Tao Generate Anomalies logo

Tao Generate Anomalies

Organization
NVIDIA-TAO
tao-generate-anomalies

Full PAIDF AnomalyGen pipeline — fine-tune on a new anomaly dataset, generate synthetic anomaly images (SDG), evaluate quality (nn_score), and search per-sample (guidance, crop_ratio) parameters. Three modes: full (Phase 0→7: finetune then generate), finetune_only (Phase 0→1: train only), inference_only (Phase 0, 2→7: generate from an existing checkpoint). Use when the user asks to "fine-tune AnomalyGen", "generate anomaly images", "run PAIDF SDG", "evaluate SDG output quality", "run per-sample search", or run any part of the AnomalyGen pipeline, even if they only mention one phase.

Overview

PublisherNVIDIA-TAO
Repositorytao-skill-bank
Skill nametao-generate-anomalies
Stars
98
Forks
28
Bundled files
20
LicenseApache-2.0
Links
  • Markdown instructions

    A SKILL.md file the model loads on demand, so it only costs tokens when a request actually matches.

  • Works with any LLM

    AI skills are plain Markdown, not provider-specific code, so this works with GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or a local model.

  • 20 bundled files

    Scripts, templates, and references the model can read while it works. Files are read-only and never executed.

  • Open source

    Published by NVIDIA-TAO on GitHub. Read the source before you install it.

Installation

Install the Tao Generate Anomalies AI skill in TypingMind to use it with any LLM, or drop it into another agent that reads SKILL.md.

1

Install in TypingMind

TypingMind installs a skill straight from its GitHub folder — it reads SKILL.md, bundles the resource files, and stores the result locally.

  1. Open the app and go to Plugins → Skills.
  2. Choose "Install from GitHub".
  3. Paste the skill folder URL below and confirm.
    https://github.com/NVIDIA-TAO/tao-skill-bank/tree/main/skills/data/tao-generate-anomalies
  4. Enable the skill in any chat where you want it available.
Plugins → Skills → Add skill → From GitHub URL, then paste the folder URL and press Continue.
2

Install in another agent

Any agent that reads the Agent Skills format can use this skill — copy the folder into that agent's skills directory.

Claude Code — .claude/skills
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/NVIDIA-TAO/tao-skill-bank.git /tmp/tao-skill-bank
mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/tao-skill-bank/skills/data/tao-generate-anomalies .claude/skills/tao-generate-anomalies
Restart Claude Code after copying so it picks up the new skill.

Use it in TypingMind

Enable Tao Generate Anomalies in any TypingMind chat and the model takes it from there. Its name and description sit in the system prompt, and the moment a request matches, the model loads the full instructions itself — you never invoke it by hand, and it costs no tokens until it is actually used.

The model loads Tao Generate Anomalies on its own as soon as a request matches it.

Works with any AI model

AI skills are plain Markdown instructions rather than provider-specific code, so Tao Generate Anomalies is not tied to the model it was written for. Install it once in TypingMind and use it with GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama, or a local model you run yourself — all on your own API keys.

  • Loaded only when it is needed

    The system prompt carries just the name and description. The instructions are fetched on the first matching request, so an idle skill costs nothing.

  • Switch models mid-chat

    Because the skill is instructions rather than code, changing model does not break it — the next model reads the same SKILL.md.

Skill instructions

This is the SKILL.md content the model loads. Read it before installing — a skill is instructions your model will follow.

TAO Generate Anomalies

Standalone install? If this session was not initialized by the TAO skill bank plugin, run the tao-setup skill first (host preflight, credentials, cross-skill discovery).

Multi-phase pipeline (0–7); the mode flag selects which phases run.

PhaseWhat runsMode(s)
0Verify / download pretrained checkpointsall
1Fine-tune on dataset_dirfull, finetune_only
2Prepare inference JSONL (AMP routing)full, inference_only
3SDG — generate synthetic anomaly images → original/full, inference_only
4Eval original/ — emit per_sample.csv + eval.log, merge nn_score into SDG_result.csvfull, inference_only
5Per-sample (guidance, crop_ratio) search rounds → rounds/round_NN/ (each round runs SDG + eval)full, inference_only
6Assemble best-of-rounds into searched/ (stitch only), plus rounds/search_summary.csvfull, inference_only
7Filter searched/ by nn_threshold (default 0.4), regen dropped samples, then canonical bucket eval → searched/{per_sample.csv, eval.log}full, inference_only

Run every phase through to completion without mid-run pauses. Collect all required parameters up front, and run every command from the repo root.

Shell setup. All ${ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS} references resolve to the packaged helper-script directory. Inside the container this is preset (ENV ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS=<dir>/scripts/utilities); on the host, export it once per shell:

bash
export ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/scripts/utilities"

python3 -m scripts.utilities.<name> invocations work from any CWD inside the container (PYTHONPATH is preset) and from the repo root on the host. When inside a product container (ANOMALYGEN_PRODUCT_MODE=1), invoke anomalygen-guard before any GPU work; if it reports BLOCKED, fix the listed issues before continuing.

Quick Start

The pipeline runs inside the metropolis_sdg.paidf_anomalygen container (declared in versions.yaml) or any host with the cosmos-predict2 conda env active. All phase commands assume that environment, at the repo root, with ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS exported.

Minimal end-to-end run (mode=full):

bash
# 1. Set the shared variables (see "Shared variables" for the full set).
export ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/scripts/utilities"
MODE=full
NAME=my_exp
DATASET_DIR=/data/uc1
DEFECT_DESC=assets/defect_spec_template.jsonl
NUM_SDG=20
MODEL_SIZE=2b

# 2. Phase 0 — verify / download checkpoints (~40 GB for the 2B default; needs HF_TOKEN).
${ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS}/check.sh --model-sizes ${MODEL_SIZE^^} \
    || ${ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS}/download_checkpoints.sh --model-sizes ${MODEL_SIZE^^}

# 3. Walk Phases 1→7 in order (see each Phase section).

For mode=inference_only (reuse a checkpoint) also set CKPT/STEP and skip Phase 1. For mode=finetune_only run only Phases 0–1.

Running in Docker — container launch, mounts & permissions

The paidf-anomalygen image runs as a non-root baked-in user (USER anomalygen, uid=10000), independent of your host uid. Docker does not remap uids on bind mounts, so a host directory owned by your uid is not writable by uid 10000 and the container fails the instant it tries to create a file there. Run with the full host identity: --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)", matching USER/LOGNAME, HOME=/tmp, and read-only /etc/passwd+/etc/group mounts, plus the cache redirects. Run the fail-fast write preflight before Phase 0. See references/docker.md for the full docker run command, the load-bearing-flag table, the preflight snippet, and the uid-10000 chown/chmod fallback.

Reference files — read before executing phases

Read references/finetune.md before Phase 0/1 and references/inference.md before any of Phases 2–7; for mode=full read both before starting. The remaining references below are on-demand — read when troubleshooting or needing full detail for a specific phase.

FileRead when
references/finetune.mdBefore Phase 0/1: env check, checkpoint download, dataset validation, config generation, training commands, best-checkpoint selection
references/finetune-commands.mdExact Phase 1 Step 1–4 commands and CKPT/STEP derivation
references/inference-commands.mdExact Phase 5 run_round.sh and Phase 7 filter_with_regen commands
references/inference.mdBefore Phases 2–7: AMP routing, JSONL validation, SDG flags, eval interpretation, search loop, filtering
references/setup.mdCheckpoint download fails; first-time setup; HF_TOKEN / disk issues
references/datasets.mdUser needs to prepare or obtain a UC1 / UC2 / UC3 dataset; dataset_dir doesn't exist yet
references/prep-testcase.mdAMP fails; need full param table, helper script descriptions, allocation invariant
references/sdg-inference.mdNCCL hang; checkpoint validation error; multi-GPU VRAM question; full step list
references/eval.mdUnexpected scores; FID column order confusion; eval output format reference
references/sdg-refine.mddraws.json alignment; re-AMP heuristics; search output layout
references/guard-and-custom-counts.mdFull guard preflight command; --per-defect-counts example
references/docker.mdContainer launch command, mount-permission flags, write preflight, uid-10000 fallback
references/output-layout.mdFull results/<name>/ directory tree with per-file annotations; post-run Verification checklist
references/error-handling.mdPipeline-level failure modes: missing mask dirs, short/empty AMP, mid-round resume, off-boundary step

Required parameters

num_SDG allocation depends on prep_testcase.sh --mode: inference (default, Phase 2) is uniform across defect types, override per-defect via --per-defect-counts; validation (Phase 1's validation JSONL) is proportional to training mask counts (largest-remainder rounding) and enforces ≥1 per defect. See references/prep-testcase.md for the full mode table.

ParameterDescription
modefull (Phase 0→7), inference_only (skip Phase 1), or finetune_only (Phase 0→1 only).
nameExperiment label.
dataset_dirTraining/reference dataset root. Drives mask-count allocation, AMP submask templates, and holds semantic_segmentation_labels.json for cad defects.
defect_specJSONL tagging each defect spatial_dependency as free/text/cad. text entries need roi_prompt_defect_location. Template: assets/defect_spec_template.jsonl.
num_SDGTotal output samples per bucket. (Ignored when mode=finetune_only.)

Conditionally required

ParameterRequired whenDescription
checkpoint_dir / stepmode=inference_onlyPre-existing fine-tuned model. In mode=full these are auto-derived after Phase 1; passing them is an error. In mode=finetune_only silently ignored — Phase 1 always trains from scratch (no resume-from-checkpoint support). Both must be present together — supplying only one is an error.

Optional parameters

ParameterDefaultDescription
clean_dirdataset_dirClean images. Set only when they live outside the training dataset. Forwarded as --clean-dir to prep-testcase and --clean-image-path to finetune.
validation_jsonlauto-generatedPre-built validation JSONL for Phase 1. When supplied, preflight verifies every defect_spec type appears and paths exist.
num_search_run3Per-sample search budget for Phase 5. 0 skips search (only original/). (Ignored when mode=finetune_only.)
nn_threshold0.4nn_score cutoff for Phase 7 (DINOv2 correspondence to real defects — key KPI). Samples below are regenerated; final searched/ always has num_SDG. 0 disables filtering.
max_iter75000Phase 1 only. Total fine-tune iterations.
save_iter5000Phase 1 only. Checkpoint save interval.
validation_iter5000Phase 1 only. Validation (nn_score) logging interval.
num_gpus1Forwarded to Phase 1 (finetune) and Phase 3 (SDG). Eval and search rounds stay single-GPU.
model_size2b2b or 14b. Used by finetune and SDG. On-disk checkpoint path encodes in upper-case (2b→2B, 14b→14B).
lr0.02Phase 1 only. Learning rate.
batch_size2Phase 1 only. Per-GPU batch size.
image_size512Phase 1 only. Training resolution (square).
guidance_range1.5 10.0Phase 5 search draw range for guidance.
crop_ratio_range1.5 10.0Phase 5 search draw range for crop_ratio.

Mode validation (fail fast before any phase)

  • mode unset → halt: "mode is required (full | inference_only | finetune_only)."
  • mode=inference_only missing either checkpoint_dir or step → halt: "inference_only requires both checkpoint_dir and step."
  • mode=full with checkpoint_dir or step supplied → halt: "full mode runs finetune; use mode=inference_only to reuse an existing checkpoint."

Shared variables

Set once before Phase 0:

bash
MODE=<full|inference_only|finetune_only>
NAME=<exp>
DATASET_DIR=<dataset_dir>
CLEAN_DIR=${clean_dir:-${DATASET_DIR}}
CKPT=<checkpoint_dir>      # required iff MODE=inference_only; auto-derived after Phase 1 when MODE=full
STEP=<iter>                # required iff MODE=inference_only; auto-derived after Phase 1 when MODE=full
NUM_SDG=<N>
DEFECT_DESC=<defect_spec.jsonl>
DEFECTS=(T+A T+B)          # TEXTURE+TYPE names. For mode=inference_only, derive from ${CKPT}/ag_config.yaml → dataloader_train.dataset.anomaly_types (also printed by validate_checkpoint.py in Phase 0). For mode=full, take from DEFECT_DESC entries. See references/inference.md §Phase 0.
NUM_SEARCH_RUN=${num_search_run:-3}
NN_THRESHOLD=${nn_threshold:-0.4}
MODEL_SIZE=<2b|14b>
NUM_GPUS=${num_gpus:-1}
MAX_ITER=${max_iter:-75000}
SAVE_ITER=${save_iter:-5000}
VALIDATION_ITER=${validation_iter:-5000}
LR=${lr:-0.02}
BATCH_SIZE=${batch_size:-2}
IMAGE_SIZE=${image_size:-512}
VALIDATION_JSONL=${validation_jsonl:-}  # optional; set by Phase 1 Step 2 if not user-supplied

BASE=results/${NAME}
JSONL=ag_inference/${NAME}/testcase.jsonl
ORIGINAL=${BASE}/original
SEARCHED=${BASE}/searched
ROUNDS=${BASE}/rounds
REGENS=${BASE}/regens

Guard preflight (product mode only)

When ANOMALYGEN_PRODUCT_MODE=1, run .agents/skills/anomalygen-guard/scripts/preflight.py before any GPU work and fix any BLOCKED issues. --validation-jsonl is forwarded only when the user supplied one; for MODE=finetune_only omit --num-sdg if not supplied. See references/guard-and-custom-counts.md for the full preflight command with all forwarded flags and the validation-JSONL / allocate_samples.py 0-entry checks.


Phase 0 — checkpoints

Read references/finetune.md §Phase 0 for HF_TOKEN requirements and what gets downloaded. Both scripts default to the 2B base + t5-large (~40 GB); pass --model-sizes ${MODEL_SIZE^^} so the chain checks and fetches the base size this run actually uses (2b→2B, 14b→14B) — otherwise a 14b run silently passes the 2B-only check and never downloads its checkpoint. Verify first; download only what is missing.

bash
${ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS}/check.sh --model-sizes ${MODEL_SIZE^^} \
    || ${ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS}/download_checkpoints.sh --model-sizes ${MODEL_SIZE^^}

Phase 1 — fine-tune (skip when MODE=inference_only)

Read references/finetune.md §Phase 1 for dataset structure, config template details, and best-checkpoint selection. Four steps: (1) validate dataset / derive anomaly types, (2) generate the validation JSONL (skip if user supplied VALIDATION_JSONL), (3) generate the training config — show it to the user and confirm before writing — (4) launch training in the background. Then derive CKPT (path encodes upper-case MODEL_SIZE) and STEP (highest nn_score step from validation logs). If MODE=finetune_only, stop after training. See references/finetune-commands.md for the exact Step 1–4 commands and the CKPT/STEP derivation snippet.


Phase 2 — prep-testcase (skip when MODE=finetune_only)

Read references/inference.md §Phase 2 for AMP routing detail and n_seeds sizing. Do NOT pass --seeds — it is auto-computed and is not a recognized flag. prep_testcase.sh defaults to --mode inference (uniform allocation across defect types, no KPI floor), which Phase 2 always uses.

bash
${ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS}/prep_testcase.sh \
    --name ${NAME} --num-sdg ${NUM_SDG} \
    --dataset-dir ${DATASET_DIR} \
    --clean-dir ${CLEAN_DIR} \
    --defect-spec ${DEFECT_DESC} \
    --amp-output-dir ag_inference/${NAME}/amp \
    --output-jsonl ${JSONL}

Custom per-defect counts: when the user specifies counts per defect type, translate to --num-sdg plus a --per-defect-counts JSON dict (types absent from the dict get 0; sum should equal --num-sdg, else the script warns on stderr and uses the override sum). Confirm the allocation when intent is ambiguous. See references/guard-and-custom-counts.md for the full --per-defect-counts command example and the ambiguity-handling detail.


Phase 3 — SDG → original/

Read references/inference.md §Phase 3 for JSONL validation against the checkpoint, multi-GPU caveats, and output verification.

bash
python3 -m scripts.utilities.validate_checkpoint ${CKPT} --step ${STEP}
python3 -m scripts.utilities.validate_jsonl ${CKPT} ${JSONL}

${ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS}/run_sdg.sh \
    --checkpoint_dir ${CKPT} --step ${STEP} \
    --input_jsonl ${JSONL} --output_dir ${ORIGINAL} \
    --model_size ${MODEL_SIZE} --num_gpus ${NUM_GPUS}

${ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS}/verify_output.sh ${JSONL} ${ORIGINAL}

Phase 4 — eval original/

Read references/inference.md §Eval for score interpretation and feature-count explanation. run_eval.sh writes per_sample.csv and eval.log inside original/ and merges nn_score into SDG_result.csv.

bash
${ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS}/run_eval.sh \
    --real-path ${DATASET_DIR} --generated-path ${ORIGINAL} \
    --anomaly-types ${DEFECTS[@]}

Phase 5 — per-sample search rounds

Read references/inference.md §Phase 5 for draw strategy, ranges, and re-AMP guidance. For r in 1..NUM_SEARCH_RUN:

  1. Read prior round's per_sample.csv (or ${ORIGINAL}/per_sample.csv for r=1).
  2. Write ${ROUNDS}/round_${r}/draws.json with selected (guidance, crop_ratio) per sample.
  3. Run round via ${ANOMALYGEN_SCRIPTS}/run_round.sh (SDG + eval; the round dir gets its own sdg/{SDG_result.csv, per_sample.csv, eval.log}). See references/inference-commands.md §Phase 5 for the full command and flags.

NUM_SEARCH_RUN=0 is valid — skip this phase entirely and let Phase 6 clone original/ into searched/.


Phase 6 — assemble searched/ (stitch only)

Always run assemble (works with 0 rounds — searched/ clones original/, so downstream always reads searched/ regardless of num_search_run). Stitch-only: copies winning images per sample-index into searched/ and carries over per-sample nn_score / mnn_score from each pick's source-round per_sample.csv. No eval — Phase 7 emits the canonical searched/eval.log.

bash
mkdir -p ${ROUNDS}
python3 -m scripts.utilities.assemble_searched \
    --original-dir ${ORIGINAL} --original-csv ${ORIGINAL}/per_sample.csv \
    --rounds-dir ${ROUNDS} --searched-dir ${SEARCHED}

Phase 7 — filter + regen + eval (default nn_threshold=0.4)

Phase 7 runs by default (nn_threshold=0.4) on every mode=full and mode=inference_only invocation; pass nn_threshold=0 to skip it. It filters searched/ by nn_threshold, regenerates dropped samples via re-AMP (fresh (clean, submask) pairing in the same defect type) for up to 5 attempts, then falls back to best-scoring non-passing regens and finally to dropped originals, so the final bucket always equals num_SDG.

Run python3 -m scripts.utilities.filter_with_regen. Pass --allocation ag_inference/${NAME}/allocation.json so regen targets the intended per-defect counts — without it a bucket left short (e.g. by an interrupted SDG) cannot be topped back up to num_SDG. It runs the final run_eval.sh internally — the only eval against searched/. Read references/inference.md §Phase 7 for regen mechanics, source-column tracing, and the regens/regen_summary.csv schema; see references/inference-commands.md §Phase 7 for the full command and flags.


Output layout

Every bucket that gets eval'd carries the same triad of files: SDG_result.csv (generation params + nn_score + guardrail_pass), per_sample.csv (per-sample nn + mnn), and eval.log (aggregate FID / per-defect avg). Buckets live under results/<name>/ as original/ (Phase 3+4), searched/ (Phase 6 stitch + Phase 7 filter+regen+eval), rounds/round_NN/ (Phase 5, plus search_summary.csv), and regens/regen_NN/ (Phase 7, plus regen_summary.csv).

Image content guardrail. A SigLIP content-safety check runs on every generated image and records its verdict in SDG_result.csv.guardrail_pass (1 safe / 0 blocked). A blocked image is replaced with an all-black image that still occupies its slot on disk, so counting files cannot detect it — never hand a guardrail_pass=0 sample downstream. Blacked-out samples score near-zero nn_score, so Phase 7 regenerates them like any other sub-threshold sample. Disable with ANOMALYGEN_IMAGE_GUARDRAIL=0.

See references/output-layout.md for the full directory tree with per-file annotations, the guardrail semantics, and the post-run Verification checklist (image counts per bucket, search_summary.csv / regen_summary.csv row checks, the per-type nn_score / mnn_score / fid fields in each eval.log, and the guardrail_pass sweep).

Error handling

Common pipeline failure modes (missing mask dirs, short/empty AMP output and the 0 entries written halt, mid-round SDG failure resume, off-boundary step, validate_dataset.py's non-zero exit on any pairing issue, the 2B-only check.sh default, and guardrail-blocked black images) are covered in references/error-handling.md; see also references/finetune.md and references/inference.md for phase-specific error handling.

Bundled files

The model reads these on demand while the skill is loaded. They are exposed as readable files and are never executed.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Tao Generate Anomalies AI skill do?

Full PAIDF AnomalyGen pipeline — fine-tune on a new anomaly dataset, generate synthetic anomaly images (SDG), evaluate quality (nn_score), and search per-sample (guidance, crop_ratio) parameters. Three modes: full (Phase 0→7: finetune then generate), finetune_only (Phase 0→1: train only), inference_only (Phase 0, 2→7: generate from an existing checkpoint). Use when the user asks to "fine-tune AnomalyGen", "generate anomaly images", "run PAIDF SDG", "evaluate SDG output quality", "run per-sample search", or run any part of the AnomalyGen pipeline, even if they only mention one phase.

Why use Tao Generate Anomalies on TypingMind?

Because you install it once and use it with any model. Tao Generate Anomalies is plain Markdown rather than provider-specific code, so the same skill runs on GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or a local model — and you can switch model mid-chat without it breaking. TypingMind runs on your own API keys, so you pay providers directly instead of a per-seat subscription, and your skills and chats stay in your own storage.

How do I install Tao Generate Anomalies in TypingMind?

Open Plugins → Skills → Install from GitHub in TypingMind and paste https://github.com/NVIDIA-TAO/tao-skill-bank/tree/main/skills/data/tao-generate-anomalies. TypingMind reads its SKILL.md and bundles its files and installs it as a skill you can enable per chat.

Which AI models can use Tao Generate Anomalies?

Any model you connect in TypingMind. AI skills are plain Markdown instructions rather than provider-specific code, so GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, and local models can all load this skill when a request matches it.

How many AI models can I use with Tao Generate Anomalies?

As many as you like. As long as a model supports skills, you can use Tao Generate Anomalies with it — GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama and more — all on TypingMind with your own API keys.

Is the Tao Generate Anomalies AI skill free?

Yes. It is published on GitHub by NVIDIA-TAO under the Apache-2.0 license. You only pay your own AI provider for the tokens you use.

What are AI skills?

An AI skill is a reusable instruction bundle that teaches an AI model how to do one specific task. It follows the open Agent Skills format: a SKILL.md file with a name and description, plus any scripts, templates or reference files the model may need. The model reads the instructions only when your request matches the skill, so an installed skill costs nothing until it is used.

How are AI skills different from plugins or MCP servers?

A plugin or MCP server gives a model new tools to call — code that runs somewhere and returns a result. An AI skill gives the model knowledge and process instead: how to approach a task, which steps to follow, what good output looks like. Skills are plain Markdown, so they need no server, no API key and no runtime, and they work with any model.

View all

Set up your own AI workspace now

Get notified about new features and future giveaways by subscribing to our newsletter 👇