Get Started#
The Model Download is a microservice that downloads models from multiple hubs as follows: Hugging Face, Ollama, Geti™ software, Ultralytics, Pipeline Zoo Models, Open Model Zoo (OMZ), remote URL, and HLS. It supports conversion to OpenVINO™ model server format for Hugging Face models, supports uploading custom model ZIP artifacts, and exposes a RESTful API for managing model downloads, uploads, and conversions.
Note: Model Download replaces Model Registry, which will be deprecated soon. See Migrate from Model Registry to Model Download for the migration guidelines.
Features#
Downloads models from Hugging Face, Ollama, Geti software, Ultralytics, Pipeline Zoo Models, Open Model Zoo (OMZ), remote URL, and HLS hubs
Lists available models from supported hubs before download
Converts Hugging Face models to OpenVINO model server format
Supports multiple model precisions (INT4, INT8, FP16, and FP32)
Supports various device targets (CPU, GPU, and NPU), including heterogeneous execution via
HETERO:<dev>[,<dev>...](e.g.HETERO:GPU,CPU)OpenVINO plugin supports NPU model conversion exclusively in INT4 precision.
Models supported for health AI suites(AI-ECG, rPPG and 3D Pose) with HLS plugin.
Supports parallel download
Supports configurable model caching
Optionally schedules configured model downloads when the service starts
Supports custom model upload through
POST /models/uploadSupports per-request credential overrides via
override_credentialsSupports pre-download credential validation via
validate_credentialsSupports job cancellation for queued, downloading, or converting jobs
Exposes a REST API with OpenAPI documentation
Prerequisites#
(Optional) Hugging Face API token, required for gated Hugging Face models or conversion.
Sufficient disk space for model storage.
Start with Setup Script#
1. Clone the Microservice#
Go to the target directory of your choice and clone the microservice. If you want to clone a specific release branch, replace release-2026.2.0 with the desired tag. To learn more on partial cloning, check the Repository Cloning guide.
git clone --filter=blob:none --sparse --branch release-2026.2.0 https://github.com/open-edge-platform/edge-ai-libraries.git
cd edge-ai-libraries/
git sparse-checkout set microservices/model-download/
cd microservices/model-download/
2. Configure the environment variables#
export REGISTRY="intel/"
export TAG="2026.2.0-rc2"
export HUGGINGFACEHUB_API_TOKEN=<your-huggingface-token>
To use the Geti™ plugin, set these variables:
export GETI_WORKSPACE_ID=<YOUR_GETI_WORKSPACE_ID>
export GETI_HOST=<GETI_HOST_ADDRESS>
export GETI_TOKEN=<GETI_ACCESS_TOKEN>
export GETI_SERVER_API_VERSION=v1
export GETI_SERVER_SSL_VERIFY=False # Default is FALSE
Note: For Geti™ software setup instructions, see the documentation here.
To customize the remote-url hub allowlist (optional), set:
export EXTERNAL_SOURCES_URL_ALLOWLIST=<comma-separated host/path prefixes> # optional; when unset, the default allowlist in src/plugins/external_sources/sources.yaml is used
3. Launch the service and enable the plugins#
source scripts/run_service.sh up --plugins all --model-path <host path>
Note: For public models, no token is needed. Set the Hugging Face token via the
HUGGINGFACEHUB_API_TOKENenvironment variable to download GATED models and for conversion to OpenVINO IR format.
Note: Ensure the host path does not require privileged access for directory creation. Intel recommends using
$PWD/host_pathor a similar location within your work directory.
The run_service.sh script is a Docker Compose wrapper that builds and manages the model download service container with configurable plugins, model paths, and deployment options.
Options available with the script:
source scripts/run_service.sh [options] [action]
Actions:
up Start the services (default)
down Stop the services
Options:
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Builds the Docker image before running |
|
This flag instructs to ignore any existing cached images, and rebuild them from scratch using the Dockerfile definitions |
|
Sets the custom model path (default: |
|
Comma-separated list of plugins to enable (e.g., |
|
Set OVMS release tag (e.g., |
|
Shows this help message |
Examples:
Start the service with default settings:
source scripts/run_service.sh upStop the service:
source scripts/run_service.sh downEnable specific plugins:
source scripts/run_service.sh up --plugins huggingfaceEnable multiple plugins:
source scripts/run_service.sh up --plugins huggingface,ollama,ultralytics,pipeline-zoo-models,remote-url,omz,getiUse a custom model storage:
source scripts/run_service.sh up --model-path /data/my-modelsProduction deployment with all plugins:
source scripts/run_service.sh up --plugins all --model-path tmp/modelsDisplay usage information:
source scripts/run_service.sh --help
4. Access the service#
The service will be available at
http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/docs, where you can view the Swagger documentation for the available APIs.
Download Models at Startup#
The service can schedule model downloads and conversions automatically from a configuration file
See Download Models at Startup for the full configuration schema.
Verification#
Ensure that the application is running by checking the Docker container status:
docker psAccess the application dashboard and verify that it is functioning as expected.
Sample usage with CURL Command#
List models available on a hub:
Use POST /api/v1/models/list to discover model names before calling POST /api/v1/models/download. Specify the target hub with the hub field in the request body. Listing is currently supported for huggingface, ultralytics, pipeline-zoo-models, and geti. Hubs that do not expose a catalog return 501.
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/list" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"hub": "huggingface",
"filters": {
"author": "microsoft",
"search": "phi"
},
"limit": 10,
"offset": 0
}'
For Ultralytics or Pipeline Zoo Models, use the search filter:
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/list" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"hub": "ultralytics",
"filters": {
"search": "yolov8"
},
"limit": 10,
"offset": 0
}'
For Geti™ software, listing discovers the latest model of every model group across the projects in the configured workspace. Each item’s model_type is the Geti task type (for example, DETECTION or CLASSIFICATION) resolved from the model group’s task, and metadata includes project_id, project_name, model_group_id, model_group_name, model_id, and optimized_model_ids. Requires GETI_HOST, GETI_TOKEN, and GETI_WORKSPACE_ID to be set.
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/list" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"hub": "geti",
"filters": {
"project_name": "detection",
"precision": "FP16"
},
"limit": 10,
"offset": 0
}'
Call GET /api/v1/plugins to see which plugins support listing and which listing_filter_fields each plugin accepts. Hugging Face supports author, search, and tags. The author filter is the repository namespace and accepts a user, owner, or organization name (for example, microsoft or meta-llama); tags filters by Hugging Face tags (library, language, task, license, and so on). Each returned Hugging Face item also includes license, gated (false, "auto", or "manual"), and requires_token (true when the model is gated and needs an HF token to download). Ultralytics and Pipeline Zoo Models support search. Geti™ supports project_id, project_name, model_group_id, model_group_name, model_name, export_type, precision, and model_format.
Name format by hub (
models[].name):huggingface,ollama,openvino,geti,hls,remote-url: single model name.ultralytics: single name, comma-separated names, orall.pipeline-zoo-models: single name, comma-separated names, orall.omz: single name or comma-separated names (allis not supported).
Download a Hugging Face model:
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=hf_model" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "microsoft/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct",
"hub": "huggingface",
"type": "llm"
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Download an Ollama model:
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=ollama_model" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "tinyllama",
"hub": "ollama",
"type": "llm"
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Download a YOLO vision model from Ultralytics:
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=yolo_model" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "yolov8s",
"hub": "ultralytics",
"type": "vision"
}
],
"parallel_downloads": true
}'
Note: YOLO vision models from Ultralytics model hub will be downloaded and converted to the OpenVINO IR format with FP32 and FP16 precision by default. Note: Ultralytics supports a single model name, comma-separated model names, or
"name": "all".
Download an Ultralytics model with INT8 quantization:
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=yolo_int8" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "yolov8n",
"hub": "ultralytics",
"type": "vision",
"config": {
"quantize": "coco128"
}
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Note: INT8 behavior for Ultralytics requests:
Set
config.quantizeto request INT8 export.INT8 requests only support a single model name per request. Requests using comma-separated model names,
all, oryolo_allwithquantizeare rejected.If INT8 is requested but no INT8 artifact is produced, the request fails and partial artifacts are cleaned up.
Due to a limitation in the DL Streamer public model download script, requesting INT8 also downloads other supported precision artifacts for the model if present like FP32, FP16.
Currently available datasets are coco, coco8 and coco128.
NOTE: coco is a very large dataset of over 20GB and containing more than a 100,000 images. Quantization on this dataset can take a very long time. For development purposes, it is recommended to use coco128 or coco8 instead, which is much lighter.
Download a Hugging Face model and convert it to OpenVINO IR format:
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=ovms_model" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "BAAI/bge-reranker-base",
"hub": "openvino",
"type": "rerank",
"is_ovms": true,
"config": {
"precision": "fp32",
"device": "CPU",
"cache_size": 10
}
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Example: Optimum CLI-aligned nested config
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=ovms_model" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "Alibaba-NLP/gte-large-en-v1.5",
"hub":"openvino",
"type": "embeddings",
"is_ovms": true,
"config": {
"precision": "int8",
"device": "CPU",
"cache_size": 2,
"extra_quantization_params":"--library sentence_transformers"
}
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Note:
Need additional OpenVINO export knobs? Review the parameter matrix in the OpenVINO Model Server export guide and pass the corresponding fields through
config.Visual-language models automatically set
pipeline_typetoVLMfor type ‘VLM’.Unknown parameters keep their original spelling (underscores included) and are forwarded as
--<param_name>, so options such asreasoning_parser,tool_parseretc.Boolean flags are emitted only when they evaluate to true. Leave them unset or false to skip the corresponding CLI switch.
Hugging Face authentication is still required for OVMS exports; provide
HUGGINGFACEHUB_API_TOKEN(or pass the token via the API) before invoking these parameters.
Download models from Geti™ software, which are optimized through OpenVINO toolkit’s optimization tool:
curl -X POST 'http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=geti_folder' \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "yolox-tiny",
"hub": "geti",
"revision": "1",
"config":{
"precision": "fp32"
}
}
],
"parallel_downloads": true
}'
Note: The default precision is FP16.
Download a Pipeline Zoo model:
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=pipeline_zoo_models" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "dbnet",
"hub": "pipeline-zoo-models"
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Note: Pipeline Zoo supports a single model name, comma-separated model names (for example,
"name": "dbnet,yolov5m-320"), or"name": "all"to download all available models from thestoragedirectory.
Download a tarball model at runtime from a remote URL (remote-url hub):
Provide the archive URL in config.url. An optional {name} placeholder
is replaced with the model’s name field before download. The URL is validated against an
allowlist (host + path prefixes) before fetching — scheme must be https.
The allowlist defaults to allowed_prefixes in sources.yaml. It can optionally be
overridden per deployment with EXTERNAL_SOURCES_URL_ALLOWLIST (comma-separated;
when set it replaces the YAML list). An empty allowlist rejects all runtime
URLs.
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=udf_timeseries" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "wind-turbine-anomaly-detection",
"hub": "remote-url",
"config": {
"url": "https://github.com/open-edge-platform/edge-ai-resources/raw/main/timeseries-udf-deployment-packages/{name}.tar"
}
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Note: The URL must point to a tar archive (ex:
.tar,.tar.gz) containing a single model’s files, andnamemust be a single value (comma-separated names andallare not supported forremote-url).
Note: Pass hub names (
pipeline-zoo-models,remote-url) directly to--plugins. The internal plugin implementation is shared but not user-visible.
Download an Open Model Zoo (OMZ) model:
The model is fetched with omz_downloader, converted to OpenVINO IR with
omz_converter, and any model-specific post-processing (model-proc JSON, label
injection) declared in omz_rules.yaml is applied automatically.
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=omz_model" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "mobilenet-v2-pytorch",
"hub": "omz"
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Note: Models without a matching entry in
omz_rules.yamlare downloaded and converted, but no post-processing is applied. Note: OMZ supports a single model name or comma-separated model names (for example,"name": "mobilenet-v2-pytorch,face-detection-retail-0004")."name": "all"is not supported for OMZ because each model requires both download and conversion, and processing the full catalog can be very time-consuming and resource-intensive.
Download fixed HLS models (3D pose, rPPG, AI-ECG):
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=hls_assets" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "human-pose-estimation-3d-0001",
"hub": "hls",
"type": "3d-pose"
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Notes: Valid HLS types are
3d-pose,rppg, andai-ecg. The service downloads model artifacts only; demo videos must be fetched separately if needed.
Query Parameter:
download_path(string): Specify a local filesystem path for saving the downloaded model. If not provided, the model will be saved to the default location.
Response: Sample Response (when a download request is started):
{
"message": "Started processing 1 model(s)",
"job_ids": ["5f0d4eba-c79c-4d02-97a6-43c3d0168ca0"],
"status": "processing"
}
Each model-download request returns a job_id. To check the status of a download:
curl -X GET "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/jobs/<job_id>"
Sample Response (when the job is completed):
{
"id": "5f0d4eba-c79c-4d02-97a6-43c3d0168ca0",
"operation_type": "download",
"model_name": "yolov8s",
"hub": "ultralytics",
"output_dir": "/opt/models/ultra_folder",
"status": "completed",
"start_time": "2025-10-27T08:24:23.510870",
"model_type": "vision",
"completion_time": "2025-10-27T08:30:14.443898",
"result": {
"model_name": "yolov8s",
"source": "ultralytics",
"download_path": "model/download/path",
"return_code": 0
}
}
Download with Override Credentials:
When using override_credentials, the service relies on Base64 encoding to
obfuscate credential values in the request body and on log redaction to prevent
credentials from appearing in service logs. Credentials are request-scoped
(in-memory only) and never persisted. For deployments where the API is exposed
beyond the local device or Docker network, place the service behind a
TLS-terminating reverse proxy to encrypt credentials in transit.
The override_credentials field lets you pass per-request credentials without
changing environment variables. All values must be Base64-encoded, regardless of
whether the key is marked as sensitive. The sensitive flag only controls
whether the value is redacted in service logs — Base64 encoding is required for
every key. Use GET /api/v1/plugins to discover the keys each plugin accepts.
Encode credentials:
echo -n 'my-secret-token' | base64
# Output: bXktc2VjcmV0LXRva2Vu
Download a gated Hugging Face model with per-request token override (HF_TOKEN):
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=hf_gated" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct",
"hub": "huggingface",
"type": "llm",
"override_credentials": {
"HF_TOKEN": "<base64_HF_token>"
}
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Download a Geti™ model with per-request credentials override (GETI_HOST, GETI_TOKEN, GETI_WORKSPACE_ID):
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=geti_override" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "yolox-tiny",
"hub": "geti",
"revision": "1",
"override_credentials": {
"GETI_HOST": "<base64_GETI_HOST>",
"GETI_TOKEN": "<base64_GETI_TOKEN>",
"GETI_WORKSPACE_ID": "<base64_GETI_WORKSPACE_ID>"
},
"config": {
"precision": "fp16"
}
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Note: When overriding a grouped set of keys (for example the
getigroup), all required keys in that group must be provided together. UseGET /api/v1/pluginsto see which keys belong to each group.
Download a remote-url model with per-request allowlist override (EXTERNAL_SOURCES_URL_ALLOWLIST):
# Base64-encode the full comma-separated allowlist as a single value
echo -n 'github.com/open-edge-platform/edge-ai-resources/raw/main,example.com/models' | base64
# Output: Z2l0aHViLmNvbS9vcGVuLWVkZ2UtcGxhdGZvcm0vZWRnZS1haS1yZXNvdXJjZXMvcmF3L21haW4sZXhhbXBsZS5jb20vbW9kZWxz
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/download?download_path=remote_override" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"models": [
{
"name": "wind-turbine-anomaly-detection",
"hub": "remote-url",
"override_credentials": {
"EXTERNAL_SOURCES_URL_ALLOWLIST": "<base64_comma_separated_prefixes>"
},
"config": {
"url": "https://github.com/open-edge-platform/edge-ai-resources/raw/main/timeseries-udf-deployment-packages/{name}.tar"
}
}
],
"parallel_downloads": false
}'
Note: The response format for downloads with
override_credentialsis the same as shown in the response section above for the corresponding hub plugin.
Pre-validate credentials before download:
Add "validate_credentials": true to any model in the request to perform a fast credential check before the download or conversion begins. If override_credentials is present, those values are validated; otherwise the service’s environment credentials are checked. This is especially useful for is_ovms conversions where invalid credentials would otherwise surface only after minutes of processing.
{
"models": [{
"name": "meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B",
"hub": "openvino",
"is_ovms": true,
"validate_credentials": true,
"override_credentials": { "HF_TOKEN": "<base64-token>" }
}]
}
If the credentials are invalid, the request returns 400 immediately without starting the job.
Cancel a running or queued job:
Use POST /api/v1/jobs/<job_id>/cancel to cancel a job that is still in a cancellable state (queued, downloading, or converting). If the job is already in a terminal state (completed, failed, or canceled), the endpoint returns 409.
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/jobs/<job_id>/cancel"
Sample Response (when the job is cancelled):
{
"message": "Job 5f0d4eba-c79c-4d02-97a6-43c3d0168ca0 has been cancelled",
"job_id": "5f0d4eba-c79c-4d02-97a6-43c3d0168ca0",
"status": "canceled"
}
Note: For hubs that do not support immediate interruption (
huggingface,geti,openvino), the response includes an additionalwarningfield. The transfer may continue briefly in the background; partial files are cleaned up automatically.
Upload a custom model ZIP:
Use this endpoint when user (or another client app) needs to upload a local model directly to model-download.
The ZIP must contain at least one .xml and one .bin file.
Naming rules:
model_nameallows letters, numbers, periods, underscores, hyphens, and spaces. Spaces are converted to underscores. Names must not start or end with a period or contain consecutive periods (..).provider,framework, andprecisionallow only letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens, and must start with a letter or digit.
curl -X POST "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/upload" \
-F "file=@/path/to/my_model.zip" \
-F "model_name=my_custom_model" \
-F "provider=geti" \
-F "framework=openvino" \
-F "precision=FP16"
Upload storage path format:
/opt/models/custom_uploaded_models/{provider}/{framework}/{model_name}/[{precision}/]
On successful upload, the model is registered as a completed operation and is visible in:
curl -X GET "http://<host-ip>:8200/api/v1/models/results"
Sample Response (when the upload is completed):
{
"status": "success",
"message": "Model 'my_custom_model' uploaded successfully.",
"job_id": "a1b2c3d4-1234-5678-9abc-def012345678",
"model_name": "my_custom_model",
"model_path": "/opt/models/custom_uploaded_models/geti/openvino/my_custom_model/FP16"
}
For details, see the API reference.
Configuration#
You can configure the service through environment variables and Docker volumes:
Environment Variables:
HF_HUB_ENABLE_HF_TRANSFER: Enable Hugging Face transfer (default: 1)HUGGINGFACEHUB_API_TOKEN: Hugging Face token (only required for gated models or conversion)MAX_UPLOAD_SIZE_MB: Maximum allowed upload ZIP size in MB (default: 500)UPLOAD_CHUNK_SIZE_KB: Chunk size for streaming file uploads in KB (default: 8). Larger values improve throughput, smaller values reduce memory usage for concurrent uploads
Volumes:
~/models:/app/models: Persist downloaded models
Troubleshooting#
If you encounter any issues during the build or run process, check the Docker logs for errors:
docker logs <container-id>
Run Unit Tests#
To validate changes locally before deploying:
Set up virtual environment:
pip install uv uv venv source .venv/bin/activate
Install all optional dependencies:
uv sync --all-extras
Execute unit tests:
uv run pytest tests/unit -v
Use pytest tests/ --cov=src --cov-report=term if you also need coverage metrics. See
docs/user-guide/running-tests.md for advanced filtering options and troubleshooting tips.
Model Storage Path Layout#
When a download completes, the result.download_path field in the job response contains the absolute host-mapped path to the model directory. The path is deterministic — downloading the same model with the same parameters always produces the same path.
All hubs follow a common base pattern:
<download_path>/<hub>/<model_name>/[<hub_specific_folder>/]
Where <download_path> is the download_path query parameter passed to POST /api/v1/models/download, resolved relative to the configured model storage root.
Hubs that support multiple precisions append a <precision>/ subdirectory. Hubs that do not support precision store files directly under <model_name>/:
Hub |
Path layout |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Note: For model names containing
/(for example,microsoft/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct), the slash is replaced with_in the directory name.
Best Practices#
Use parallel downloads with caution because they can consume significant resources.
Configure cache sizes based on available memory.
Select model precision according to your performance requirements.
Use appropriate model types and configurations for OpenVINO model server conversion.
For Ultralytics INT8 exports, submit one model per request and verify
config.quantizeis provided only when INT8 is intended.
Run in Kubernetes Cluster#
See Deploy with Helm Chart for details. Address the prerequisites mentioned on this page before deploying with Helm chart.
Learn More#
For alternative ways to set up the sample application, see: