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Requirements for a Nexus Package

1. Introduction

This document outlines the requirements for defining a Nexus package and the models it contains. A Nexus package encapsulates a Python package together with its associated models, providing standardized metadata for validation, testing, benchmarking, and integration within the Algorithm Nexus ecosystem. When mentioning model we always refer to a Hugging Face repository hosting the model documentation and weights.

2. Core Requirements

REQ-1: Python Packages Used in Nexus

A Python package must fulfill a set of requirements to guarantee it can be properly integrated with Nexus.

  • REQ-1.1 (Release): A Python package must must provide versioned releases, using any versioning scheme as long as it guarantees that increasing version numbers represent newer releases. The releases must be published on GitHub or PyPI.
  • REQ-1.2 (Owner): Each Python package must define at least one maintainer. This will be considered as owner of the Nexus package.
  • REQ-1.3 (Metadata): Each Python package must include a description and link to documentation in the released wheel.
  • REQ-1.4 (Dependencies): Each Python package must define all dependencies required for use and testing.

REQ-2: Nexus Package Definition

A Nexus package must allow for the following information to be recorded:

  • REQ-2.1 (Python Package): A Nexus package must provide the PyPI package name or GitHub repository name, which serves as the identifier within Algorithm Nexus.

  • REQ-2.2 (Python Package Version): A Nexus package may provide the version of the python package to be used for dependency resolution.

  • REQ-2.3 (Supported Models): A Nexus package must have a mechanism to define the models it supports.

  • REQ-2.4 (Agent skills): A Nexus package may specify agent skills for using the python package, either directly embedded in the Nexus package (e.g. AGENTS.md) or as a link to existing skills on an external repository.

REQ-3: Model Definition

Each model contained in a Nexus package allows recording the operational artifacts required for integration into Algorithm Nexus.

  • REQ-3.1 (Identifier): The model Hugging Face repository name serves as the identifier (for example, ibm-esa-geospatial/TerraMind-base-Flood).

  • REQ-3.2 (Testing): Each model must provide the artifacts required for testing the model, as defined in Requirements for Model Testing.

  • REQ-3.3 (Benchmarking): Each model may provide the artifacts required for benchmarking, such as scripts and any model-specific benchmarking requirements.

  • REQ-3.4 (Owner): Each model must have a designated owner. By default, the owner of the Nexus package will be the the owner of each model unless a specific owner is given.

REQ-4: Artifact Specification

A Nexus package must allow specifying additional, optional, artifacts and information that support integration with agent frameworks and serving runtimes.

  • REQ-4.1 (Model Usage): A model must have a mechanism to provide usage documentation to help users get started.

  • REQ-4.2 (Agent Integration): A Nexus package must have a mechanism to provide usage documentation for the integration with one or more supported agent frameworks, protocols, or model-tool interaction interfaces.

  • REQ-4.3 (vLLM Integration): A model must have a mechanism to provide information related to serving the model with vllm, including any vllm-specific plugins required in the Python environment used for serving.

3. Notes

  • Benchmarking and testing requirements may be unified in the future, depending on the outcomes of issues #8 and #18.