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Ship only the TensorRT delegate in the ExecuTorch runtime wheel - #4567

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shoumikhin:executorch-slim-runtime-wheel
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Ship only the TensorRT delegate in the ExecuTorch runtime wheel#4567
shoumikhin wants to merge 16 commits into
pytorch:mainfrom
shoumikhin:executorch-slim-runtime-wheel

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@shoumikhinshoumikhin commented Aug 23, 2026

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What this does

The torch-tensorrt-executorch-runtime wheel now ships one thing: the TensorRT backend, as a prebuilt shared library. Nothing else.

The goal is that it looks like one of the backends ExecuTorch already ships in its own wheel, such as the CUDA backend, only built and distributed separately. Same file naming, same layout, same linking rules. A Python user registers it by importing the package. A C++ app links it through CMake.

The problem

Two copies of the same runtime in one process

The old wheel carried its own libexecutorch.so and its own copy of ExecuTorch's Python extension, then took over executorch.extension.pybindings at import time.

That works only while both copies match. Two C++ runtimes in one process can also pull in two different libstdc++ versions, which breaks in ways that are hard to read. It also meant the wheel had to get in first, before anything imported ExecuTorch, or the wrong copy won.

An inference API that already existed

The wheel shipped a runtime.py with a Program class and a load() function. ExecuTorch already exports Runtime, Program and Method. Most of runtime.py was the same code written again, down to the line that keeps the file buffer alive so the program is not freed.

One part was worse than redundant. Program.run() copied a CUDA input to CPU every time. If you exported a program that keeps its inputs on the GPU, that copy quietly undid it, and you could not get a device-resident input through the wrapper at all.

No way to use it from C++

The shared library was reachable only from Python. ExecuTorch ships each of its own backends as a prebuilt library plus a CMake package, so a C++ app writes find_package and links a target. This wheel shipped no CMake package, so the only way to get the delegate into a C++ program was to build this repository from source.

The fix

The wheel is a backend library and its loader

torch_tensorrt_executorch_runtime/
lib/libexecutorch_backend_tensorrt.so the backend
__init__.py loads it on import
lib/cmake/torchtrt_executorch/*.cmake lets C++ link it

This mirrors what ExecuTorch does with its own backends:

executorch/ torch_tensorrt_executorch_runtime/
lib/libexecutorch_backend_cuda.so lib/libexecutorch_backend_tensorrt.so
lib/cmake/executorch/executorch-config.cmake lib/cmake/torchtrt_executorch/torchtrt_executorch-config.cmake

lib/cmake/<name>/ is where find_package looks under a prefix, and it is where
ExecuTorch's own package resolves from, so a consumer points CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH at the
two package roots and both are found the same way.

The library also matches theirs where it counts: its SONAME is its own filename, it has DT_RUNPATH and no DT_RPATH, it has no PyInit_ because it is not a Python extension, and it imports register_backend rather than defining it. It links libexecutorch.so from the installed executorch wheel instead of bringing its own, so there is one runtime in the process.

One thing differs on purpose. ExecuTorch's backend sits in the same wheel as libexecutorch.so, so its search path reaches it with one ../. This one sits in a different wheel, so it has to climb out to site-packages and back down, which takes two:

$ORIGIN
$ORIGIN/../../executorch/lib
$ORIGIN/../../tensorrt_libs
$ORIGIN/../../nvidia/cu13/lib

Python: importing the package registers the backend

There is no API to call:

importtorch_tensorrt_executorch_runtime# noqa: F401fromexecutorch.runtimeimportRuntimeprogram=Runtime.get().load_program("model.pte")
outputs=program.load_method("forward").execute((tensor,))

ExecuTorch's own backends register because they are linked into its Python extension, so loading that extension pulls them in and their static initializers run. A backend in a separate wheel cannot join that link, and ExecuTorch has no discovery hook for out-of-tree backends, so this package performs the equivalent step itself at import time.

The library exports no PyInit_, so a plain import cannot load it; something has to dlopen it. That is all register() does, and it runs once on import.

If the load fails, the import raises with the real cause, for example a CPU-only executorch wheel or an ABI mismatch. Failing loudly is on purpose: this wheel exists only to register the backend, so a load it cannot finish leaves nothing useful behind, and ExecuTorch's later "backend not available" cannot name the cause. Set TORCH_TENSORRT_SKIP_DELEGATE_REGISTRATION=1 to import without the side effect, for tooling that only wants the metadata.

C++: link it the way you link an ExecuTorch backend

find_package(executorchREQUIREDCOMPONENTSbackend_cuda)
find_package(torchtrt_executorchREQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(my_appPRIVATEexecutorch::runtimeexecutorch::backend_cudaexecutorch::extension_cudaexecutorch::kernels_optimizedtorchtrt::executorch_backend)

Point CMake at both wheels, since they are separate packages, and use CMake 3.28 or newer because the backend_cuda component requires it:

cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="<site-packages>/executorch;<site-packages>/torch_tensorrt_executorch_runtime" ...

There is nothing to include. The backend has no public header: it registers itself from a static initializer inside the shared library, and everything after that is ExecuTorch's own runtime API. The CMake target links the library with --no-as-needed, so the dependency survives even if the consumer never names a symbol from it.

Loading a .pte is ExecuTorch's job

torch_tensorrt.load(path, format="executorch") is removed, along with the format argument. This matches how the other save formats already work: Torch-TensorRT saves the file, and the framework that owns the runtime loads it.

FormatSaved byLoaded by
.pt2 (AOTInductor)torch_tensorrt.savetorch._inductor.aoti_load_package
.pte (ExecuTorch)torch_tensorrt.saveexecutorch.runtime.Runtime

output_format="executorch" on torch_tensorrt.save is unchanged. Only the load side moved.

Device-resident inputs now work

With the copy in Program.run() gone, nothing in the Python layer touches your tensors, so a program exported to keep its inputs and outputs on the GPU keeps them there. Two settings are needed for that export, not one:

ExecutorchBackendConfig(
propagate_device_config=PropagateDeviceConfig(
skip_h2d_for_method_inputs=True,
skip_d2h_for_method_outputs=True,
),
enable_non_cpu_memory_planning=True,
memory_planning_pass=MemoryPlanningPass(
alloc_graph_input=False, alloc_graph_output=False
),
)

Skipping the copy is not enough on its own. Memory planning allocates graph inputs and outputs by default, so the runtime would still reserve its own buffer and fill it from your memory with a host copy, which puts the copy back.

examples/torchtrt_executorch_example/export_device_resident.py exports such a program and checks the result rather than trusting the flags: it reads the operator table of the saved file and fails if either boundary copy operator is still there, and it checks that every method input and output is recorded as a CUDA tensor.

Breaking changes

These names are gone from the runtime package:

  • runtime.py, including Program and load(). Use executorch.runtime.Runtime.
  • get_runtime(). Import the package, then use Runtime.get().
  • activate(), which is now register() and is called for you on import.
  • torch_tensorrt.load(..., format="executorch"). The format argument no longer exists; passing a value raises TypeError naming the replacement. Passing None, the old default, still works.
  • torch_tensorrt_executorch_runtime._portable_lib and .data_loader, because the wheel no longer ships them.

The delegate also now needs a CUDA build of the executorch wheel at runtime, not only at build time, because it links a library that only the CUDA wheels ship. With a CPU-only executorch installed, the import fails with a message that says so.

Test plan

Run on Linux x86_64 with CUDA 13 and an NVIDIA H100, against the wheel this change builds in CI:

  • Importing the package registers TensorRTBackend, with nothing else called.
  • Python, four combinations, all pass: TensorRT-only and coalesced TensorRT plus CUDA, each with CPU inputs and with device-resident inputs. Shapes and devices are read from the program rather than hardcoded.
  • C++, linking the wheel through CMake with no source checkout: the backend registers and a TensorRT-delegated program runs.
  • As a control, the CPU-boundary program was checked to contain et_copy::_h2d_copy and et_copy::_d2h_copy, the two operators the device-resident program is asserted not to have. Without that check the assertion could pass because those operators never appear.

Not covered: running a device-resident program from C++. That program requires the caller to own both the input and the output buffers in device memory, and the C++ example here supplies host buffers.

CI builds the wheel, checks its contents and its search paths, runs the C++ reference runner against three saved programs, and runs the Python runner. Unit tests: 24 in test_python_runtime.py, plus the pin and updater suites.

@github-actionsgithub-actionsBot added component: tests Issues re: Tests component: build system Issues re: Build system component: api [Python] Issues re: Python API component: api [C++] Issues re: C++ API labels Aug 23, 2026
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@github-actionsgithub-actionsBot added the documentation Improvements or additions to documentation label Aug 23, 2026
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@lanluo-nvidialanluo-nvidia added this to the v2.15.0 milestone Aug 24, 2026
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shoumikhinand others added 14 commits August 28, 2026 17:27
…nce runner gate
The ExecuTorch gate exports one program, x + 1, and TensorRT takes it whole. So
nothing in CI ever runs a program where TensorRT and ExecuTorch's own CUDA
backend each own part of the same graph. That coalesced case is the whole point
of combining the two backends, and it is not covered end to end today. There is
a composition test that checks both delegates land in the file, but it never
loads or runs the program.
This adds the missing run.
A new example, examples/torchtrt_executorch_example/export_coalesced.py, exports
cos(erfinv(tanh(x))). TensorRT has no converter for erfinv, so a CudaPartitioner
catch-all gives that operator to the CUDA backend while TensorRT keeps the rest.
The script fails if the saved .pte does not carry both a TensorRTBackend and a
CudaBackend delegate, so a partitioning change cannot quietly turn this into a
TensorRT-only run that still passes.
The script also writes <model>.expected next to the .pte, holding the output
shape and the eager reference value for an all-ones input. Both reference
runners fill inputs with 1.0 and this model is elementwise, so one number
describes the whole expected output. Reading it from a file, instead of
hard-coding a number in the shell script, keeps the expectation tied to the
model.
verify-executorch-reference-runner.sh now takes an optional third argument, the
coalesced .pte. When given, it runs both the CMake-built runner and the packaged
runner on it and compares every printed value against that reference. TensorRT,
AOTInductor and eager PyTorch use different kernels for the same math, so the
comparison uses a tolerance of 0.001 rather than matching printed digits.
The existing x + 1 assertions keep the same strength. They now go through the
same helper with a zero tolerance, because x + 1 on ones is exact in float32.
Usage:
python examples/torchtrt_executorch_example/export_coalesced.py \
--model_path=coalesced.pte
.github/scripts/verify-executorch-reference-runner.sh \
model.pte kv_cache_decode.pte coalesced.pte
Test plan
On a Linux x86_64 host with an NVIDIA A100 GPU:
- Ran export_coalesced.py. It reported delegates
['TensorRTBackend', 'CudaBackend', 'TensorRTBackend'] and wrote "[64,64]" and
"0.6722" into the .expected file.
- Ran the resulting .pte through the reference runner. It printed
"output[0] shape=[64,64]" and first 8 values of 0.6722, an exact match to the
eager result.
- Deleted the aoti_cuda_blob.ptd that the CUDA backend writes and ran again.
Same output, so this model needs no external weight file.
- Exercised the new shell assertion helper against captured runner output:
correct output passes; one wrong value fails; a wrong shape fails; a missing
values line fails; a value inside the tolerance passes and one outside it
fails.
- shellcheck, bash -n, black and isort are clean on the changed files.
Not yet observed in CI: the ExecuTorch runtime build job currently fails on main
when the packaged reference runner aborts on the existing x + 1 model, and the
test job is skipped while that is true. Both happen before this new code runs.
ExecuTorch 1.4.1 ships no linkable C++ runtime: its wheel contains zero shared
libraries, its CMake package exports only a static _portable_lib, and no CUDA
wheel exists for it on any channel. That is why the runtime wheel rebuilds
ExecuTorch from source today, and it is the blocker for shipping only the
TensorRT delegate.
The prebuilt runtime landed on ExecuTorch main on 2026-08-20, six days after
1.4.1 was tagged, so no release carries it yet. Move the pin to the nightly line
that does, keeping the release-line range on installable metadata so the same
range prefers 1.5.0 over any dev build the day it ships, with no edit needed.
The two pins now have to name one ExecuTorch rather than two that look close,
because the delegate compiles headers from the source tree and links the runtime
out of the wheel. Every wheel records its source commit, so add a test asserting
the pinned commit is the pinned wheel's own git_version. Nothing else was
enforcing that, and a mismatch is silent: both pins look plausible and the build
succeeds.
Deriving the range with a three-field split raised on the nightly form, so
derive it from the release line the first two fields name.
ExecuTorch's CUDA wheels are published only on the PyTorch nightly index, so
every install site gains that channel. No site gains --pre: the pin names an
exact dev build, which pip installs from an explicit version without it, and the
existing --pre uses here are for torch. CI derives the channel from the row's own
CU_VERSION, which keeps the runtime the delegate links to the same CUDA build as
the rest of the job.
The CI installer globs torch_tensorrt*.whl, which also matches the ExecuTorch
runtime wheel, whose install_requires names a dev build published only on the
nightly channel. With no index on that line the whole pip invocation failed, and
because line 1's set -e is commented out the failure was swallowed and the job
died later with a confusing ImportError.
The two range sites installed a range against the nightly channel, which gains a
member every day, so they resolved to whatever was newest while the delegate is
compiled from the commit the pin names. Both now request the pin exactly, which
is the pairing the drift test exists to check; it was written to skip in exactly
the state the ranges produced, so nothing reported it.
setup.py keeps its range, because a published requirement has to stay resolvable
for users off the same line. The two shapes now differ deliberately and
test_derived_requirements_match_the_pin checks each for its own.
Six printed install instructions gave a bare pip install of the executorch extra,
which cannot resolve a dev pin from PyPI. They name the channel now.
The discovery regex saw only == and >=, so a site added with any other PEP 440
operator was invisible to the drift check. It now recognises all of them.
The executorch suite is nightly-only, and the nightly matrix runs cu132 rows as
well as cu130 ones, so the fixed cu130 channel in tests/ci/runner.py would
install a CUDA 13.0 ExecuTorch into a CUDA 13.2 job. PR builds are pinned to
cu130 by filter-matrix.py, which is why watching PR CI could never show this.
Derived from CU_VERSION now, with cu130 as the local default, matching what the
two workflow files already did.
Three example docstrings still printed a bare `pip install -e ".[executorch]"`.
That resolved off PyPI before this pin moved to a dev build; it cannot now, so
they name the nightly index too. The runtime's ImportError advice and the
reference runner README already did.
The installer's hardcoded nightly channel gets the reason written down: a .dev
wheel exists on no other channel, so deriving it from ${CHANNEL} like the lines
above would break the install on exactly the test and release runs the index was
added for.
…alls from
Raising the executorch floor to a dev build made `uv lock` fail outright. The
lock's win32 required-environment in pyproject.toml resolved the extra from PyPI,
whose executorch stops at 1.4.1 -- uv.lock records five win_amd64 wheels for it --
so nothing satisfied the new range and uv errors rather than falling back.
Reproduced against a probe project: without a marker uv reports the win32 split
unsatisfiable, with one it resolves. The requirement now carries
`platform_system == 'Linux'`, the shape EXECUTORCH_RUNTIME_REQUIREMENT already
uses, which also stops pip reporting no matching distribution for Windows users
of the extra. The delegate is a Linux object and ExecuTorch publishes CUDA wheels
for no other platform, so the marker states what was already true.
docgen installed the extra with --pre against the nightly channel, so it resolved
through the range and took whichever dev build was newest that morning while the
delegate compiled from the pinned commit. It names the pin now, read out of
dev_dep_versions.yml.
The pip line that installs both wheels gets `|| exit 1`. linux-test.yml
concatenates this installer ahead of the user script and line 1's `set -e` is
commented out, so a failure there was discarded and the job died later with an
unrelated-looking ImportError; measured with `false` in place of the pip call,
exit was 0 and the user script still ran.
Two tests were checking source text rather than behaviour. The CUDA-row test now
calls _setup_commands with CU_VERSION set and unset and reads the URL, which
catches keeping the os.environ.get line while hardcoding the channel -- the
mutation the string match passed. The drift check now asserts the set of files
that pin ExecuTorch, because a site changing to bare `executorch` stops matching
the search entirely and left the old `assert found` satisfied.
Also corrects two claims: 1.4.1 does ship _portable_lib.so, so the comment says
its executorch/lib carries no standalone linkable runtime, and no install site
gains --pre, since an exact .dev pin needs none.
…tup fails
The reference-runner README and the runtime's ImportError advice both printed
`pip install "torch-tensorrt[executorch]"` with no index, and the commit that
introduced the pin claimed otherwise. That claim was checked against the wrong
branch: the fix existed only on the stacked runtime-wheel change, so this branch
kept shipping the bare command. It matters more here than a docs nit, because
this branch is what raises the floor above PyPI's newest executorch, so the bare
command now cannot resolve at all. All seven printed install instructions carry
the channel.
The drift checks were counting the wrong thing. The requirement test asserted a
set of paths, but two files carry two sites each, so either could drop one and
stay in the set: turning `executorch-build-linux.yml:88` or `:128` into bare
`executorch` both survived. The commit test only asserted nonzero, so any single
MODULE.bazel could switch to `branch = "nightly"` unnoticed. Both now assert a
per-file site count through one helper, as a minimum rather than an exact number
so it holds on the stacked branch too, which removes one README site. All five
mutations are caught and each names the file. Counting also surfaced a fifth
commit site the nonzero check could not see: the reference-runner README's
EXECUTORCH_REF shell default, correctly pinned but unaccounted for.
docgen's pin was invisible to both: it is built by a shell substitution, so `$(`
is not a digit and the literal search never saw it, and deleting the line
survived. The derived-requirement test now runs the command docgen embeds and
compares what it prints.
A failed setup step printed `::warning::` and fell through to pytest. Most of the
executorch suite gates on pytest.importorskip, so a failed ExecuTorch install
skipped those files, left the rest passing, and reported success with a populated
junit xml -- green exactly when the suite could not test what it exists to test.
Driving the real run_suite with a failing setup step reproduced it, and returning
the code makes it red without invoking pytest. Pre-existing, but this branch makes
it likely to fire, since a nightly pin is eventually pruned from the channel.
The pin tests themselves ran on nightly only, so none of this drift machinery ran
on a PR or a push to main -- when a pin actually goes stale. They need no GPU, no
ExecuTorch and not even torch, so they move to their own l0 suite in every lane,
and the nightly suite excludes them by keyword so nothing runs twice.
Also: the reference-runner README no longer says the extra installs the runtime
wheel, since that requirement is commented out in setup.py.
…U lane
The drift checks read derived strings and never the values CI consumes, so three
ways of silently shipping no ExecuTorch all stayed green. Dropping the requirement
from the runner's setup command left the step succeeding with nothing installed,
after which the suite skips on importorskip; emptying EXTRAS_REQUIRE["executorch"]
broke every documented `pip install "torch-tensorrt[executorch]"`; and the runtime
README was recorded as carrying one pin site when it carries two, so either could
go bare while the other satisfied the count -- the exact hole the per-file counts
were added to close. The checks now assert the argument list the runner builds, the
extras entries by AST, and the true per-file counts. All five mutations fail now.
run_suite had no test at all, so replacing its `return rc` with `continue` restored
the silent-green behaviour the fail-closed change exists to prevent. It is driven
directly now, asserting both the propagated exit code and that pytest never runs
once setup has failed.
The pin suite was landing on a GPU runner: Suite.runner defaults to the matrix
validation runner, so a five-second text check became one CUDA-container job per
python and CUDA row, behind a wheel build. It runs in the Python lint job instead,
which is already ubuntu-latest and needs none of that. The claim that it needs "not
even torch" was also wrong -- tests/py/dynamo/conftest.py imports torch at module
scope, which is why the lint invocation passes --noconftest. The shell tier that
runs the whole executorch directory now excludes the pin file too, so the dedup
claim is true of both paths rather than just the manifest one.
uv.lock still records the pre-bump range with no platform marker. uv-update.yml
regenerates it on pushes to main touching setup.py, and only that workflow runs
`uv sync --locked`, so this breaks nothing -- but the drift was invisible, since the
lock writes a bare specifier the pin search cannot match. A strict=False xfail
records it and turns into a real failure via XPASS once the lock is refreshed.
Editing the lock by hand was the wrong fix: its resolved entry and hashes come from
a resolver run against the nightly index.
Also removes internal shorthand from the PR description, and corrects a line
citation for the one deliberate range in executorch-build-linux.yml.
The lint step added for these checks could not execute. It invokes pytest, and
the job installs .github/scripts/requirements.txt (PyGithub) plus the lint
dependency group (black, clang-format); neither carries pytest, so the step
exited 1 on "No module named pytest" before running a single assertion. pyyaml
is needed too, because reading the pin file shells out to a yaml import. Both
are installed now, and a test asserts the step exists and installs them, since
deleting it is otherwise invisible: every assertion here still passes locally
while nothing runs it on a pull request. Reproduced the failure in a
stdlib-only venv and confirmed the fixed command passes with only those two.
The step also gets if: always(), so an unrelated formatting failure earlier in
the job no longer hides the pin check.
Three properties the checks are supposed to protect had no coverage:
Deleting both published extras from EXTRAS_REQUIRE left everything green. The
loop iterated whatever keys existed, so removing them iterated nothing and was
indistinguishable from them being correct. It now requires the two published
keys to be present, and only those, which also stops an unrelated future extra
from turning this red for naming no ExecuTorch.
The workflow opt-out marker was ordinary prose, "verify the end user's
workflow". Pasting that sentence above a requirement and widening it to a range
passed. It is an explicit token now, and the upward scan walks through comment
lines to find it, so a cosmetic line between the opt-out and the requirement
neither reclassifies the site nor fails the build.
Nothing asserted that printed install instructions name the nightly channel,
which is why that regressed and was re-fixed three times in this change without
anything noticing. One test covers all of them by reading whole blocks rather
than single lines, since every instruction wraps and the index lands on a
continuation. It catches the CI install of the locally built wheel too, which
carries no extra and is the site that broke most often. Generated docs under
docs/ are excluded: corrections belong in docsrc/, and the committed Sphinx
output is stale there independently.
Also: the executorch requirement now strips its local version label like the
other four, so the wheel does not bind itself to one CUDA train; the lockfile
xfail is strict, since a non-strict xfail reports XPASS and ignores it and so
could never fail; the fail-closed comment says it covers every setup step
rather than implying only executorch; an empty frozenset and the dead branch
reading it are gone; and the sys.path mutations use monkeypatch so they do not
leak between tests.
The check that the two pins name one ExecuTorch could not run anywhere. It skips
unless the installed wheel is exactly the pinned version, so it means something
only on the nightly GPU lane, and that lane deselected it. The deselection is
written as "not test_executorch_pin" to skip the source-consistency checks in the
same file, but -k matches the module name in the test id, so it dropped every
test in the module including this one. Both deselection sites now keep it by
name.
Proved it on a host with the pinned wheel installed, whose recorded git_version
is the pinned commit: the check passes at the correct pins, fails when the commit
pin names a different tree, and fails when the commit pin is deleted outright.
Before this it was deselected in all three states. Bumping the version alone
still skips, correctly, because the installed wheel is then not the one the pin
names and its provenance says nothing about whether the two pins agree.
A test asserts both sites keep it, since re-tightening either one to a bare
module name is a small and plausible edit that would silently restore the gap.
Every guard added in this change asserted that a string appeared somewhere in a
file, so each certified the state it was written to prevent.
The keyword guard grepped for the kept test's name. Changing "or" to "and" in
both -k expressions left it green, and that expression collects nothing at all,
which is worse than the bug the guard exists to catch. Reverting the expressions
and leaving the name behind in a comment also left it green, and a comment
explaining the keyword sits directly above it, which is where an editor would
naturally write that name. It now runs pytest's own collection under each
expression and requires exactly the pairing test to come back.
The CI guard searched the workflow as one blob, so it could not tell which job it
was reading. The same commit that fixed the lint failure also added pytest and
pyyaml to cpp-linting, which has no pin check, so deleting them from the job that
does run it stayed green and would have restored the original failure invisibly.
Neutralising the command while leaving its filename in a shell comment, and
setting a falsy step condition, were also green. It now parses the workflow,
finds the job that actually invokes pytest on this file, and requires the
installs in an earlier step of that same job. The unused installs are gone from
cpp-linting.
The requirement pattern captured an equality prefix and stopped, so
"executorch==PIN,!=PIN", a specifier that excludes the version it appears to pin,
compared equal to the pin. The same truncation rejected the legal PEP 508
spelling with spaces around the operator. Requirements are parsed now and
compared as specifier sets, with a check that the pinned version actually
satisfies them.
The site scanner counted raw search hits, so gutting a pin to a bare "executorch"
while putting the exact pin in a comment in the same file kept the per-file
minimum satisfied. Comments no longer count, except in the bazel repositories,
where the annotation beside the pinned commit is the only record of which wheel
that commit belongs to.
Also corrected two claims this change made: the executorch tier is reachable from
a pull request through executorch-test-linux.yml as well as the nightly manifest,
so it is not the only route, and the shell helper now says why one test is kept
out of the deselection.
The uv.lock check was a strict xfail. uv.lock records ">=1.4.1,<1.5" while the pin
derives ">=1.5.0.dev20260822,<1.6", so the assertion fails and the xfail is
satisfied. Refresh the lock and the assertion passes, and a strict xfail reports
that pass as a failure. The lint step runs this file with if: always() on every
pull request, so one lock refresh would have made the lint job red on every
subsequent pull request, for a file none of them touched, until someone edited this
test. Measured: baseline 1 xfailed, and 1 failed once the specifier is bumped.
My own docstring claimed the lock is machine-generated and not edited by hand. Two
hand refreshes landed on 2026-08-23, inside ordinary version-bump changes, so that
was wrong as well.
It now accepts both resting states and only fails where something is actually
wrong: a recorded range whose lower bound is above the pin, which means the lock
names an ExecuTorch this repository does not pin. Behind the pin passes, the
derived range passes, and ">=1.6,<1.7", an open-ended ">=1.7" and "==1.9.0" all
fail. Comparing lower bounds rather than probing the specifier with sample
versions: an upper-bound test missed the open-ended case, and a low sentinel
version called the ordinary behind-the-pin state a failure.
test_derived_requirements_match_the_pin extracted the python3 -c one-liner from
docgen.yml and ran it. Whatever that line said got executed on every pull request:
rewriting it to write a file left the test green and the file written. Same class as
the bash -c problem fixed in test_api.py last round, still live here. It now compares
the command as text against the exact form that reads __executorch_version__ out of
dev_dep_versions.yml. Four mutations caught, including a payload that writes a file
and still prints the right version, with nothing executed.
The CI reachability guard tested the raw string for "--collect-only", so it accepted
"--co", pytest's own documented short form, which collects and asserts nothing. It
also could not see an exit status being discarded. Now tokenised: --collect-only,
--co, -h, --help, a "||" short-circuit and continue-on-error are all rejected, and
all five are caught where four previously survived.
The comment exemption for .md/.rst/.txt defeated exactly the threat its docstring
names. Install commands live in prose files, so exempting them made a comment count
as a pin there: the runtime README's install line gutted to a bare "executorch"
passed as long as a decoy "# executorch==<pin>" sat beside it, and failed only with
no comment present. The exemption is gone, and trailing comments no longer count
either, since a decoy after a live requirement on the same line kept the per-file
count satisfied. Five mutations caught, baseline green.
…it resolves
The nightly-index guard matched only the named-distribution spelling, so the four
sites that write "pip install .[executorch]" were unguarded: docgen.yml and the three
export examples. The nightly index could be deleted from all four with the test
green. Each of the four is now caught individually.
Its second half was a bare substring test for the host, which proves a string sits
nearby rather than that the instruction resolves. Rewriting every channel in the
tree, 18 files, to a nonexistent cu999 left it green. The CUDA suffix is now checked
against the set the project publishes for. Deliberately not compared against
__cuda_version__: five sites legitimately say cu130 while the pin says 13.2, and I
confirmed against the live index that cu130 and cu132 both carry 38 ExecuTorch
wheels while cu999 carries none.
The printed install commands resolved no ExecuTorch. "torch-tensorrt[executorch]"
with no version pin resolves the stable PyPI wheel, which carries no executorch
extra, so the command exited 0 and installed nothing the feature needs. Add --pre
to the six commands that name the extra and assert its presence in the guard that
already reads them.
Close four ways to neutralise the pin check while its guard stayed green: a ";"
or "&" terminator after pytest, continue-on-error or a falsy if: on the owning
job, and reducing the workflow trigger so it never runs on pull requests. The
trigger check also handles PyYAML reading the unquoted "on" key as the boolean
True.
Close both ways to strip the pairing check while its guard stayed green: assert
the workflow actually calls trt_tier_executorch, and validate suite lane names
against the known set so a typo raises at import instead of silently dropping the
suite from every matrix.
Also: anchor the docgen pin check to a live line so a commented-out install no
longer satisfies it; fix the lockfile range check crashing on a legal "==1.4.*"
clause; correct the range comment to describe what the range admits; and note in
the install advice that the feature is published for Linux only.
@shoumikhin
shoumikhinforce-pushed the executorch-slim-runtime-wheel branch 9 times, most recently from df3aecd to a017da1CompareAugust 29, 2026 22:02
The delegate is built against one ExecuTorch: __executorch_version__ selects the wheel it
links against and __executorch_commit__ selects the tree it compiles from. Those two values
repeat across the build workflows, the bazel modules, the docker and toolchain copies, and
the docs, so they can drift apart or fall behind upstream with nothing to notice.
Add a script and a daily workflow that move both pins to the newest ExecuTorch wheel on the
nightly index. The source commit is read from the chosen wheel's own version.py, so the two
pins always name one ExecuTorch rather than two that happen to be close. The update lands as
a pull request, so the pin consistency checks and the delegate build and test lane decide
whether the new wheel is usable before it reaches main. A day with no new nightly rewrites
nothing and opens nothing. On a release branch the schedule is a no-op and the pin moves
only by a manual run pointed at the stable line, so a cut release does not drift.
Back the mechanism with consistency checks that run under the linter. Every requirement and
comment that names ExecuTorch is asserted to match the pinned version, including the
variable-index install once the variable's assignment is resolved and extensionless install
files like justfile. The source commit is checked against the wheel's own provenance
wherever that wheel is installed, and commits left in comments are not mistaken for pins.
The wheel-content and CI-invocation checks measure effect, running the workflow's own step
against a passing and a failing stub and requiring the exit status to follow, rather than
enumerating bypass spellings. Install the built wheel in the runtime README rather than an
unpublished package.
@shoumikhin
shoumikhinforce-pushed the executorch-slim-runtime-wheel branch from a017da1 to 00f042bCompareAugust 30, 2026 00:48
The torch-tensorrt-executorch-runtime wheel shipped a full ExecuTorch Python
runtime alongside the TensorRT delegate. This ships only the delegate: a single
shared library that registers TensorRTBackend with the ExecuTorch runtime that
the executorch distribution already provides, rather than bundling a second copy
of that runtime. Shipping a second copy is also what made the old wheel prone to
a libstdc++ clash, because two C++ runtimes could end up in one process.
The native build produces just the delegate library, its RUNPATH points at the
executorch package the delegate links against, and setup.py packages the one
shared object. The runtime dependency stays commented out in the top-level
setup.py because the delegate wheel is not published to any index yet, so the
docs and the load-time and save-time errors direct users to build it from
py/torch-tensorrt-executorch-runtime/README.md.
The delegate links the C++ runtime dynamically, the way every other shared
object in the process already does. The build toolchain is newer than the
libstdc++ on a user's machine, so an optimized build emits out-of-line calls
into the newer runtime, for example std::string::_M_replace_cold. Naming stdc++
as a link library puts the reference after the objects, where the toolchain's
own libstdc++.so linker script resolves it: the old, stable symbols bind
dynamically to the system libstdc++.so.6 and only the newer helpers are pulled
statically from the toolchain's companion archive. The delegate ends up needing
no C++ runtime version above what the ExecuTorch it loads beside already needs.
A static C++ runtime is deliberately avoided: this library is loaded next to
libtorch and ExecuTorch, and a private libstdc++ would give it its own exception
type_info and locale state, which breaks exceptions and dynamic_cast across the
boundary. The build guard checks the shape: the delegate keeps a dynamic
libstdc++ dependency, has no unversioned C++ runtime symbol left undefined, and
requires no symbol version above the paired runtime.
The wheel is tagged py3-none rather than per-interpreter, because the delegate
is a plain shared object with no Python ABI and one build serves every CPython.
test_api.py checks the shipped layout: the delegate resolves through the loader
in the layout that ships, the wheel's RUNPATH is compared whole against the one
the build asks for, the symbol versions and the C++ runtime dependency are
compared against the runtime the delegate links, and the wheel's own metadata is
checked. The reachability scans that assert the import and static-C++ checks run
in CI parse each language's grammar rather than matching text, and none of them
execute the workflow they inspect.
The wheel exposes no runtime API at all. Loading and running a program belongs to
ExecuTorch, which already ships Runtime, Program and Method, so the Python wrapper
this wheel used to carry is gone along with the load(format="executorch") entry
point that reached it. That wrapper duplicated ExecuTorch's own classes down to the
line that keeps the file buffer alive, and its CPU copy of top-level inputs quietly
defeated programs exported for device-resident inputs. A consumer now imports this
package and uses executorch.runtime directly.
Registration happens on import, so there is nothing to call. ExecuTorch's own
delegates register because they are linked into its pybindings extension, and
loading that extension pulls them in; a delegate in a separate wheel cannot join
that link and ExecuTorch has no discovery hook for out-of-tree backends, so this
package performs the equivalent step itself. A load it cannot complete raises from
the import rather than being swallowed, because the diagnosis here names the real
cause, a CPU-only ExecuTorch wheel or an ABI mismatch, which a later "backend not
available" cannot. TORCH_TENSORRT_SKIP_DELEGATE_REGISTRATION=1 imports the module
without the side effect, for tooling that wants the metadata only.
The wheel now follows the layout ExecuTorch uses for its own backends, so the
TensorRT delegate is an out-of-tree sibling of them rather than a Python-only
artifact. The shared library moves to lib/, next to where executorch keeps
libexecutorch_backend_cuda.so and friends, and the wheel ships a CMake package
under share/cmake so a C++ app can link it:
find_package(executorch REQUIRED COMPONENTS backend_cuda)
find_package(torchtrt_executorch REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(app PRIVATE executorch::runtime torchtrt::executorch_backend)
Before this the shared library was reachable only from Python, even though it is
a drop-in sibling of ExecuTorch's backends: same naming, same soname convention,
register_backend imported rather than defined. What was missing was the discovery
layer, so the only way for C++ to get the delegate was add_subdirectory against a
source checkout of this repository.
The imported target links with --no-as-needed, bracketed by push-state and
pop-state. Nothing in a consumer references a symbol the delegate defines, so the
default would drop the dependency and the backend would never register: the app
would build, load the program, and fail with an unregistered backend. That is the
shared-library counterpart of the --whole-archive the in-repo source build needs
for the same reason. No headers ship, because a consumer calls no Torch-TensorRT
code; registration happens in the library's static initializer and the rest is
ExecuTorch's runtime API.
Moving the library under lib/ also moves what $ORIGIN means, so the delegate's
own RUNPATH gains a level: $ORIGIN/../../executorch/lib rather than
$ORIGIN/../executorch/lib, and likewise for tensorrt_libs and nvidia/cu13/lib.
Without that the entries resolve inside the package directory instead of
site-packages, the delegate cannot find libexecutorch.so, libcudart or libnvinfer,
and a C++ consumer fails to link it with undefined references to cudaMemcpyAsync
and friends. The depth and the install location are one decision, so the test that
reads the declaration now rejects the single-level form it used to require.
The CMake package installs to lib/cmake/torchtrt_executorch, which is where ExecuTorch
puts its own: find_package resolves executorch from
site-packages/executorch/lib/cmake/executorch, so following that layout rather than
share/ means a consumer points CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH at the two package roots and both
resolve the same way. The walk that locates the package root now looks for the delegate
itself instead of for a directory named lib, because the config now lives inside lib/ and
stopping at the first lib/ it meets would set IMPORTED_LOCATION to that directory.
@shoumikhin
shoumikhinforce-pushed the executorch-slim-runtime-wheel branch from 00f042b to 20732a5CompareAugust 30, 2026 01:32
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