Русский: README.ru.md · 中文: README.zh.md

CMF — Cortiq Model Format

CMF is an auditable model container: one file can hold weights, tokenizer, chat metadata, task masks and skill overlays for inference without a large framework runtime.

Status

CMF v2 is the current on-disk format. Readers validate the envelope, section bounds, tensor metadata and hashes; incompatible changes require a feature bit or version bump. The Rust crate APIs are still pre-1.0 and may change.

The project is usable for local inference and format experiments. Treat model quality and speed numbers as workload-specific measurements, not guarantees; see the focused guides for the test setup behind each claim.

Quick start

Install the CLI and convert a small public checkpoint:

cargo install cortiq-cli
cortiq convert --model Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B --quant q8 --output qwen.cmf
cortiq run qwen.cmf --prompt "What is the capital of France?" --greedy --no-think

Already have GGUF? Import it directly:

cortiq import-gguf model.gguf --output model.cmf
cortiq verify model.cmf

Qwen Image transformer GGUFs, including Qwen-Image-Edit-2509-Q6_K.gguf, use the same command. Import streams all tensors into CMF, retains floating-point weights exactly and converts quantized matrices to the requested --quant (default q8, using row and column scales for Qwen Image). The resulting CMF contains the transformer and its configuration; the source GGUF's separate text encoder and VAE are not bundled, and Qwen Image generation is not yet implemented by cortiq imagine.

The CLI also exposes info, bench, ppl, serve, skill, moe-mask, moe-defrag, requant, compact, sign, imagine, animate and ltx-video. Run cortiq <command> --help for flags and current limitations.

What a CMF file contains

• A fixed 128-byte envelope addressing every section.
• Header JSON with architecture, quantization defaults, chat metadata and provenance.
• A binary tensor directory with dtype, shape, offsets, lengths and hash64.
• A page-aligned weight blob that can be memory-mapped and read in place.
• Optional task masks, skill replacement tensors, tokenizer bytes and sparse indexes.

cortiq verify fails on malformed bounds or a hash mismatch; python/cmf_reader.py is a small independent reader for inspection. The normative layout is in the CMF v2 specification.

Quantization

Quantization is selected per tensor, so sensitive tensors can stay at a higher precision while large matrix blocks use a compact codec.

See Q1T/PTQ for the experimental low-bit path and the quantization coverage matrix for codec support by execution path.

Runtime capabilities

• CPU inference: portable Rust implementation with memory-mapped weights.
• GPU inference: native Metal on macOS and wgpu backends (Vulkan/DX12) where the device and build support them. Use CMF_GPU=1 to request GPU.
• Long context: optional --o1 attention uses fixed-size state and trades memory growth for a measured quality delta; measure on your model.
• Skills: one backbone can carry task masks and replacement-tensor overlays; inactive overlays do not need a second full model copy.
• MoE: task masks and physical defragmentation can reduce the active expert set. Validate perplexity on held-out data before shipping a restriction.
• Speculative decode: supported MTP/draft paths are enabled only where the model metadata and measured acceptance make them useful.
• Serving: cortiq serve provides an OpenAI-compatible local HTTP API.
• Media: imagine, animate and ltx-video pack model assets and run image, video or audio-capable pipelines when their model guides apply.

Platforms and model families

Native conversion covers Qwen, Llama, Mistral, Gemma, Phi, DeepSeek, Kimi Linear, MiniCPM and several MoE/video families. Model-specific constraints and published files are indexed in the model guides. For an unsupported checkpoint, try import-gguf and file a reproducible issue if it fails.

Focused documentation

• CMF v2 specification — normative file layout.
• Format comparison — criteria and evidence.
• Skills — masks, overlays and routing workflows.
• GPU kernel recipes — backend measurements.
• Multi-GPU execution and mobile split.
• FCD restoration and low-bit PTQ.
• Model cards and conversion notes.
• Cortiq Spectra — deterministic CPU streaming colorization for dual-energy X-ray captures, scanner profiles, refusal masks, and measured limits (Russian).

Build from source

cargo build --release --workspace
cargo build --release -p cortiq-cli --no-default-features  # CPU-only CLI
cargo test --workspace

The workspace is Apache-2.0. Read LICENSE, PATENTS.md, CONTRIBUTING.md and SECURITY.md before redistributing or reporting a vulnerability. Releases and checksums are listed on the GitHub releases page.