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Modal Serverless Gpu

  • 518 installs
  • 30.1k repo stars
  • Updated August 4, 2026
  • davila7/claude-code-templates

modal-serverless-gpu is a Claude Code skill that spins up on-demand GPU servers through Modal without managing persistent infrastructure for developers who need serverless GPU compute from the terminal.

About

modal-serverless-gpu is an agent skill that lets Claude Code, Cursor, and similar agents instantly provision and use GPU compute on Modal's serverless platform. Instead of managing always-on instances or wrestling with cloud provider consoles, you describe the workload and the skill spins up the right GPU, runs your code, then tears everything down. It is built for developers and small teams who need occasional heavy AI compute without monthly bills or DevOps overhead. The skill wraps Modal's Python SDK into reusable agent commands so you stay in your editor while the infrastructure appears only when needed and disappears when the job finishes.

  • Launches serverless GPU instances on Modal in one command
  • Integrates directly with Claude Code and Cursor agents
  • Pays only for the seconds your GPU workload runs
  • Handles model inference, fine-tuning, and batch jobs
  • Zero infrastructure maintenance for AI compute

Modal Serverless Gpu by the numbers

  • 518 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • Ranked #1,727 of 16,546 AI & Agent Building skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Data as of Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates --skill modal-serverless-gpu

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Listed on Skillselion
Installs518
repo stars30.1k
Last updatedAugust 4, 2026
Repositorydavila7/claude-code-templates

How do you run serverless GPU jobs from Claude Code?

Spin up on-demand GPU servers from Claude Code without managing persistent infrastructure.

Who is it for?

Developers who need burst GPU capacity for ML inference or training without maintaining always-on GPU instances.

Skip if: Skip modal-serverless-gpu when workloads require dedicated bare-metal GPUs, on-prem clusters, or non-Modal cloud providers exclusively.

When should I use this skill?

A developer asks to run GPU workloads, deploy Modal functions, or get serverless GPU compute from a coding agent.

What you get

Modal GPU function deployment, serverless inference endpoint, and ephemeral compute session configuration.

  • Modal GPU function deployment
  • serverless inference configuration

By the numbers

  • Records 514 installs on skills.sh catalog metadata

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Modal Serverless GPU

Comprehensive guide to running ML workloads on Modal's serverless GPU cloud platform.

When to use Modal

Use Modal when:

  • Running GPU-intensive ML workloads without managing infrastructure
  • Deploying ML models as auto-scaling APIs
  • Running batch processing jobs (training, inference, data processing)
  • Need pay-per-second GPU pricing without idle costs
  • Prototyping ML applications quickly
  • Running scheduled jobs (cron-like workloads)

Key features:

  • Serverless GPUs: T4, L4, A10G, L40S, A100, H100, H200, B200 on-demand
  • Python-native: Define infrastructure in Python code, no YAML
  • Auto-scaling: Scale to zero, scale to 100+ GPUs instantly
  • Sub-second cold starts: Rust-based infrastructure for fast container launches
  • Container caching: Image layers cached for rapid iteration
  • Web endpoints: Deploy functions as REST APIs with zero-downtime updates

Use alternatives instead:

  • RunPod: For longer-running pods with persistent state
  • Lambda Labs: For reserved GPU instances
  • SkyPilot: For multi-cloud orchestration and cost optimization
  • Kubernetes: For complex multi-service architectures

Quick start

Installation

pip install modal
modal setup  # Opens browser for authentication

Hello World with GPU

import modal

app = modal.App("hello-gpu")

@app.function(gpu="T4")
def gpu_info():
    import subprocess
    return subprocess.run(["nvidia-smi"], capture_output=True, text=True).stdout

@app.local_entrypoint()
def main():
    print(gpu_info.remote())

Run: modal run hello_gpu.py

Basic inference endpoint

import modal

app = modal.App("text-generation")
image = modal.Image.debian_slim().pip_install("transformers", "torch", "accelerate")

@app.cls(gpu="A10G", image=image)
class TextGenerator:
    @modal.enter()
    def load_model(self):
        from transformers import pipeline
        self.pipe = pipeline("text-generation", model="gpt2", device=0)

    @modal.method()
    def generate(self, prompt: str) -> str:
        return self.pipe(prompt, max_length=100)[0]["generated_text"]

@app.local_entrypoint()
def main():
    print(TextGenerator().generate.remote("Hello, world"))

Core concepts

Key components

ComponentPurpose
AppContainer for functions and resources
FunctionServerless function with compute specs
ClsClass-based functions with lifecycle hooks
ImageContainer image definition
VolumePersistent storage for models/data
SecretSecure credential storage

Execution modes

CommandDescription
modal run script.pyExecute and exit
modal serve script.pyDevelopment with live reload
modal deploy script.pyPersistent cloud deployment

GPU configuration

Available GPUs

GPUVRAMBest For
T416GBBudget inference, small models
L424GBInference, Ada Lovelace arch
A10G24GBTraining/inference, 3.3x faster than T4
L40S48GBRecommended for inference (best cost/perf)
A100-40GB40GBLarge model training
A100-80GB80GBVery large models
H10080GBFastest, FP8 + Transformer Engine
H200141GBAuto-upgrade from H100, 4.8TB/s bandwidth
B200LatestBlackwell architecture

GPU specification patterns

# Single GPU
@app.function(gpu="A100")

# Specific memory variant
@app.function(gpu="A100-80GB")

# Multiple GPUs (up to 8)
@app.function(gpu="H100:4")

# GPU with fallbacks
@app.function(gpu=["H100", "A100", "L40S"])

# Any available GPU
@app.function(gpu="any")

Container images

# Basic image with pip
image = modal.Image.debian_slim(python_version="3.11").pip_install(
    "torch==2.1.0", "transformers==4.36.0", "accelerate"
)

# From CUDA base
image = modal.Image.from_registry(
    "nvidia/cuda:12.1.0-cudnn8-devel-ubuntu22.04",
    add_python="3.11"
).pip_install("torch", "transformers")

# With system packages
image = modal.Image.debian_slim().apt_install("git", "ffmpeg").pip_install("whisper")

Persistent storage

volume = modal.Volume.from_name("model-cache", create_if_missing=True)

@app.function(gpu="A10G", volumes={"/models": volume})
def load_model():
    import os
    model_path = "/models/llama-7b"
    if not os.path.exists(model_path):
        model = download_model()
        model.save_pretrained(model_path)
        volume.commit()  # Persist changes
    return load_from_path(model_path)

Web endpoints

FastAPI endpoint decorator

@app.function()
@modal.fastapi_endpoint(method="POST")
def predict(text: str) -> dict:
    return {"result": model.predict(text)}

Full ASGI app

from fastapi import FastAPI
web_app = FastAPI()

@web_app.post("/predict")
async def predict(text: str):
    return {"result": await model.predict.remote.aio(text)}

@app.function()
@modal.asgi_app()
def fastapi_app():
    return web_app

Web endpoint types

DecoratorUse Case
@modal.fastapi_endpoint()Simple function → API
@modal.asgi_app()Full FastAPI/Starlette apps
@modal.wsgi_app()Django/Flask apps
@modal.web_server(port)Arbitrary HTTP servers

Dynamic batching

@app.function()
@modal.batched(max_batch_size=32, wait_ms=100)
async def batch_predict(inputs: list[str]) -> list[dict]:
    # Inputs automatically batched
    return model.batch_predict(inputs)

Secrets management

# Create secret
modal secret create huggingface HF_TOKEN=hf_xxx
@app.function(secrets=[modal.Secret.from_name("huggingface")])
def download_model():
    import os
    token = os.environ["HF_TOKEN"]

Scheduling

@app.function(schedule=modal.Cron("0 0 * * *"))  # Daily midnight
def daily_job():
    pass

@app.function(schedule=modal.Period(hours=1))
def hourly_job():
    pass

Performance optimization

Cold start mitigation

@app.function(
    container_idle_timeout=300,  # Keep warm 5 min
    allow_concurrent_inputs=10,  # Handle concurrent requests
)
def inference():
    pass

Model loading best practices

@app.cls(gpu="A100")
class Model:
    @modal.enter()  # Run once at container start
    def load(self):
        self.model = load_model()  # Load during warm-up

    @modal.method()
    def predict(self, x):
        return self.model(x)

Parallel processing

@app.function()
def process_item(item):
    return expensive_computation(item)

@app.function()
def run_parallel():
    items = list(range(1000))
    # Fan out to parallel containers
    results = list(process_item.map(items))
    return results

Common configuration

@app.function(
    gpu="A100",
    memory=32768,              # 32GB RAM
    cpu=4,                     # 4 CPU cores
    timeout=3600,              # 1 hour max
    container_idle_timeout=120,# Keep warm 2 min
    retries=3,                 # Retry on failure
    concurrency_limit=10,      # Max concurrent containers
)
def my_function():
    pass

Debugging

# Test locally
if __name__ == "__main__":
    result = my_function.local()

# View logs
# modal app logs my-app

Common issues

IssueSolution
Cold start latencyIncrease container_idle_timeout, use @modal.enter()
GPU OOMUse larger GPU (A100-80GB), enable gradient checkpointing
Image build failsPin dependency versions, check CUDA compatibility
Timeout errorsIncrease timeout, add checkpointing

References

  • [Advanced Usage](references/advanced-usage.md) - Multi-GPU, distributed training, cost optimization
  • [Troubleshooting](references/troubleshooting.md) - Common issues and solutions

Resources

  • Documentation: https://modal.com/docs
  • Examples: https://github.com/modal-labs/modal-examples
  • Pricing: https://modal.com/pricing
  • Discord: https://discord.gg/modal

Related skills

FAQ

What does modal-serverless-gpu provide?

modal-serverless-gpu lets developers spin up on-demand GPU servers through Modal from Claude Code without managing persistent infrastructure. It targets inference, training, and batch ML jobs on ephemeral GPU capacity.

How popular is modal-serverless-gpu?

modal-serverless-gpu lists 514 installs on the skills.sh catalog from davila7/claude-code-templates, reflecting steady adoption among developers using agent-driven cloud GPU workflows.

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