Grounding DINO

Grounding DINO for open-set object detection. Combines DINO-style detection with BERT text encoder for language-guided detection. Detects objects described by text prompts without fixed class vocabulary.

Set train.pretrained_model_path for full Grounding DINO weights or model.pretrained_backbone_path for backbone-only.

For TAO Deploy TensorRT actions (

gen_trt_engine

, TensorRT

evaluate

, and TensorRT

inference

), read

references/tao-deploy-grounding-dino.md

first. Deploy spec templates live in this skill's

references/

folder with the

spec_template_deploy_*.yaml

prefix.

Dataclass Schemas

Generated TAO Core schemas are packaged in

schemas/<action>.schema.json

, with

schemas/manifest.json

listing available actions. Each generated schema also emits

references/spec_template_<action>.yaml

from the schema top-level

default

field. AutoML enablement is declared at the model layer in

references/skill_info.yaml

via

automl_enabled

. Runnable AutoML still requires

schemas/train.schema.json

and

references/spec_template_train.yaml

to exist and parse. Use the packaged train schema for

automl_default_parameters

automl_disabled_parameters

, defaults, min/max bounds, enums, option weights, math conditions, dependencies, and popular parameters. Do not expect

~/tao-core

at runtime; maintainers regenerate schemas/templates before packaging the skill bank.

Train Action Policy

This model is AutoML-enabled at the model layer. Before handling any train-stage request, read

references/skill_info.yaml

and resolve the run override from either an explicit

automl_policy

value or the user's workflow request. Treat phrases like "turn off AutoML", "disable AutoML", "no HPO", or "plain training" as

automl_policy: off

for this run only; otherwise default to

auto

. When

automl_policy: auto

automl_enabled: true

, and both

schemas/train.schema.json

and

references/spec_template_train.yaml

are packaged, route the train action through

tao-skill-bank:tao-run-automl

by default with this model's

skill_dir

. Preserve workflow/application overrides for datasets, specs, output directories, GPU/platform settings, parent checkpoints, and

automl_policy

. Use direct model training only when

automl_policy: off

or the packaged train schema/template is missing; in the missing-schema case, report that AutoML is enabled but not runnable for this model until schemas are generated.

Non-train actions such as

evaluate

inference

export

, and deploy flows stay in this model skill. The per-run

automl_policy

override does not change model metadata.

Training Requirements

Dataset type: object_detection
Formats: odvg, coco, raw
Monitoring metric: val_mAP50

Per-Action Dataset Requirements

Action	Spec Key	Source	Files	List?
evaluate	dataset.test_data_sources	eval_dataset	image_dir: images.tar.gz, json_file: annotations.json	No
inference	dataset.infer_data_sources	inference_dataset	image_dir: images.tar.gz, classmap: label_map.txt	No
quantize	dataset.train_data_sources	train_datasets	image_dir: images.tar.gz, json_file: annotations_odvg.jsonl, label_map: annotations_odvg_labelmap.json	Yes
quantize	dataset.val_data_sources	eval_dataset	image_dir: images.tar.gz, json_file: annotations.json	No
quantize	dataset.quant_calibration_data_sources	train_datasets	image_dir: images.tar.gz, json_file: annotations_odvg.jsonl, label_map: annotations_odvg_labelmap.json	No
train	dataset.train_data_sources	train_datasets	image_dir: images.tar.gz, json_file: annotations_odvg.jsonl, label_map: annotations_odvg_labelmap.json	Yes
train	dataset.val_data_sources	eval_dataset	image_dir: images.tar.gz, json_file: annotations.json	No

Typical Spec Overrides

Data source overrides are mandatory for every action — the agent MUST construct data source paths from the Per-Action Dataset Requirements table above and include them in

spec_overrides

python

S3_TRAIN = "s3://bucket/data/train"
S3_EVAL = "s3://bucket/data/eval"

train (mandatory data sources):

python

{
    "train.num_epochs": 10,
    "train.checkpoint_interval": 10,
    "train.validation_interval": 10,
    "train.num_gpus": 1,
    "dataset.train_data_sources": [{"image_dir": f"{S3_TRAIN}/images.tar.gz", "json_file": f"{S3_TRAIN}/annotations_odvg.jsonl", "label_map": f"{S3_TRAIN}/annotations_odvg_labelmap.json"}],
    "dataset.val_data_sources": {"image_dir": f"{S3_EVAL}/images.tar.gz", "json_file": f"{S3_EVAL}/annotations.json"},
}

gen_trt_engine:

python

{
    "gen_trt_engine.tensorrt.data_type": "FP16",
}

inference (mandatory data sources):

python

{
    "dataset.infer_data_sources.captions": [
        "person"
    ],
    "dataset.infer_data_sources": {"image_dir": f"{S3_EVAL}/images.tar.gz", "classmap": f"{S3_EVAL}/label_map.txt"},
}

evaluate (mandatory data sources):

python

{
    "dataset.test_data_sources": {"image_dir": f"{S3_EVAL}/images.tar.gz", "json_file": f"{S3_EVAL}/annotations.json"},
}

quantize (mandatory data sources):

python

{
    "dataset.train_data_sources": [{"image_dir": f"{S3_TRAIN}/images.tar.gz", "json_file": f"{S3_TRAIN}/annotations_odvg.jsonl", "label_map": f"{S3_TRAIN}/annotations_odvg_labelmap.json"}],
    "dataset.val_data_sources": {"image_dir": f"{S3_EVAL}/images.tar.gz", "json_file": f"{S3_EVAL}/annotations.json"},
    "dataset.quant_calibration_data_sources": {"image_dir": f"{S3_TRAIN}/images.tar.gz", "json_file": f"{S3_TRAIN}/annotations_odvg.jsonl", "label_map": f"{S3_TRAIN}/annotations_odvg_labelmap.json"},
}

Eval Dataset

Optional. Validation uses COCO-format annotations for mAP even though training can use ODVG format.

Important Parameters

model.backbone: Default swin_tiny_224_1k. Also supports resnet_50 and other Swin variants. Swin generally performs better for grounding tasks.
model.text_encoder_type: BERT model for text encoding. Default bert-base-uncased. max_text_len defaults to 256.
train.optim.lr: Learning rate. Default 2e-4. lr_backbone 2e-5. Supports bf16 precision in addition to fp16/fp32.
dataset.max_labels: Maximum labels per image during training. Default 50. Increase for dense annotation datasets.
model.num_queries: Object queries. Default 900 (higher than DINO's 300) due to open-vocabulary nature.
train.optim.lr_steps: MultiStep LR schedule. Default [10].

Multi-GPU / Multi-Node

Launch method: Lightning-managed (single

python

process, Lightning spawns workers).

Spec Key	Description	Default
`train.num_gpus`	Number of GPUs	1
`train.gpu_ids`	GPU device indices	[0]
`train.num_nodes`	Number of nodes	1
`train.distributed_strategy`	`ddp` or `fsdp`	`ddp`

Same DDP/FSDP behavior as DINO. Multi-node requires

WORLD_SIZE

NODE_RANK

MASTER_ADDR

MASTER_PORT

env vars set by orchestrator.

Export / TRT Defaults

Export input: 960x544 (larger than other OD models), opset 17
TRT data types: FP32, FP16 only — INT8 is NOT supported
TRT workspace: 8192 MB (8x larger than other OD models)
TRT max_batch_size: 4

Full TAO Deploy reference: tao-deploy-grounding-dino.

Hardware

Minimum 1 GPU(s), recommended 4 GPU(s). 24GB+ (A100 recommended) VRAM per GPU. Grounding DINO is heavier than standard DINO due to the text encoder (BERT). 24GB+ GPU memory recommended. Reduce batch_size for 16GB GPUs.

Error Patterns

CUDA out of memory: Reduce batch_size (4 -> 2 -> 1). The BERT text encoder adds significant memory overhead on top of the vision backbone.

Val annotation category IDs: Validation annotations should have category IDs starting from 0 for correct loss computation. Use annotation format conversion if needed.

Text encoder loading error: Ensure the container has access to download bert-base-uncased weights or provide a local path.

Spec Param / Parent Model Inference

Model-specific inference mappings belong in this MD file, not in

config.json

. Generated runners should read this section and apply the mappings with SDK helpers before

create_job()

. This mirrors the old microservices

infer_params.py

flow.

Inference mappings from TAO Core

grounding_dino.config.json

Action	Spec Field	Inference Function	Meaning
evaluate	`encryption_key`	`key`	encryption key
evaluate	`evaluate.checkpoint`	`parent_model`	model file inferred from the parent job results folder
evaluate	`evaluate.trt_engine`	`parent_model`	model file inferred from the parent job results folder
evaluate	`results_dir`	`output_dir`	current job results directory
export	`encryption_key`	`key`	encryption key
export	`export.checkpoint`	`parent_model`	model file inferred from the parent job results folder
export	`export.onnx_file`	`create_onnx_file`	output ONNX path
export	`results_dir`	`output_dir`	current job results directory
gen_trt_engine	`encryption_key`	`key`	encryption key
gen_trt_engine	`gen_trt_engine.onnx_file`	`parent_model`	model file inferred from the parent job results folder
gen_trt_engine	`gen_trt_engine.trt_engine`	`create_engine_file`	output TensorRT engine path
gen_trt_engine	`results_dir`	`output_dir`	current job results directory
inference	`encryption_key`	`key`	encryption key
inference	`inference.checkpoint`	`parent_model`	model file inferred from the parent job results folder
inference	`inference.trt_engine`	`parent_model`	model file inferred from the parent job results folder
inference	`results_dir`	`output_dir`	current job results directory
quantize	`encryption_key`	`key`	encryption key
quantize	`quantize.model_path`	`parent_model`	model file inferred from the parent job results folder
quantize	`results_dir`	`output_dir`	current job results directory
train	`encryption_key`	`key`	encryption key
train	`model.pretrained_backbone_path`	`ptm_if_no_resume_model`	PTM when no resume checkpoint exists
train	`results_dir`	`output_dir`	current job results directory
train	`train.pretrained_model_path`	`ptm_if_no_resume_model`	PTM when no resume checkpoint exists
train	`train.resume_training_checkpoint_path`	`resume_model`	model file inferred from the current job results folder

For

parent_model

parent_model_folder

, pass the upstream train/export/AutoML child job id as

parent_job_id

. The SDK lists the parent result folder, filters checkpoint artifacts, and returns the selected model file or folder. Do not add these mappings back to

config.json

and do not patch generated runner scripts to guess checkpoint paths.

tao-train-grounding-dino

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Grounding DINO

Dataclass Schemas

Train Action Policy

Training Requirements

Per-Action Dataset Requirements

Typical Spec Overrides

Eval Dataset

Important Parameters

Multi-GPU / Multi-Node

Export / TRT Defaults

Hardware

Error Patterns

Spec Param / Parent Model Inference