[chat] generate parameterization powered by GenerationConfig and UX-related changes (#38047)

* accept arbitrary kwargs

* move user commands to a separate fn

* work with generation config files

* rm cmmt

* docs

* base generate flag doc section

* nits

* nits

* nits

* no <br>

* better basic args description

README.md

@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@ To chat with a model, the usage pattern is the same. The only difference is you
 > [!TIP]
 > You can also chat with a model directly from the command line.
 > ```shell
-> transformers chat --model_name_or_path Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct
+> transformers chat Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct
 > ```
 
 ```py

docs/source/en/conversations.md

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ This guide shows you how to quickly start chatting with Transformers from the co
 
 ## transformers CLI
 
-Chat with a model directly from the command line as shown below. It launches an interactive session with a model. Enter `clear` to reset the conversation, `exit` to terminate the session, and `help` to display all the command options.
+After you've [installed Transformers](./installation.md), chat with a model directly from the command line as shown below. It launches an interactive session with a model, with a few base commands listed at the start of the session.
 
 ```bash
 transformers chat Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct
@@ -37,6 +37,12 @@ transformers chat Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct
     <img src="https://huggingface.co/datasets/huggingface/documentation-images/resolve/main/transformers/transformers-chat-cli.png"/>
 </div>
 
+You can launch the CLI with arbitrary `generate` flags, with the format `arg_1=value_1 arg_2=value_2 ...`
+
+```bash
+transformers chat Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct do_sample=False max_new_tokens=10
+```
+
 For a full list of options, run the command below.
 
 ```bash

docs/source/en/llm_tutorial.md

@@ -20,9 +20,13 @@ rendered properly in your Markdown viewer.
 
 Text generation is the most popular application for large language models (LLMs). A LLM is trained to generate the next word (token) given some initial text (prompt) along with its own generated outputs up to a predefined length or when it reaches an end-of-sequence (`EOS`) token.
 
-In Transformers, the [`~GenerationMixin.generate`] API handles text generation, and it is available for all models with generative capabilities.
+In Transformers, the [`~GenerationMixin.generate`] API handles text generation, and it is available for all models with generative capabilities. This guide will show you the basics of text generation with [`~GenerationMixin.generate`] and some common pitfalls to avoid.
 
-This guide will show you the basics of text generation with [`~GenerationMixin.generate`] and some common pitfalls to avoid.
+> [!TIP]
+> You can also chat with a model directly from the command line. ([reference](./conversations.md#transformers-cli))
+> ```shell
+> transformers chat Qwen/Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct
+> ```
 
 ## Default generate
 
@@ -134,6 +138,20 @@ outputs = model.generate(**inputs, generation_config=generation_config)
 print(tokenizer.batch_decode(outputs, skip_special_tokens=True))
 ```
 
+## Common Options
+
+[`~GenerationMixin.generate`] is a powerful tool that can be heavily customized. This can be daunting for a new users. This section contains a list of popular generation options that you can define in most text generation tools in Transformers: [`~GenerationMixin.generate`], [`GenerationConfig`], `pipelines`, the `chat` CLI, ...
+
+| Option name | Type | Simplified description |
+|---|---|---|
+| `max_new_tokens` | `int` | Controls the maximum generation length. Be sure to define it, as it usually defaults to a small value. |
+| `do_sample` | `bool` | Defines whether generation will sample the next token (`True`), or is greedy instead (`False`). Most use cases should set this flag to `True`. Check [this guide](./generation_strategies.md) for more information. |
+| `temperature` | `float` | How unpredictable the next selected token will be. High values (`>0.8`) are good for creative tasks, low values (e.g. `<0.4`) for tasks that require "thinking". Requires `do_sample=True`. |
+| `num_beams` | `int` | When set to `>1`, activates the beam search algorithm. Beam search is good on input-grounded tasks. Check [this guide](./generation_strategies.md) for more information. |
+| `repetition_penalty` | `float` | Set it to `>1.0` if you're seeing the model repeat itself often. Larger values apply a larger penalty. |
+| `eos_token_id` | `List[int]` | The token(s) that will cause generation to stop. The default value is usually good, but you can specify a different token. |
+
+
 ## Pitfalls
 
 The section below covers some common issues you may encounter during text generation and how to solve them.
@@ -286,4 +304,4 @@ Take a look below for some more specific and specialized text generation librari
 - [SynCode](https://github.com/uiuc-focal-lab/syncode): a library for context-free grammar guided generation (JSON, SQL, Python).
 - [Text Generation Inference](https://github.com/huggingface/text-generation-inference): a production-ready server for LLMs.
 - [Text generation web UI](https://github.com/oobabooga/text-generation-webui): a Gradio web UI for text generation.
-- [logits-processor-zoo](https://github.com/NVIDIA/logits-processor-zoo): additional logits processors for controlling text generation.
+- [logits-processor-zoo](https://github.com/NVIDIA/logits-processor-zoo): additional logits processors for controlling text generation.

src/transformers/commands/chat.py

@@ -13,12 +13,12 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 
-import copy
 import json
 import os
 import platform
 import string
 import time
+import warnings
 from argparse import ArgumentParser, Namespace
 from dataclasses import dataclass, field
 from threading import Thread
@@ -42,7 +42,13 @@ if is_rich_available():
 if is_torch_available():
     import torch
 
-    from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer, BitsAndBytesConfig, TextIteratorStreamer
+    from transformers import (
+        AutoModelForCausalLM,
+        AutoTokenizer,
+        BitsAndBytesConfig,
+        GenerationConfig,
+        TextIteratorStreamer,
+    )
 
 
 ALLOWED_KEY_CHARS = set(string.ascii_letters + string.whitespace)
@@ -64,25 +70,16 @@ DEFAULT_EXAMPLES = {
     "socks": {"text": "Why is it important to eat socks after meditating?"},
 }
 
-SUPPORTED_GENERATION_KWARGS = [
-    "max_new_tokens",
-    "do_sample",
-    "num_beams",
-    "temperature",
-    "top_p",
-    "top_k",
-    "repetition_penalty",
-]
-
 # Printed at the start of a chat session
 HELP_STRING_MINIMAL = """
 
 **TRANSFORMERS CHAT INTERFACE**
 
 Chat interface to try out a model. Besides chatting with the model, here are some basic commands:
-- **help**: shows all available commands
+- **!help**: shows all available commands
-- **clear**: clears the current conversation and starts a new one
+- **!status**: shows the current status of the model and generation settings
-- **exit**: closes the interface
+- **!clear**: clears the current conversation and starts a new one
+- **!exit**: closes the interface
 """
 
 
@@ -92,18 +89,32 @@ HELP_STRING = f"""
 **TRANSFORMERS CHAT INTERFACE HELP**
 
 Full command list:
-- **help**: shows this help message
+- **!help**: shows this help message
-- **clear**: clears the current conversation and starts a new one
+- **!clear**: clears the current conversation and starts a new one
-- **example {{NAME}}**: loads example named `{{NAME}}` from the config and uses it as the user input. Available example
+- **!status**: shows the current status of the model and generation settings
-names: `{"`, `".join(DEFAULT_EXAMPLES.keys())}`
+- **!example {{NAME}}**: loads example named `{{NAME}}` from the config and uses it as the user input.
-- **set {{SETTING_NAME}}={{SETTING_VALUE}};**: changes the system prompt or generation settings (multiple settings are
+Available example names: `{"`, `".join(DEFAULT_EXAMPLES.keys())}`
-separated by a ';'). Available settings: `{"`, `".join(SUPPORTED_GENERATION_KWARGS)}`
+- **!set {{ARG_1}}={{VALUE_1}} {{ARG_2}}={{VALUE_2}}** ...: changes the system prompt or generation settings (multiple
-- **reset**: same as clear but also resets the generation configs to defaults if they have been changed by **set**
+settings are separated by a space). Accepts the same flags and format as the `generate_flags` CLI argument.
-- **save {{SAVE_NAME}} (optional)**: saves the current chat and settings to file by default to
+If you're a new user, check this basic flag guide: https://huggingface.co/docs/transformers/llm_tutorial#common-options
+- **!save {{SAVE_NAME}} (optional)**: saves the current chat and settings to file by default to
 `./chat_history/{{MODEL_NAME}}/chat_{{DATETIME}}.yaml` or `{{SAVE_NAME}}` if provided
-- **exit**: closes the interface
+- **!exit**: closes the interface
 """
 
+# format: (optional CLI arg being deprecated, its current default, corresponding `generate` flag)
+_DEPRECATION_MAP = [
+    ("max_new_tokens", 256, "max_new_tokens"),
+    ("do_sample", True, "do_sample"),
+    ("num_beams", 1, "num_beams"),
+    ("temperature", 1.0, "temperature"),
+    ("top_k", 50, "top_k"),
+    ("top_p", 1.0, "top_p"),
+    ("repetition_penalty", 1.0, "repetition_penalty"),
+    ("eos_tokens", None, "eos_token_id"),
+    ("eos_token_ids", None, "eos_token_id"),
+]
+
 
 class RichInterface:
     def __init__(self, model_name: Optional[str] = None, user_name: Optional[str] = None):
@@ -181,6 +192,14 @@ class RichInterface:
         self._console.print(Markdown(HELP_STRING_MINIMAL if minimal else HELP_STRING))
         self._console.print()
 
+    def print_status(self, model_name: str, generation_config: GenerationConfig, model_kwargs: dict):
+        """Prints the status of the model and generation settings to the console."""
+        self._console.print(f"[bold blue]Model: {model_name}\n")
+        if model_kwargs:
+            self._console.print(f"[bold blue]Model kwargs: {model_kwargs}")
+        self._console.print(f"[bold blue]{generation_config}")
+        self._console.print()
+
 
 @dataclass
 class ChatArguments:
@@ -207,6 +226,17 @@ class ChatArguments:
     examples_path: Optional[str] = field(default=None, metadata={"help": "Path to a yaml file with examples."})
 
     # Generation settings
+    generation_config: Optional[str] = field(
+        default=None,
+        metadata={
+            "help": (
+                "Path to a local generation config file or to a HuggingFace repo containing a "
+                "`generation_config.json` file. Other generation settings passed as CLI arguments will be applied on "
+                "top of this generation config."
+            ),
+        },
+    )
+    # Deprecated CLI args start here
     max_new_tokens: int = field(default=256, metadata={"help": "Maximum number of tokens to generate."})
     do_sample: bool = field(default=True, metadata={"help": "Whether to sample outputs during generation."})
     num_beams: int = field(default=1, metadata={"help": "Number of beams for beam search."})
@@ -222,6 +252,7 @@ class ChatArguments:
         default=None,
         metadata={"help": "EOS token IDs to stop the generation. If multiple they should be comma separated."},
     )
+    # Deprecated CLI args end here
 
     # Model loading
     model_revision: str = field(
@@ -280,23 +311,66 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
 
         group = chat_parser.add_argument_group("Positional arguments")
         group.add_argument(
-            "model_name_or_path_positional", type=str, nargs="?", default=None, help="Name of the pre-trained model."
+            "model_name_or_path_positional", type=str, default=None, help="Name of the pre-trained model."
+        )
+        group.add_argument(
+            "generate_flags",
+            type=str,
+            default=None,
+            help=(
+                "Flags to pass to `generate`, using a space as a separator between flags. Accepts booleans, numbers, "
+                "and lists of integers, more advanced parameterization should be set through --generation-config. "
+                "Example: `transformers chat <model_repo> max_new_tokens=100 do_sample=False eos_token_id=[1,2]`. "
+                "If you're a new user, check this basic flag guide: https://huggingface.co/docs/transformers/llm_tutorial#common-options"
+            ),
+            nargs="*",
         )
-
         chat_parser.set_defaults(func=chat_command_factory)
 
     def __init__(self, args):
-        args.model_name_or_path = args.model_name_or_path_positional or args.model_name_or_path
+        args = self._handle_deprecated_args(args)
+        self.args = args
 
-        if args.model_name_or_path is None:
+    def _handle_deprecated_args(self, args: ChatArguments) -> ChatArguments:
+        """
+        Handles deprecated arguments and their deprecation cycle. To be removed after we fully migrated to the new
+        args.
+        """
+        has_warnings = False
+
+        # 1. Model as a positional argument
+        args.model_name_or_path_positional = args.model_name_or_path_positional or args.model_name_or_path
+        if args.model_name_or_path_positional is None:
             raise ValueError(
                 "One of the following must be provided:"
-                "\n- The positional argument containing the model repo;"
+                "\n- The positional argument containing the model repo, e.g. `transformers chat <model_repo>`"
-                "\n- the optional --model_name_or_path argument, containing the model repo"
+                "\n- the optional --model_name_or_path argument, containing the model repo (deprecated)"
-                "\ne.g. transformers chat <model_repo> or transformers chat --model_name_or_path <model_repo>"
             )
+        elif args.model_name_or_path is not None:
+            has_warnings = True
+            warnings.warn(
+                "The --model_name_or_path argument is deprecated will be removed in v4.54.0. Use the positional "
+                "argument instead, e.g. `transformers chat <model_repo>`.",
+                FutureWarning,
+            )
+        # 2. Named generate option args
+        for deprecated_arg, default_value, new_arg in _DEPRECATION_MAP:
+            value = getattr(args, deprecated_arg)
+            if value != default_value:
+                has_warnings = True
+                warnings.warn(
+                    f"The --{deprecated_arg} argument is deprecated will be removed in v4.54.0. There are two "
+                    "alternative solutions to specify this generation option: \n"
+                    "1. Pass `--generation-config <path_to_file/Hub repo>` to specify a generation config.\n"
+                    "2. Pass `generate` flags through positional arguments, e.g. `transformers chat <model_repo> "
+                    f"{new_arg}={value}`",
+                    FutureWarning,
+                )
 
-        self.args = args
+        if has_warnings:
+            print("\n(Press enter to continue)")
+            input()
+        return args
 
     # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Chat session methods
@@ -319,7 +393,7 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
 
         if filename is None:
             time_str = time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S")
-            filename = f"{args.model_name_or_path}/chat_{time_str}.json"
+            filename = f"{args.model_name_or_path_positional}/chat_{time_str}.json"
             filename = os.path.join(folder, filename)
 
         os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(filename), exist_ok=True)
@@ -338,50 +412,95 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
 
     # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Input parsing methods
-    @staticmethod
+    def parse_generate_flags(self, generate_flags: list[str]) -> dict:
-    def parse_settings(
+        """Parses the generate flags from the user input into a dictionary of `generate` kwargs."""
-        user_input: str, current_args: ChatArguments, interface: RichInterface
+        if len(generate_flags) == 0:
-    ) -> tuple[ChatArguments, bool]:
+            return {}
-        """Parses the settings from the user input into the CLI arguments."""
-        settings = user_input[4:].strip().split(";")
-        settings = [(setting.split("=")[0], setting[len(setting.split("=")[0]) + 1 :]) for setting in settings]
-        settings = dict(settings)
-        error = False
 
-        for name in settings:
+        # Assumption: `generate_flags` is a list of strings, each string being a `flag=value` pair, that can be parsed
-            if hasattr(current_args, name):
+        # into a json string if we:
-                try:
+        # 1. Add quotes around each flag name
-                    if isinstance(getattr(current_args, name), bool):
+        generate_flags_as_dict = {'"' + flag.split("=")[0] + '"': flag.split("=")[1] for flag in generate_flags}
-                        if settings[name] == "True":
-                            settings[name] = True
-                        elif settings[name] == "False":
-                            settings[name] = False
-                        else:
-                            raise ValueError
-                    else:
-                        settings[name] = type(getattr(current_args, name))(settings[name])
-                except ValueError:
-                    error = True
-                    interface.print_color(
-                        text=f"Cannot cast setting {name} (={settings[name]}) to {type(getattr(current_args, name))}.",
-                        color="red",
-                    )
-            else:
-                interface.print_color(text=f"There is no '{name}' setting.", color="red")
 
-        if error:
+        # 2. Handle types:
-            interface.print_color(
+        # 2. a. booleans should be lowercase, None should be null
-                text="There was an issue parsing the settings. No settings have been changed.",
+        generate_flags_as_dict = {
-                color="red",
+            k: v.lower() if v.lower() in ["true", "false"] else v for k, v in generate_flags_as_dict.items()
+        }
+        generate_flags_as_dict = {k: "null" if v == "None" else v for k, v in generate_flags_as_dict.items()}
+
+        # 2. b. strings should be quoted
+        def is_number(s: str) -> bool:
+            return s.replace(".", "", 1).isdigit()
+
+        generate_flags_as_dict = {k: f'"{v}"' if not is_number(v) else v for k, v in generate_flags_as_dict.items()}
+        # 2. c. [no processing needed] lists are lists of ints because `generate` doesn't take lists of strings :)
+        # We also mention in the help message that we only accept lists of ints for now.
+
+        # 3. Join the the result into a comma separated string
+        generate_flags_string = ", ".join([f"{k}: {v}" for k, v in generate_flags_as_dict.items()])
+
+        # 4. Add the opening/closing brackets
+        generate_flags_string = "{" + generate_flags_string + "}"
+
+        # 5. Remove quotes around boolean/null and around lists
+        generate_flags_string = generate_flags_string.replace('"null"', "null")
+        generate_flags_string = generate_flags_string.replace('"true"', "true")
+        generate_flags_string = generate_flags_string.replace('"false"', "false")
+        generate_flags_string = generate_flags_string.replace('"[', "[")
+        generate_flags_string = generate_flags_string.replace(']"', "]")
+
+        # 6. Replace the `=` with `:`
+        generate_flags_string = generate_flags_string.replace("=", ":")
+
+        try:
+            processed_generate_flags = json.loads(generate_flags_string)
+        except json.JSONDecodeError:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "Failed to convert `generate_flags` into a valid JSON object."
+                "\n`generate_flags` = {generate_flags}"
+                "\nConverted JSON string = {generate_flags_string}"
             )
+        return processed_generate_flags
+
+    def get_generation_parameterization(
+        self, args: ChatArguments, tokenizer: AutoTokenizer
+    ) -> tuple[GenerationConfig, dict]:
+        """
+        Returns a GenerationConfig object holding the generation parameters for the CLI command.
+        """
+        # No generation config arg provided -> use base generation config, apply CLI defaults
+        if args.generation_config is None:
+            generation_config = GenerationConfig()
+            # Apply deprecated CLI args on top of the default generation config
+            pad_token_id, eos_token_ids = self.parse_eos_tokens(tokenizer, args.eos_tokens, args.eos_token_ids)
+            deprecated_kwargs = {
+                "max_new_tokens": args.max_new_tokens,
+                "do_sample": args.do_sample,
+                "num_beams": args.num_beams,
+                "temperature": args.temperature,
+                "top_k": args.top_k,
+                "top_p": args.top_p,
+                "repetition_penalty": args.repetition_penalty,
+                "pad_token_id": pad_token_id,
+                "eos_token_id": eos_token_ids,
+            }
+            generation_config.update(**deprecated_kwargs)
+        # generation config arg provided -> use it as the base parameterization
         else:
-            for name in settings:
+            if ".json" in args.generation_config:  # is a local file
-                setattr(current_args, name, settings[name])
+                dirname = os.path.dirname(args.generation_config)
-                interface.print_color(text=f"Set {name} to {settings[name]}.", color="green")
+                filename = os.path.basename(args.generation_config)
+                generation_config = GenerationConfig.from_pretrained(dirname, filename)
+            else:
+                generation_config = GenerationConfig.from_pretrained(args.generation_config)
 
-            time.sleep(1.5)  # so the user has time to read the changes
+        # Finally: parse and apply `generate_flags`
-
+        parsed_generate_flags = self.parse_generate_flags(args.generate_flags)
-        return current_args, not error
+        model_kwargs = generation_config.update(**parsed_generate_flags)
+        # `model_kwargs` contain non-generation flags in `parsed_generate_flags` that should be passed directly to
+        # `generate`
+        return generation_config, model_kwargs
 
     @staticmethod
     def parse_eos_tokens(
@@ -406,36 +525,6 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
 
         return pad_token_id, all_eos_token_ids
 
-    @staticmethod
-    def is_valid_setting_command(s: str) -> bool:
-        # First check the basic structure
-        if not s.startswith("set ") or "=" not in s:
-            return False
-
-        # Split into individual assignments
-        assignments = [a.strip() for a in s[4:].split(";") if a.strip()]
-
-        for assignment in assignments:
-            # Each assignment should have exactly one '='
-            if assignment.count("=") != 1:
-                return False
-
-            key, value = assignment.split("=", 1)
-            key = key.strip()
-            value = value.strip()
-            if not key or not value:
-                return False
-
-            # Keys can only have alphabetic characters, spaces and underscores
-            if not set(key).issubset(ALLOWED_KEY_CHARS):
-                return False
-
-            # Values can have just about anything that isn't a semicolon
-            if not set(value).issubset(ALLOWED_VALUE_CHARS):
-                return False
-
-        return True
-
     # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Model loading and performance automation methods
     @staticmethod
@@ -460,7 +549,7 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
 
     def load_model_and_tokenizer(self, args: ChatArguments) -> tuple[AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer]:
         tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(
-            args.model_name_or_path,
+            args.model_name_or_path_positional,
             revision=args.model_revision,
             trust_remote_code=args.trust_remote_code,
         )
@@ -475,7 +564,7 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
             "quantization_config": quantization_config,
         }
         model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
-            args.model_name_or_path, trust_remote_code=args.trust_remote_code, **model_kwargs
+            args.model_name_or_path_positional, trust_remote_code=args.trust_remote_code, **model_kwargs
         )
 
         if getattr(model, "hf_device_map", None) is None:
@@ -483,6 +572,88 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
 
         return model, tokenizer
 
+    # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+    # User commands
+    def handle_non_exit_user_commands(
+        self,
+        user_input: str,
+        args: ChatArguments,
+        interface: RichInterface,
+        examples: dict[str, dict[str, str]],
+        generation_config: GenerationConfig,
+        model_kwargs: dict,
+        chat: list[dict],
+    ) -> tuple[list[dict], GenerationConfig, dict]:
+        """
+        Handles all user commands except for `!exit`. May update the chat history (e.g. reset it) or the
+        generation config (e.g. set a new flag).
+        """
+
+        if user_input == "!clear":
+            chat = self.clear_chat_history(args.system_prompt)
+            interface.clear()
+
+        elif user_input == "!help":
+            interface.print_help()
+
+        elif user_input.startswith("!save") and len(user_input.split()) < 2:
+            split_input = user_input.split()
+
+            if len(split_input) == 2:
+                filename = split_input[1]
+            else:
+                filename = None
+            filename = self.save_chat(chat, args, filename)
+            interface.print_color(text=f"Chat saved in {filename}!", color="green")
+
+        elif user_input.startswith("!set"):
+            # splits the new args into a list of strings, each string being a `flag=value` pair (same format as
+            # `generate_flags`)
+            new_generate_flags = user_input[4:].strip()
+            new_generate_flags = new_generate_flags.split()
+            # sanity check: each member in the list must have an =
+            for flag in new_generate_flags:
+                if "=" not in flag:
+                    interface.print_color(
+                        text=(
+                            f"Invalid flag format, missing `=` after `{flag}`. Please use the format "
+                            "`arg_1=value_1 arg_2=value_2 ...`."
+                        ),
+                        color="red",
+                    )
+                    break
+            else:
+                # parses the new args into a dictionary of `generate` kwargs, and updates the corresponding variables
+                parsed_new_generate_flags = self.parse_generate_flags(new_generate_flags)
+                new_model_kwargs = generation_config.update(**parsed_new_generate_flags)
+                model_kwargs.update(**new_model_kwargs)
+
+        elif user_input.startswith("!example") and len(user_input.split()) == 2:
+            example_name = user_input.split()[1]
+            if example_name in examples:
+                interface.clear()
+                chat = []
+                interface.print_user_message(examples[example_name]["text"])
+                chat.append({"role": "user", "content": examples[example_name]["text"]})
+            else:
+                example_error = (
+                    f"Example {example_name} not found in list of available examples: {list(examples.keys())}."
+                )
+                interface.print_color(text=example_error, color="red")
+
+        elif user_input == "!status":
+            interface.print_status(
+                model_name=args.model_name_or_path_positional,
+                generation_config=generation_config,
+                model_kwargs=model_kwargs,
+            )
+
+        else:
+            interface.print_color(text=f"'{user_input}' is not a valid command. Showing help message.", color="red")
+            interface.print_help()
+
+        return chat, generation_config, model_kwargs
+
     # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Main logic
     def run(self):
@@ -498,8 +669,6 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
             with open(args.examples_path) as f:
                 examples = yaml.safe_load(f)
 
-        current_args = copy.deepcopy(args)
-
         if args.user is None:
             user = self.get_username()
         else:
@@ -507,12 +676,11 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
 
         model, tokenizer = self.load_model_and_tokenizer(args)
         generation_streamer = TextIteratorStreamer(tokenizer, skip_special_tokens=True, skip_prompt=True)
+        generation_config, model_kwargs = self.get_generation_parameterization(args, tokenizer)
 
-        pad_token_id, eos_token_ids = self.parse_eos_tokens(tokenizer, args.eos_tokens, args.eos_token_ids)
+        interface = RichInterface(model_name=args.model_name_or_path_positional, user_name=user)
-
-        interface = RichInterface(model_name=args.model_name_or_path, user_name=user)
         interface.clear()
-        chat = self.clear_chat_history(current_args.system_prompt)
+        chat = self.clear_chat_history(args.system_prompt)
 
         # Starts the session with a minimal help message at the top, so that a user doesn't get stuck
         interface.print_help(minimal=True)
@@ -520,57 +688,26 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
             try:
                 user_input = interface.input()
 
-                if user_input == "clear":
+                # User commands
-                    chat = self.clear_chat_history(current_args.system_prompt)
+                if user_input.startswith("!"):
-                    interface.clear()
+                    # `!exit` is special, it breaks the loop
-                    continue
+                    if user_input == "!exit":
-
+                        break
-                if user_input == "help":
-                    interface.print_help()
-                    continue
-
-                if user_input == "exit":
-                    break
-
-                if user_input == "reset":
-                    interface.clear()
-                    current_args = copy.deepcopy(args)
-                    chat = self.clear_chat_history(current_args.system_prompt)
-                    continue
-
-                if user_input.startswith("save") and len(user_input.split()) < 2:
-                    split_input = user_input.split()
-
-                    if len(split_input) == 2:
-                        filename = split_input[1]
                     else:
-                        filename = None
+                        chat, generation_config, model_kwargs = self.handle_non_exit_user_commands(
-                    filename = self.save_chat(chat, current_args, filename)
+                            user_input=user_input,
-                    interface.print_color(text=f"Chat saved in {filename}!", color="green")
+                            args=args,
-                    continue
+                            interface=interface,
-
+                            examples=examples,
-                if self.is_valid_setting_command(user_input):
+                            generation_config=generation_config,
-                    current_args, success = self.parse_settings(user_input, current_args, interface)
+                            model_kwargs=model_kwargs,
-                    if success:
+                            chat=chat,
-                        chat = []
-                        interface.clear()
-                        continue
-
-                if user_input.startswith("example") and len(user_input.split()) == 2:
-                    example_name = user_input.split()[1]
-                    if example_name in examples:
-                        interface.clear()
-                        chat = []
-                        interface.print_user_message(examples[example_name]["text"])
-                        user_input = examples[example_name]["text"]
-                    else:
-                        example_error = (
-                            f"Example {example_name} not found in list of available examples: {list(examples.keys())}."
                         )
-                        interface.print_color(text=example_error, color="red")
+                    # `!example` sends a user message to the model
+                    if not user_input.startswith("!example"):
                         continue
-
+                else:
-                chat.append({"role": "user", "content": user_input})
+                    chat.append({"role": "user", "content": user_input})
 
                 inputs = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(chat, return_tensors="pt", add_generation_prompt=True).to(
                     model.device
@@ -580,15 +717,8 @@ class ChatCommand(BaseTransformersCLICommand):
                     "inputs": inputs,
                     "attention_mask": attention_mask,
                     "streamer": generation_streamer,
-                    "max_new_tokens": current_args.max_new_tokens,
+                    "generation_config": generation_config,
-                    "do_sample": current_args.do_sample,
+                    **model_kwargs,
-                    "num_beams": current_args.num_beams,
-                    "temperature": current_args.temperature,
-                    "top_k": current_args.top_k,
-                    "top_p": current_args.top_p,
-                    "repetition_penalty": current_args.repetition_penalty,
-                    "pad_token_id": pad_token_id,
-                    "eos_token_id": eos_token_ids,
                 }
 
                 thread = Thread(target=model.generate, kwargs=generation_kwargs)