Managing models

After creating a model registry, you can manage models in it using different methods depending on the registry type.

Hugging Face model registry: Models are stored on the Hugging Face platform. Refer to the Hugging Face official documentation to manage models.
File system model registry: Models are stored locally. Use the Neutree CLI tool to push, list, or delete models as described in this section. You can also download models from Hugging Face and push them to a file system model registry.

Prerequisites

Before managing models in a file system model registry, complete the following:

Download version 1.0.1 of the Neutree CLI tool for your server’s CPU architecture.

Neutree CLI tool communicates with Neutree via HTTP API. Ensure network connectivity between the CLI tool and Neutree.
Grant executable permission to the CLI tool.
Terminal window
```
chmod +x neutree-cli-<arch>
```
You can view the help information for the tool with the following command:
Terminal window
```
neutree-cli-<arch> model -h
```
Create an API key and save it securely.

Pushing a model

Use the Neutree CLI tool to push a local model to a file system model registry:

neutree-cli-<arch> model push <local_model_dir> \
  -n <model_name> \
  -d [model_description] \
  -v [model_version] \
  -r <model_registry> \
  -w [workspace] \
  --api-key <api_key> \
  --server-url <server_url>

Parameter descriptions:

Parameter	Description
`<local_model_dir>`	The local directory where the model is stored.
`<model_name>`	The name under which the model is stored in the model registry. The `/` character is not currently supported in file system model registry model names — use another character instead, such as `_`. If you use a model catalog when creating an endpoint, ensure this model name matches the model name in the model catalog.
`[model_description]`	Optional. A description of the model.
`[model_version]`	Optional. The version of the model. If left blank, the system generates one automatically. Multiple versions of a model with the same name can exist in a model registry.
`<model_registry>`	The name of the target model registry.
`[workspace]`	Optional. The name of the workspace. Defaults to the `default` workspace if left blank.
`<api_key>`	The API key created in the prerequisites.
`<server_url>`	The address of the control plane, for example `http://localhost:3000`.

If your network environment is restricted and the model files are already on the node where the NFS storage resides, refer to Manually importing models into the model registry to import models using a script.

Viewing models

Use the following command to view models in a file system model registry:

neutree-cli-<arch> model list -r <model_registry> \
  -w [workspace] \
  --api-key <api_key> \
  --server-url <server_url>

Parameter descriptions:

Parameter	Description
`<model_registry>`	The name of the target model registry.
`[workspace]`	Optional. The name of the workspace. Defaults to the `default` workspace if left blank.
`<api_key>`	The API key created in the prerequisites.
`<server_url>`	The address of the control plane, for example `http://localhost:3000`.

Deleting a model

Use the following command to delete a model from a file system model registry:

neutree-cli-<arch> model delete <model_name>:<model_version> \
  -r <model_registry> \
  -w [workspace] \
  --api-key <api_key> \
  --server-url <server_url>

Parameter descriptions:

Parameter	Description
`<model_name>`	The name of the model in the model registry.
`<model_version>`	The version of the model. If no version was specified when pushing the model, check the model versions first.
`<model_registry>`	The name of the target model registry.
`[workspace]`	Optional. The name of the workspace. Defaults to the `default` workspace if left blank.
`<api_key>`	The API key created in the prerequisites.
`<server_url>`	The address of the control plane, for example `http://localhost:3000`.

Downloading a model from Hugging Face

Skip this section for file system model registries.

Install the Hugging Face CLI tool. Refer to the Hugging Face official documentation.
Log in to Hugging Face:
Terminal window
```
hf auth login
```
Use the hf download command to download a model to a local directory. The following examples cover common scenarios:
- Downloading a complete model
  
  Downloads the complete model from Hugging Face to a local directory, for example, downloading the Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B model to ./test-model:
  Terminal window
```
hf download Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B --local-dir ./test-model
```
- Selectively downloading specific files
  
  For large model repositories, use --include and --exclude to control what is downloaded:
  - Download only a specific precision variant. For example, download only the Q8.0 GGUF model:
    Terminal window
    hf download microsoft/Phi-3-mini-4k-instruct-gguf \ --include "*q8_0.gguf" \ --local-dir ./phi3-q8
  - Download multiple types of key files. For example, download the Q8.0 model along with configuration files:
    Terminal window
    hf download microsoft/Phi-3-mini-4k-instruct-gguf \ --include "*q8_0.gguf" \ --include "*.json" \ --include "*.txt" \ --local-dir ./phi3-q8
  - Exclude unnecessary large files. For example, download Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B but exclude large weight files:
    Terminal window
    hf download Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B \ --exclude "*.safetensors" \ --exclude "pytorch_model.bin" \ --local-dir ./qwen3-lightweight

After downloading the model to a local directory and completing the prerequisites, you can push, view, or delete models as needed.