Allow users to pass arbitrary JSON keys from CLI (#18208)

Signed-off-by: Harry Mellor <19981378+hmellor@users.noreply.github.com>

tests/engine/test_arg_utils.py

@@ -181,8 +181,8 @@ def test_get_kwargs():
     # literals of literals should have merged choices
     assert kwargs["literal_literal"]["choices"] == [1, 2]
     # dict should have json tip in help
-    json_tip = "\n\nShould be a valid JSON string."
+    json_tip = "Should either be a valid JSON string or JSON keys"
-    assert kwargs["json_tip"]["help"].endswith(json_tip)
+    assert json_tip in kwargs["json_tip"]["help"]
     # nested config should should construct the nested config
     assert kwargs["nested_config"]["type"]('{"field": 2}') == NestedConfig(2)
     # from_cli configs should be constructed with the correct method

tests/test_utils.py

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 import asyncio
 import hashlib
+import json
 import pickle
 import socket
 from collections.abc import AsyncIterator
@@ -138,6 +139,7 @@ def parser():
     parser.add_argument('--model-name')
     parser.add_argument('--batch-size', type=int)
     parser.add_argument('--enable-feature', action='store_true')
+    parser.add_argument('--hf-overrides', type=json.loads)
     return parser
 
 
@@ -251,6 +253,29 @@ def test_no_model_tag(parser_with_config, cli_config_file):
         parser_with_config.parse_args(['serve', '--config', cli_config_file])
 
 
+def test_dict_args(parser):
+    args = [
+        "--model-name=something.something",
+        "--hf-overrides.key1",
+        "val1",
+        "--hf-overrides.key2.key3",
+        "val2",
+        "--hf-overrides.key2.key4",
+        "val3",
+        "--hf-overrides.key5=val4",
+    ]
+    parsed_args = parser.parse_args(args)
+    assert parsed_args.model_name == "something.something"
+    assert parsed_args.hf_overrides == {
+        "key1": "val1",
+        "key2": {
+            "key3": "val2",
+            "key4": "val3",
+        },
+        "key5": "val4",
+    }
+
+
 # yapf: enable
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "callable,kw_name,requires_kw_only,allow_var_kwargs,is_supported",

vllm/engine/arg_utils.py

@@ -183,7 +183,11 @@ def get_kwargs(cls: ConfigType) -> dict[str, Any]:
         kwargs[name] = {"default": default, "help": help}
 
         # Set other kwargs based on the type hints
-        json_tip = "\n\nShould be a valid JSON string."
+        json_tip = """\n\nShould either be a valid JSON string or JSON keys
+        passed individually. For example, the following sets of arguments are
+        equivalent:\n\n
+        - `--json-arg '{"key1": "value1", "key2": {"key3": "value2"}}'`\n
+        - `--json-arg.key1 value1 --json-arg.key2.key3 value2`\n\n"""
         if dataclass_cls is not None:
             dataclass_init = lambda x, f=dataclass_cls: f(**json.loads(x))
             # Special case for configs with a from_cli method

vllm/utils.py

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import importlib.metadata
 import importlib.util
 import inspect
 import ipaddress
+import json
 import multiprocessing
 import os
 import pickle
@@ -1419,6 +1420,51 @@ class FlexibleArgumentParser(ArgumentParser):
             else:
                 processed_args.append(arg)
 
+        def create_nested_dict(keys: list[str], value: str):
+            """Creates a nested dictionary from a list of keys and a value.
+
+            For example, `keys = ["a", "b", "c"]` and `value = 1` will create:
+            `{"a": {"b": {"c": 1}}}`
+            """
+            nested_dict: Any = value
+            for key in reversed(keys):
+                nested_dict = {key: nested_dict}
+            return nested_dict
+
+        def recursive_dict_update(original: dict, update: dict):
+            """Recursively updates a dictionary with another dictionary."""
+            for k, v in update.items():
+                if isinstance(v, dict) and isinstance(original.get(k), dict):
+                    recursive_dict_update(original[k], v)
+                else:
+                    original[k] = v
+
+        delete = set()
+        dict_args: dict[str, dict] = defaultdict(dict)
+        for i, processed_arg in enumerate(processed_args):
+            if processed_arg.startswith("--") and "." in processed_arg:
+                if "=" in processed_arg:
+                    processed_arg, value = processed_arg.split("=", 1)
+                    if "." not in processed_arg:
+                        # False positive, . was only in the value
+                        continue
+                else:
+                    value = processed_args[i + 1]
+                    delete.add(i + 1)
+                key, *keys = processed_arg.split(".")
+                # Merge all values with the same key into a single dict
+                arg_dict = create_nested_dict(keys, value)
+                recursive_dict_update(dict_args[key], arg_dict)
+                delete.add(i)
+        # Filter out the dict args we set to None
+        processed_args = [
+            a for i, a in enumerate(processed_args) if i not in delete
+        ]
+        # Add the dict args back as if they were originally passed as JSON
+        for dict_arg, dict_value in dict_args.items():
+            processed_args.append(dict_arg)
+            processed_args.append(json.dumps(dict_value))
+
         return super().parse_args(processed_args, namespace)
 
     def check_port(self, value):