Tutorial - Deploy DeepSeek-R1-Qwen3-8B using Inferless

DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B is an 8-billion-parameter model obtained by distilling the chain-of-thought reasoning abilities of DeepSeek-R1-0528 into the Qwen3 8B architecture while retaining DeepSeek-R1’s tokenizer, giving the small model long-context (64K tokens) support and stronger logical coherence.

TL;DR:

• Deployment of DeepSeek-R1-Qwen3-8B model using transformers.
• Dependencies defined in inferless-runtime-config.yaml.
• GitHub/GitLab template creation with app.py, inferless-runtime-config.yaml and inferless.yaml.
• Model class in app.py with initialize, infer, and finalize functions.
• Custom runtime creation with necessary system and Python packages.
• Recommended GPU: NVIDIA A100 for optimal performance.
• Custom runtime selection in advanced configuration.
• Final review and deployment on the Inferless platform.

Fork the Repository

Get started by forking the repository. You can do this by clicking on the fork button in the top right corner of the repository page.

This will create a copy of the repository in your own GitHub account, allowing you to make changes and customize it according to your needs.

Create a Custom Runtime in Inferless

To access the custom runtime window in Inferless, simply navigate to the sidebar and click on the Create new Runtime button. A pop-up will appear.

Next, provide a suitable name for your custom runtime and proceed by uploading the inferless-runtime-config.yaml file given above. Finally, ensure you save your changes by clicking on the save button.

Import the Model in Inferless

Log in to your inferless account, select the workspace you want the model to be imported into and click the Add a custom model button.

• Select Github as the method of upload from the Provider list and then select your Github Repository and the branch.
• Choose the type of machine, and specify the minimum and maximum number of replicas for deploying your model.
• Configure Custom Runtime ( If you have pip or apt packages), choose Volume, Secrets and set Environment variables like Inference Timeout / Container Concurrency / Scale Down Timeout
• Once you click “Continue,” click Deploy to start the model import process.

Enter all the required details to Import your model. Refer this link for more information on model import.

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Curl Command

Following is an example of the curl command you can use to make inference. You can find the exact curl command in the Model's API page in Inferless.

curl --location '<your_inference_url>' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer <your_api_key>' \
    --data '{
      "inputs": [
                  {
                        "name": "prompt",
                        "shape": [1],
                        "data": ["Give me a short introduction to large language model."],
                        "datatype": "BYTES"
                      }
    ]
}'

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Customizing the Code

Open the app.py file. This contains the main code for inference. The InferlessPythonModel has three main functions, initialize, infer and finalize.

Initialize - This function is executed during the cold start and is used to initialize the model. If you have any custom configurations or settings that need to be applied during the initialization, make sure to add them in this function.

Infer - This function is where the inference happens. The infer function leverages both RequestObjects and ResponseObjects to handle inputs and outputs in a structured and maintainable way.

• RequestObjects: Defines the input schema, validating and parsing the input data.
• ResponseObjects: Encapsulates the output data, ensuring consistent and structured API responses.

Finalize - This function is used to perform any cleanup activity for example you can unload the model from the gpu by setting to None.

For more information refer to the Inferless docs.