unslothai/unsloth · error · ValueError

Local pipeline path is not a diffusers directory (no {' or '

Error message

Local pipeline path is not a diffusers directory (no {' or '.join(indexes)}): {repo_id}

What it means

Raised when model_kind='pipeline' and repo_id exists on disk but is not a diffusers pipeline directory: it lacks model_index.json (or, for modular_workflow families, both model_index.json and modular_model_index.json). A local pipeline pick must be a real diffusers layout or the load would only fail after the resident model had been evicted — hence the early gate.

Source

Thrown at studio/backend/core/inference/video.py:1257

                    raise ValueError(
                        f"Local checkpoint '{repo_id}' is not a .safetensors file; a "
                        f"'single_file' load needs a .safetensors checkpoint."
                    )
            elif path_shaped:
                raise ValueError(f"Local model path '{repo_id}' does not exist.")
        # A local pipeline pick must be a diffusers directory (model_index.json), else it would only fail after eviction.
        if kind == "pipeline":
            root = Path(repo_id).expanduser()
            # Gate on .exists() (not .is_dir()) so a local FILE picked as a pipeline is rejected too.
            indexes = (
                ("model_index.json", "modular_model_index.json")
                if fam.modular_workflow
                else ("model_index.json",)
            )
            if root.exists() and not (
                root.is_dir() and any((root / name).is_file() for name in indexes)
            ):
                raise ValueError(
                    f"Local pipeline path is not a diffusers directory "
                    f"(no {' or '.join(indexes)}): {repo_id}"
                )
        # Reject a malformed transformer_quant cheaply, before the handoff (pipeline-kind only, matching the image backend).
        normalize_transformer_quant(transformer_quant)
        # Reject a malformed text_encoder_quant the same way. Every kind: an unsupported scheme is
        # a bad request regardless of whether this family has a hosted quantized encoder for it.
        normalize_te_quant(text_encoder_quant)
        _ensure_mp4_encoder_available()
        return fam

    # ── background load + progress ───────────────────────────────────────────

    def begin_load(
        self,
        repo_id: str,
        *,
        gguf_filename: Optional[str] = None,

View on GitHub (pinned to 203007d190)

Solutions

1. Download the complete pipeline snapshot (hf download <repo> --local-dir ...) so model_index.json is present at the top level.
2. Check you are pointing at the directory that CONTAINS model_index.json, not a subfolder of it (e.g. not the transformer/ subfolder).
3. If you only have a single checkpoint file, load it with model_kind='gguf' or 'single_file' instead of 'pipeline'.
4. For modular workflows, ensure the export produced modular_model_index.json.

Example fix

# before: loose safetensors dir
load(repo_id='/data/loose-ckpts', model_kind='pipeline')

# after
# hf download Wan2.5 --local-dir /data/wan25-pipe
load(repo_id='/data/wan25-pipe', model_kind='pipeline')  # has model_index.json

from pathlib import Path
root = Path(repo_id).expanduser()
indexes = (('model_index.json', 'modular_model_index.json') if fam.modular_workflow
           else ('model_index.json',))
if root.exists() and not (root.is_dir() and any((root / n).is_file() for n in indexes)):
    raise ValueError(f'{repo_id} is not a diffusers pipeline directory')  # client-side

def is_pipeline_dir(repo_id: str, modular: bool) -> bool:
    root = Path(repo_id).expanduser()
    idx = ('model_index.json', 'modular_model_index.json') if modular else ('model_index.json',)
    return root.is_dir() and any((root / n).is_file() for n in idx)

When it happens

Trigger: load(repo_id='/data/wan25-safetensors-dir', model_kind='pipeline') where the directory holds raw .safetensors files but no model_index.json; also when repo_id is a local FILE picked as a pipeline (root.exists() but not a dir with an index).

Common situations: Pointing at a folder of loose checkpoint files instead of the full pipeline snapshot; incomplete huggingface download that skipped model_index.json; extracted archives missing the top-level folder; modular model directories missing modular_model_index.json.

Related errors

• Local pipeline directory has no model_index.json: {repo_id}
• {exc}
• Local checkpoint '{repo_id}' is not a .gguf file; a 'gguf' l
• Local checkpoint '{repo_id}' is not a .safetensors file; a '
• Local model path '{repo_id}' does not exist.

AI-assisted analysis of unslothai/unsloth@203007d190 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0ce141a9bd507ce1. Report an issue: GitHub.