# Nnsight Remote Interpretability

Provides guidance for interpreting and manipulating neural network internals using...

- Repository: https://github.com/Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs (14176 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill nnsight-remote-interpretability -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill nnsight-remote-interpretability -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill nnsight-remote-interpretability -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill nnsight-remote-interpretability -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs`

## Description

Provides guidance for interpreting and manipulating neural network internals using nnsight with optional NDIF remote execution. Use when needing to run interpretability experiments on massive models (70B+) without local GPU resources, or when working with any PyTorch architecture.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# nnsight: Transparent Access to Neural Network Internals

nnsight (/ɛn.saɪt/) enables researchers to interpret and manipulate the internals of any PyTorch model, with the unique capability of running the same code locally on small models or remotely on massive models (70B+) via NDIF.

**GitHub**: [ndif-team/nnsight](https://github.com/ndif-team/nnsight) (730+ stars)
**Paper**: [NNsight and NDIF: Democratizing Access to Foundation Model Internals](https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.14561) (ICLR 2025)

## Key Value Proposition

**Write once, run anywhere**: The same interpretability code works on GPT-2 locally or Llama-3.1-405B remotely. Just toggle `remote=True`.

```python
# Local execution (small model)
with model.trace("Hello world"):
    hidden = model.transformer.h[5].output[0].save()

# Remote execution (massive model) - same code!
with model.trace("Hello world", remote=True):
    hidden = model.model.layers[40].output[0].save()
```

## When to Use nnsight

**Use nnsight when you need to:**
- Run interpretability experiments on models too large for local GPUs (70B, 405B)
- Work with any PyTorch architecture (transformers, Mamba, custom models)
- Perform multi-token generation interventions
- Share activations between different prompts
- Access full model internals without reimplementation

**Consider alternatives when:**
- You want consistent API across models → Use **TransformerLens**
- You need declarative, shareable interventions → Use **pyvene**
- You're training SAEs → Use **SAELens**
- You only work with small models locally → **TransformerLens** may be simpler

## Installation

```bash
# Basic installation
pip install nnsight

# For vLLM support
pip install "nnsight[vllm]"
```

For remote NDIF execution, sign up at [login.ndif.us](https://login.ndif.us) for an API key.

## Core Concepts

### LanguageModel Wrapper

```python
from nnsight import LanguageModel

The rest: https://github.com/Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs/blob/HEAD/04-mechanistic-interpretability/nnsight/SKILL.md