Cog's 2498-line llms.txt shows what thorough AI preparation looks like

# Cog: Containers for machine learning

Cog is an open-source tool that lets you package machine learning models in a standard, production-ready container.

You can deploy your packaged model to your own infrastructure, or to [Replicate](https://replicate.com/).

## Highlights

- 📦 **Docker containers without the pain.** Writing your own `Dockerfile` can be a bewildering process. With Cog, you define your environment with a [simple configuration file](#how-it-works) and it generates a Docker image with all the best practices: Nvidia base images, efficient caching of dependencies, installing specific Python versions, sensible environment variable defaults, and so on.

- 🤬️ **No more CUDA hell.** Cog knows which CUDA/cuDNN/PyTorch/Tensorflow/Python combos are compatible and will set it all up correctly for you.

- ✅ **Define the inputs and outputs for your model with standard Python.** Then, Cog generates an OpenAPI schema and validates the inputs and outputs with Pydantic.

- 🎁 **Automatic HTTP prediction server**: Your model's types are used to dynamically generate a RESTful HTTP API using [FastAPI](https://fastapi.tiangolo.com/).

- 🥞 **Automatic queue worker.** Long-running deep learning models or batch processing is best architected with a queue. Cog models do this out of the box. Redis is currently supported, with more in the pipeline.

- ☁️ **Cloud storage.** Files can be read and written directly to Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage. (Coming soon.)

- 🚀 **Ready for production.** Deploy your model anywhere that Docker images run. Your own infrastructure, or [Replicate](https://replicate.com).

## How it works

Define the Docker environment your model runs in with `cog.yaml`:

```yaml
build:
  gpu: true
  system_packages:
    - "libgl1-mesa-glx"
    - "libglib2.0-0"
  python_version: "3.12"
  python_packages:
    - "torch==2.3"
predict: "predict.py:Predictor"
```

Define how predictions are run on your model with `predict.py`:

```python
from cog import BasePredictor, Input, Path
import torch

class Predictor(BasePredictor):
    def setup(self):
        """Load the model into memory to make running multiple predictions efficient"""
        self.model = torch.load("./weights.pth")

    # The arguments and types the model takes as input
    def predict(self,
          image: Path = Input(description="Grayscale input image")
    ) -> Path:
        """Run a single prediction on the model"""
        processed_image = preprocess(image)
        output = self.model(processed_image)
        return postprocess(output)
```

In the above we accept a path to the image as an input, and return a path to our transformed image after running it through our model.

Now, you can run predictions on this model:

```console
$ cog predict -i [email protected]
--> Building Docker image...
--> Running Prediction...
--> Output written to output.jpg
```

Or, build a Docker image for deployment:

```console
$ cog build -t my-colorization-model
--> Building Docker image...
--> Built my-colorization-model:latest

$ docker run -d -p 5000:5000 --gpus all my-colorization-model

$ curl http://localhost:5000/predictions -X POST \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{"input": {"image": "https://.../input.jpg"}}'
```

Or, combine build and run via the `serve` command:

```console
$ cog serve -p 8080

$ curl http://localhost:8080/predictions -X POST \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{"input": {"image": "https://.../input.jpg"}}'
```

<!-- NOTE (bfirsh): Development environment instructions intentionally left out of readme for now, so as not to confuse the "ship a model to production" message.

In development, you can also run arbitrary commands inside the Docker environment:

```console
$ cog run python train.py