What's VarBuilder?

[shi-yan]

What's VarBuilder and why do I need it?

    let varmap = VarMap::new();
    let vs = VarBuilder::from_varmap(&varmap, DType::F32, dev);

saw it from

https://github.com/evgenyigumnov/candle-simplified-example

[EricLBuehler]

At a high level, a VarBuilder manages the parameters of your model. In that sense, it is equivalent to how Pytorch tracks your parameters automatically. At a low level the VarBuilder holds all the Tensors which are accessed by using .get_with_hints. You can "cd" by changing the prefix of the VarBuilder using .pp.

[shi-yan]

so it's the manger for model weights?

[EricLBuehler]

Yes, it is.