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int4_per_token_head kv cache + kv token reporting fix#1

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lesj0610 wants to merge 9 commits intomainfrom
lesj/int4-kv-cache
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int4_per_token_head kv cache + kv token reporting fix#1
lesj0610 wants to merge 9 commits intomainfrom
lesj/int4-kv-cache

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@lesj0610 lesj0610 commented Apr 10, 2026

fork pr first. i wanted to get this up somewhere before touching upstream.

this started because gemma4 made the bad kv-token reporting really obvious on my side, but the patch itself is meant to stay on the common path. i didn't want to solve this with a gemma4-only branch.

what's in here

  • adds a first int4_per_token_head kv-cache path on the v1 + triton path
  • uses int4_per_token_head as the actual dtype name instead of q4
  • fixes the reported GPU KV cache size token count so it goes through the same group-fit logic init already uses, instead of the old rough heuristic
  • adds focused tests for the int4 path and the reporting side

some notes

  • gemma4 is what made me look at this, but this isn't meant to be a gemma4-specific patch
  • padded kv-page handling still assumes the backend block dimension is leading. if that is not true, it still raises NotImplementedError
  • the padded-stride setup is mirrored in attn_utils.py and gpu_model_runner.py for now. not ideal, yeah, but both raw-kv paths needed the same physical layout and i didn't want to widen this patch more than necessary
  • cp handling in the token report now comes from the same kv-spec/group-fit path used during init, so i dropped the old extra multiplier heuristic instead of stacking another one on top
  • i used Codex and Claude Code during iteration, but i went back through the patch and the test runs myself before posting this

checks i actually ran

  • python3 -m py_compile on the touched files
  • pytest -q tests/kernels/attention/test_triton_int4_kv_cache.py
  • pytest -q tests/v1/core/test_kv_cache_utils.py -k 'get_kv_cache_config_one_worker or estimate_token_capacity_for_kv_cache_config or get_max_concurrency_for_kv_cache_config'

Signed-off-by: lesj0610 <lesj0610@gmail.com>
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…9169)

Signed-off-by: Ibrahim Arshad <38925737+ibrahim1023@users.noreply.github.com>
@lesj0610 lesj0610 marked this pull request as ready for review April 10, 2026 00:51
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💡 Codex Review

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Reviewed commit: 983341a1e9

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Comment thread vllm/config/cache.py
"auto",
"float16",
"bfloat16",
"int4_per_token_head",
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P1 Badge Route int4 KV cache away from FlashAttention backend

Adding "int4_per_token_head" to CacheDType makes this value pass selector validation, but CUDA backend selection still prefers FlashAttention before Triton. FlashAttention currently treats any quantized KV dtype as FP8-capable (flash_attn.py supports_kv_cache_dtype), then later calls get_fp8_dtype_for_flashattn(self.kv_cache_dtype) which raises for "int4_per_token_head" (flash_attn.py lines 744-746 / 378-384). In practice, users on CUDA with FlashAttention available will hit a runtime failure unless they manually force Triton, so int4 is exposed as supported but is not actually runnable in the default backend path.

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good catch. i fixed this in 9740ba545 by tightening FlashAttentionBackend.supports_kv_cache_dtype() so flash only accepts fp8-backed quantized kv cache. int4_per_token_head now gets rejected during backend validation instead of slipping through and failing later. i also added a selector regression test for fp8 vs int4_per_token_head.

lesj0610 and others added 6 commits April 10, 2026 10:12
Signed-off-by: lesj0610 <lesj0610@gmail.com>
…_parser is set (vllm-project#38214)

Signed-off-by: chaunceyjiang <chaunceyjiang@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: lesj0610 <lesj0610@gmail.com>
…straction (vllm-project#38244)

Signed-off-by: Kunshang Ji <kunshang.ji@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Kunshang Ji <jikunshang95@gmail.com>
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Closing per request; keeping only vllm-project#39460.

@lesj0610 lesj0610 closed this Apr 10, 2026
@lesj0610 lesj0610 deleted the lesj/int4-kv-cache branch April 10, 2026 13:38
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5 participants