.2 KiB
- skill-card.md4.7 KiB
- skill.oms.sig6.2 KiB
evals/evals.json
[
{
"id": "tao-finetune-kumo-forecast-basic",
"question": "A user request: \"Run Kumo-Forecast on my multivariate time-series CSV using DARR context-enhanced kNN retrieval with the moment_head_512_6hr weights, and then fine-tune on my domain data.\" Identify which TAO skill applies and, reading only that skill's documentation, outline the steps it prescribes. Do NOT run any commands, scripts, web searches, or other tools \u2014 describe the plan only.",
"expected_skill": "tao-finetune-kumo-forecast",
"expected_script": null,
"ground_truth": "Identify tao-finetune-kumo-forecast as the applicable skill and summarize its documented DARR-mode inference and fine-tuning workflow from SKILL.md (uv sync, perform_forecasting with the moment_head_512_6hr weights in DARR mode, then the fine-tune step on user data) without executing anything.",
"expected_behavior": [
"Identifies tao-finetune-kumo-forecast as the relevant skill",
"Outlines the documented DARR-mode inference and fine-tune workflow steps from SKILL.md (uv sync, perform_forecasting / DARR mode, fine-tune on user CSV)",
"Does not run commands, scripts, or web searches"
]
}
]
Requirements and compatibility
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
Needs: Declares allowed tools, Needs a command-line tool, Needs Python
The author says: Requires Python 3.10+ and uv. CUDA GPU recommended; Apple Silicon (MPS) and CPU supported.
Security
What our scanner noticed· Medium risk
- Large base64-encoded blobs
- Instructions that use the network
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Attribution and licence
- Created by
- NVIDIA Corporation
- Publisher
- NVIDIA (Official)
- Source
- NVIDIA/skills · skills/tao-finetune-kumo-forecast · commit fce3cca
- Licence
- Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE-APACHE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by NVIDIA Corporation or NVIDIA.
Download ZIP
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