View example on GitHub

In this example, we go through a Truss that serves a text-to-image model. We use Flux Schnell, which is one of the highest performing text-to-image models out there today.

Set up imports and torch settings

In this example, we use the Hugging Face diffusers library to build our text-to-image model.

model/model.py

import base64
import math
import random
import logging
from io import BytesIO

import numpy as np
import torch
from diffusers import FluxPipeline
from PIL import Image

logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
MAX_SEED = np.iinfo(np.int32).max

Define the `Model` class and load function

In the load function of the Truss, we implement logic involved in downloading and setting up the model. For this model, we use the FluxPipeline class in diffusers to instantiate our Flux pipeline, and configure a number of relevant parameters. See the diffusers docs for details on all of these parameters.

model/model.py

class Model:
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        self.pipe = None
        self.weights_dir = "/models/flux"

    def load(self):
        self.pipe = FluxPipeline.from_pretrained(self.weights_dir, torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16).to("cuda")

This is a utility function for converting a PIL image to base64.

model/model.py

    def convert_to_b64(self, image: Image) -> str:
        buffered = BytesIO()
        image.save(buffered, format="JPEG")
        img_b64 = base64.b64encode(buffered.getvalue()).decode("utf-8")
        return img_b64

Define the predict function

The predict function contains the actual inference logic. The steps here are:

Setting up the generation params. These include things like the prompt, image width, image height, number of inference steps, etc.
Running the Diffusion Pipeline
Convert the resulting image to base64 and return it

model/model.py

    def predict(self, model_input):
        seed = model_input.get("seed")
        prompt = model_input.get("prompt")
        prompt2 = model_input.get("prompt2")
        max_sequence_length = model_input.get(
            "max_sequence_length", 256
        )  # 256 is max for FLUX.1-schnell
        guidance_scale = model_input.get(
            "guidance_scale", 0.0
        )  # 0.0 is the only value for FLUX.1-schnell
        num_inference_steps = model_input.get(
            "num_inference_steps", 4
        )  # schnell is timestep-distilled
        width = model_input.get("width", 1024)
        height = model_input.get("height", 1024)
        if not math.isclose(guidance_scale, 0.0):
            logging.warning(
                "FLUX.1-schnell does not support guidance_scale other than 0.0"
            )
            guidance_scale = 0.0
        if not seed:
            seed = random.randint(0, MAX_SEED)
        if len(prompt.split()) > max_sequence_length:
            logging.warning(
                "FLUX.1-schnell does not support prompts longer than 256 tokens, truncating"
            )
            tokens = prompt.split()
            prompt = " ".join(tokens[: min(len(tokens), max_sequence_length)])
        generator = torch.Generator().manual_seed(seed)

        image = self.pipe(
            prompt=prompt,
            guidance_scale=guidance_scale,
            max_sequence_length=max_sequence_length,
            num_inference_steps=num_inference_steps,
            width=width,
            height=height,
            output_type="pil",
            generator=generator,
        ).images[0]

        b64_results = self.convert_to_b64(image)
        return {"data": b64_results}

Set up the `config.yaml`

Running Flux Schnell requires a handful of Python libraries, including diffusers, transformers, and others.

config.yaml

external_package_dirs: []
weights:
  - source: "hf://black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-schnell@main"
    mount_location: "/models/flux"
    allow_patterns:
      - "*.json"
      - "*.safetensors"
    ignore_patterns:
      - "flux1-schnell.safetensors"
model_metadata:
  example_model_input: {"prompt": 'black forest gateau cake spelling out the words "FLUX SCHNELL", tasty, food photography, dynamic shot'}
model_name: Flux.1-schnell
python_version: py311
requirements:
  - git+https://github.com/huggingface/diffusers.git@v0.32.2
  - transformers
  - accelerate
  - sentencepiece
  - protobuf
resources:
  accelerator: H100_40GB
  use_gpu: true
secrets: {}
system_packages:
  - ffmpeg
  - libsm6
  - libxext6

Configure resources for Flux Schnell

Note that we need an H100 40GB GPU to run this model.

config.yaml

resources:
  accelerator: H100_40GB
  use_gpu: true
secrets: {}

System packages

Running diffusers requires ffmpeg and a couple other system packages.

config.yaml

system_packages:
  - ffmpeg
  - libsm6
  - libxext6

Enable caching

Flux Schnell is a large model, and downloading it from Hugging Face on every cold start would take several minutes. The Baseten Delivery Network (BDN) mirrors weights to Baseten’s infrastructure once and serves them from multi-tier caches close to your replicas, so cold starts read from a nearby cache instead of re-downloading from upstream. To enable BDN, add a weights block to your config:

weights:
  - source: "hf://black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-schnell@main"
    mount_location: "/models/flux"
    allow_patterns:
      - "*.json"
      - "*.safetensors"
    ignore_patterns:
      - "flux1-schnell.safetensors"

The model.py load() method then reads weights from mount_location instead of pulling from Hugging Face.

Deploy the model

Deploy the model like you would other Trusses, with:

truss push flux/schnell

Run an inference

Use a Python script to call the model once it’s deployed and parse its response. We parse the resulting base64-encoded string output into an actual image file: output_image.jpg.

infer.py

import httpx
import os
import base64
from PIL import Image
from io import BytesIO

# Replace the empty string with your model id below
model_id = ""
baseten_api_key = os.environ["BASETEN_API_KEY"]

# Function used to convert a base64 string to a PIL image
def b64_to_pil(b64_str):
    return Image.open(BytesIO(base64.b64decode(b64_str)))

data = {
  "prompt": 'red velvet cake spelling out the words "FLUX SCHNELL", tasty, food photography, dynamic shot'
}

# Call model endpoint
res = httpx.post(
    f"https://model-{model_id}.api.baseten.co/production/predict",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {baseten_api_key}"},
    json=data
)

# Get output image
res = res.json()
output = res.get("data")

# Convert the base64 model output to an image
img = b64_to_pil(output)
img.save("output_image.jpg")

Examples

Models

Engines

Custom Docker servers

Custom Python models

Chains

Generate images with Flux

View example on GitHub

Set up imports and torch settings

Define the `Model` class and load function

Define the predict function

Set up the `config.yaml`

Configure resources for Flux Schnell

System packages

Enable caching

Deploy the model

Run an inference

View example on GitHub

​Set up imports and torch settings

​Define the Model class and load function

​Define the predict function

​Set up the config.yaml

​Configure resources for Flux Schnell

​System packages

​Enable caching

​Deploy the model

​Run an inference

Set up imports and torch settings

Define the `Model` class and load function

Define the predict function

Set up the `config.yaml`

Configure resources for Flux Schnell

System packages

Enable caching

Deploy the model

Run an inference