首先看一下KL的基础公式
KL
KL1:
大模型的KL一般是反向的:
(xsimpi_theta(cdot|o_{<t})) 代表 当前模型根据前t-1个token采样得到第t个token x
KL3(GRPO使用的无偏,低方差KL1估计) http://joschu.net/blog/kl-approx.html:
- 正向KL:倾向于使模型分布 Q 覆盖目标分布 P 的所有支持点,适合于需要模型分布更广泛覆盖的情况。
- 反向KL:倾向于使模型分布 Q 集中在目标分布 P 的高概率区域,适合于生成任务,能够提高生成样本的质量和稳定性。
因此,在大语言模型和生成任务中,反向KL通常更受青睐。
不同RL算法 loss的计算
对于q的第(i)个sample的第(t)个token的loss: (loss_{i,t}=pg_loss_{i,t}+entropy_loss_{i, t}+kl_loss_{i,t})
再对一个batch中所有的token loss (loss_{i,t})做聚合agg,得到这个batch的整体loss,可用于后续的反向传播和模型更新。
| 每个token的loss | (pg_loss_{i,t}) | (kl_loss_{i,t}) | loss agg mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| PPO | (max(IS_{i,t}*-A_{i,t},clip(IS_{i,t})*-A_{i,t})) | (r_t=-mathbb{D1}_{KL}(pi_{old}||pi_{ref})+r_t) | (frac{1}{G}sum_{i=1}^Gfrac{1}{|o_i|}sum_{t=1}^{|o_i|}loss_{i,t}) seq-mean-token-mean |
| Dual-clip PPO | for A<0, (min(max(IS_{i,t}*-A_{i,t},clip(IS_{i,t})*-A), clip_c*-A)) |
(r_t=-mathbb{D1}_{KL}(pi_{old}||pi_{ref})+r_t) | (frac{1}{G}sum_{i=1}^Gfrac{1}{|o_i|}sum_{t=1}^{|o_i|}loss_{i,t}) seq-mean-token-mean |
| GRPO | (max(IS_{i,t}*-A_{i,t},clip(IS_{i,t})*-A_{i,t})) | (beta*mathbb{D3}_{KL}(pi_{theta}||pi_{ref})) | (frac{1}{G}sum_{i=1}^Gfrac{1}{|o_i|}sum_{t=1}^{|o_i|}loss_{i,t}) seq-mean-token-mean |
| GSPO | (IS_{i,t} = sg[frac{pi_{theta}(o_i|q)}{pi_{old}(o_i|q)}]*frac{pi_theta(o_{i,t}|q,o_{i,<t})}{sg[pi_{theta}(o_{i,t}|q,o_{i,<t})]}) (max(IS_{i,t}*-A_{i,t},clip(IS_{i,t})*-A_{i,t})) |
(beta*mathbb{D3}_{KL}(pi_{theta}||pi_{ref})) | (frac{1}{G}sum_{i=1}^Gfrac{1}{|o_i|}sum_{t=1}^{|o_i|}loss_{i,t}) seq-mean-token-mean |
| DAPO | (max(IS_{i,t}*-A_{i,t},clip(IS_{i,t})*-A_{i,t})) | (beta*mathbb{D3}_{KL}(pi_{theta}||pi_{ref})) | (frac{1}{sum_{i=1}^G|o_i|}sum_{i=1}^Gsum_{t=1}^{|o_i|}loss_{i,t}) token-mean |
PPO
优化目标:
优势: GAE
递推公式,t步的累积优势=t步的优势+ t+1步的累积优势=t步及之后 每一步的优势=t步及之后所有的奖励-第t步的预计奖励
奖励:
verl/trainer/ppo/ray_trainer.py verl | 如何在奖励中添加KL惩罚项?
################################################### # 将KL惩罚loss应用到reward中。原始的reward是[0, 0, 0, ..., RM(q,o_i)] # return KL(pi_old||pi_{ref}) + reward ################################################### def apply_kl_penalty(data: DataProto, kl_ctrl: core_algos.AdaptiveKLController, kl_penalty="kl"): """Apply KL penalty to the token-level rewards. This function computes the KL divergence between the reference policy and current policy, then applies a penalty to the token-level rewards based on this divergence. Args: data (DataProto): The data containing batched model outputs and inputs. kl_ctrl (core_algos.AdaptiveKLController): Controller for adaptive KL penalty. kl_penalty (str, optional): Type of KL penalty to apply. Defaults to "kl". Returns: tuple: A tuple containing: - The updated data with token-level rewards adjusted by KL penalty - A dictionary of metrics related to the KL penalty """ response_mask = data.batch["response_mask"] token_level_scores = data.batch["token_level_scores"] batch_size = data.batch.batch_size[0] # compute kl between ref_policy and current policy # When apply_kl_penalty, algorithm.use_kl_in_reward=True, so the reference model has been enabled. kld = core_algos.kl_penalty( data.batch["old_log_probs"], data.batch["ref_log_prob"], kl_penalty=kl_penalty ) # (batch_size, response_length) kld = kld * response_mask beta = kl_ctrl.value token_level_rewards = token_level_scores - beta * kld
KL
PPO的KL散度是old到ref的
PPO的代码实现详见下面的Dual-clip PPO(PPO的改进版)
Dual-clip PPO
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.09729:对A<0的token的重要性采样IS做clip
论文发现当A<0时,重要性采样的比值*A可以是负无穷,这会导致训练不稳定(梯度爆炸)的现象,因此在ppo的clip上,对于A<0又进一步添加了新的clip (clip_ratio_c)。
代码:
整体的ppo_loss是由pg_loss + kl_loss + entropy_loss构成,不同的RL方法pg_loss, kl_loss的计算方法是不同的。
- pg_loss:具体于
verl/trainer/ppo/core_algos.py(我将在dual-clip ppo和gspo部分介绍对应的pg_loss代码)。 - kl_loss:同样位于
verl/trainer/ppo/core_algos.py(我将会在grpo部分介绍具体的low_var_kl代码)。
verl/verl/workers/roles/utils/losses.py: ppo_loss的计算
###################################################### # 此函数用于计算整体的actor loss ###################################################### def ppo_loss(config: ActorConfig, model_output, data: TensorDict, dp_group=None): log_prob = model_output["log_probs"] entropy = model_output.get("entropy", None) log_prob = no_padding_2_padding(log_prob, data) # (bsz, response_length) if entropy is not None: entropy = no_padding_2_padding(entropy, data) # (bsz, response_length) metrics = {} response_mask = data["response_mask"].to(bool) # compute policy loss old_log_prob = data["old_log_probs"] advantages = data["advantages"] loss_agg_mode = config.loss_agg_mode loss_mode = config.policy_loss.get("loss_mode", "vanilla") policy_loss_fn = get_policy_loss_fn(loss_mode) # 调用下面的计算pg_loss的代码框 pg_loss, pg_clipfrac, ppo_kl, pg_clipfrac_lower = policy_loss_fn( old_log_prob=old_log_prob, log_prob=log_prob, advantages=advantages, response_mask=response_mask, loss_agg_mode=loss_agg_mode, config=config, ) metrics.update( { "pg_loss": pg_loss.detach().item(), "pg_clipfrac": pg_clipfrac.detach().item(), "ppo_kl": ppo_kl.detach().item(), "pg_clipfrac_lower": pg_clipfrac_lower.detach().item(), } ) policy_loss = pg_loss # 是否使用entropy loss # add entropy loss if entropy is not None: entropy_loss = agg_loss(loss_mat=entropy, loss_mask=response_mask, loss_agg_mode=loss_agg_mode) entropy_coeff = config.entropy_coeff # token的entropy越大越好,而loss是越小越好,因此是 减去 entropy policy_loss -= entropy_coeff * entropy_loss # 是否使用KL loss(grpo/gspo使用,ppo/dapo不使用) # add kl loss if config.use_kl_loss: ref_log_prob = data["ref_log_prob"] # compute kl loss kld = kl_penalty(logprob=log_prob, ref_logprob=ref_log_prob, kl_penalty=config.kl_loss_type) kl_loss = agg_loss(loss_mat=kld, loss_mask=response_mask, loss_agg_mode=config.loss_agg_mode) policy_loss += kl_loss * config.kl_loss_coef metrics["kl_loss"] = kl_loss.detach().item() metrics["kl_coef"] = config.kl_loss_coef return policy_loss, metrics
verl/trainer/ppo/core_algos.py不同的RL方法计算pg_loss是不同的,这里的是ppo的pg_loss,后面还会介绍gspo的pg_loss的实现。
###################################################### # 此函数用于计算pg_loss,并不计算KL惩罚项 ###################################################### @register_policy_loss("vanilla") # type: ignore[arg-type] def compute_policy_loss_vanilla( old_log_prob: torch.Tensor, log_prob: torch.Tensor, advantages: torch.Tensor, response_mask: torch.Tensor, loss_agg_mode: str = "token-mean", config: Optional[DictConfig | AlgoConfig] = None, rollout_is_weights: torch.Tensor | None = None, ) -> tuple[torch.Tensor, torch.Tensor, torch.Tensor, torch.Tensor]: """ Compute the clipped policy objective and related metrics for PPO. Adapted from https://github.com/huggingface/trl/blob/main/trl/trainer/ppo_trainer.py#L1122 Args: old_log_prob (torch.Tensor): Log-probabilities of actions under the old policy, shape (batch_size, response_length). log_prob (torch.Tensor): Log-probabilities of actions under the current policy, shape (batch_size, response_length). advantages (torch.Tensor): Advantage estimates for each action, shape (batch_size, response_length). response_mask (torch.Tensor): Mask indicating which tokens to include in the loss, shape (batch_size, response_length). loss_agg_mode (str, optional): Aggregation mode for `agg_loss`. Defaults to "token-mean". config: `(verl.trainer.config.ActorConfig)`: config for the actor. rollout_log_probs: `(torch.Tensor)`: log probabilities of actions under the rollout policy, shape (batch_size, response_length). """ assert config is not None assert not isinstance(config, AlgoConfig) clip_ratio = config.clip_ratio # Clipping parameter ε for standard PPO. See https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06347. clip_ratio_low = config.clip_ratio_low if config.clip_ratio_low is not None else clip_ratio clip_ratio_high = config.clip_ratio_high if config.clip_ratio_high is not None else clip_ratio clip_ratio_c = config.get( # Lower bound of the ratio for dual-clip PPO. See https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.09729. "clip_ratio_c", 3.0 ) cliprange = clip_ratio cliprange_low = clip_ratio_low cliprange_high = clip_ratio_high assert clip_ratio_c > 1.0, ( "The lower bound of the clip_ratio_c for dual-clip PPO should be greater than 1.0," + f" but get the value: {clip_ratio_c}." ) # 计算每一个token的重要性采样的比值的log # log(pi_{theta}(o_{i,t}|q,o_{i,<t}))-log(pi_{old}(o_{i,t}|q,o_{i<t})) negative_approx_kl = log_prob - old_log_prob # 对IS的log做clip,避免过大或过小 # Clamp negative_approx_kl for stability negative_approx_kl = torch.clamp(negative_approx_kl, min=-20.0, max=20.0) # 这里ratio是真正的IS 重要性采样 ratio = torch.exp(negative_approx_kl) # 计算出-IS在token-level上的均值 ppo_kl = verl_F.masked_mean(-negative_approx_kl, response_mask) ###################################################### # 下面开始计算pg_loss= #A>0, max(ratio*-A, clip(ratio, 1-epsilon_low, 1+epsilon_high)*-A) #A<0, min(max(ratio*-A, clip(ratio, 1-epsilon_low, 1+epsilon_high)*-A), clip_ratio_c*-A) ###################################################### pg_losses1 = -advantages * ratio if cliprange_low is None: cliprange_low = cliprange if cliprange_high is None: cliprange_high = cliprange # clip后的loss pg_losses2 = -advantages * torch.clamp( ratio, 1 - cliprange_low, 1 + cliprange_high ) # - clip(ratio, 1-cliprange, 1+cliprange) * A # ppo per token loss clip_pg_losses1 = torch.maximum( pg_losses1, pg_losses2 ) # max(-ratio * A, -clip(ratio, 1-cliprange, 1+cliprange) * A) # 计算被才剪掉的token在 这个batch的所有未mask的token的比例(axis=None)【常数】 pg_clipfrac = verl_F.masked_mean(torch.gt(pg_losses2, pg_losses1).float(), response_mask) # 这里是dual-clip PPO提出,使用clip_ratio_c限制A<0的token的loss pg_losses3 = -advantages * clip_ratio_c # min(max(ratio*-A, clip(ratio, 1-epsilon_low, 1+epsilon_high)*-A), clip_ratio_c*-A) clip_pg_losses2 = torch.min(pg_losses3, clip_pg_losses1) # 记录在传统ppo下,进一步裁减的A<0的IS大于clip_ratio_c的token在 这个batch的所有未mask的token的比例【常数】 pg_clipfrac_lower = verl_F.masked_mean( torch.gt(clip_pg_losses1, pg_losses3) * (advantages < 0).float(), response_mask ) # pg_losses是分段函数(记录每个token的loss),A<0时用clip_pg_losses2, A>=0时用clip_pg_losses1 pg_losses = torch.where(advantages < 0, clip_pg_losses2, clip_pg_losses1) # pg_losses: (bsz, response_length) # 如何计算一整个batch的所有token的整体loss。这有多种方式,主要看配置的loss_agg_mode pg_loss = agg_loss(loss_mat=pg_losses, loss_mask=response_mask, loss_agg_mode=loss_agg_mode) return pg_loss, pg_clipfrac, ppo_kl, pg_clipfrac_lower
咱们继续看几种token loss的agg mode。不同RL方法,loss agg mode也是不同的
verl/trainer/ppo/core_algos.py
def agg_loss(loss_mat: torch.Tensor, loss_mask: torch.Tensor, loss_agg_mode: str): """ Aggregate the loss matrix into a scalar. Args: loss_mat: `(torch.Tensor)`: shape: (bs, response_length) loss_mask: `(torch.Tensor)`: shape: (bs, response_length) loss_agg_mode: (str) choices: method to aggregate the loss matrix into a scalar. Returns: loss: `a scalar torch.Tensor` aggregated loss """ if loss_agg_mode == "token-mean": loss = verl_F.masked_mean(loss_mat, loss_mask) elif loss_agg_mode == "seq-mean-token-sum": seq_losses = torch.sum(loss_mat * loss_mask, dim=-1) # token-sum loss = torch.mean(seq_losses) # seq-mean elif loss_agg_mode == "seq-mean-token-mean": seq_losses = torch.sum(loss_mat * loss_mask, dim=-1) / torch.sum(loss_mask, dim=-1) # token-mean loss = torch.mean(seq_losses) # seq-mean elif loss_agg_mode == "seq-mean-token-sum-norm": seq_losses = torch.sum(loss_mat * loss_mask, dim=-1) loss = torch.sum(seq_losses) / loss_mask.shape[-1] # The divisor # (loss_mask.shape[-1]) should ideally be constant # throughout training to well-replicate the DrGRPO paper. # TODO: Perhaps add user-defined normalizer argument to # agg_loss to ensure divisor stays constant throughout. else: raise ValueError(f"Invalid loss_agg_mode: {loss_agg_mode}") return loss
GRPO
优化目标:
优势:
KL3
KL3的方差比KL1小,且是KL1的无偏估计
证明
verl/trainer/ppo/core_algos.py 下面是verl对kl_loss的实现:
def kl_penalty_forward(logprob: torch.FloatTensor, ref_logprob: torch.FloatTensor, kl_penalty) -> torch.FloatTensor: """Compute KL divergence given logprob and ref_logprob. Copied from https://github.com/huggingface/trl/blob/main/trl/trainer/ppo_trainer.py#L1104 See more description in http://joschu.net/blog/kl-approx.html Args: logprob: ref_logprob: Returns: kl_estimate """ if kl_penalty in ("kl", "k1"): return logprob - ref_logprob if kl_penalty == "abs": return (logprob - ref_logprob).abs() if kl_penalty in ("mse", "k2"): return 0.5 * (logprob - ref_logprob).square() ############################################################## # 这里的low_var_kl与上述的grpo的KL计算公式相同 ############################################################## # J. Schulman. Approximating kl divergence, 2020. # # URL http://joschu.net/blog/kl-approx.html. if kl_penalty in ("low_var_kl", "k3"): kl = ref_logprob - logprob # For numerical stability kl = torch.clamp(kl, min=-20, max=20) ratio = torch.exp(kl) kld = (ratio - kl - 1).contiguous() return torch.clamp(kld, min=-10, max=10) if kl_penalty == "full": # so, here logprob and ref_logprob should contain the logits for every token in vocabulary raise NotImplementedError raise NotImplementedError
GSPO
seq-level 优化目标:
token-level 优化目标:
可以发现的是 (sg[s_{i,t}]=sg[s_{i}],s_{i}=(frac{pi_{theta}(o_i|q)}{pi_{old}(o_i|q)})^{frac{1}{|o_i|}}),但是在方向上不同
通过证明,可以发现,当(A_{i,t}=A_i)时,seq-level和token-level在前向传播和反向传播上是一样的
token-level 可以更好地扩展 同sample不同token的A的灵活度(每个token的A可以不相同)
verl/trainer/ppo/core_algos.py
########################################################## # 计算gspo的pg_loss,重点关注IS的计算 ########################################################## @register_policy_loss("gspo") def compute_policy_loss_gspo( old_log_prob: torch.Tensor, log_prob: torch.Tensor, advantages: torch.Tensor, response_mask: torch.Tensor, loss_agg_mode: str = "seq-mean-token-mean", config: Optional[DictConfig | ActorConfig] = None, rollout_is_weights: torch.Tensor | None = None, ) -> tuple[torch.Tensor, torch.Tensor, torch.Tensor, torch.Tensor]: """ Compute the clipped policy objective and related metrics for GSPO. See https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.18071 for more details. Args: old_log_prob (torch.Tensor): Log-probabilities of actions under the old policy, shape (batch_size, response_length). log_prob (torch.Tensor): Log-probabilities of actions under the current policy, shape (batch_size, response_length). advantages (torch.Tensor): Advantage estimates for each action, shape (batch_size, response_length). response_mask (torch.Tensor): Mask indicating which tokens to include in the loss, shape (batch_size, response_length). loss_agg_mode (str, optional): Aggregation mode for `agg_loss`. For GSPO, it is recommended to use "seq-mean-token-mean". """ assert config is not None assert isinstance(config, ActorConfig) clip_ratio_low = config.clip_ratio_low if config.clip_ratio_low is not None else config.clip_ratio clip_ratio_high = config.clip_ratio_high if config.clip_ratio_high is not None else config.clip_ratio negative_approx_kl = log_prob - old_log_prob # compute sequence-level importance ratio: # si(θ) = (π_θ(yi|x)/π_θold(yi|x))^(1/|yi|) = # exp [(1/|y_i|) * Σ_t log(π_θ(y_i,t|x,y_i,<t)/π_θold(y_i,t|x,y_i,<t))] seq_lengths = torch.sum(response_mask, dim=-1).clamp(min=1) negative_approx_kl_seq = torch.sum(negative_approx_kl * response_mask, dim=-1) / seq_lengths # Combined ratio at token level: # s_i,t(θ) = sg[s_i(θ)] · π_θ(y_i,t|x, y_i,<t) / sg[π_θ(y_i,t|x, y_i,<t)] # In log space: log(s_i,t(θ)) = sg[log(s_i(θ))] + log_prob - sg[log_prob] log_seq_importance_ratio = log_prob - log_prob.detach() + negative_approx_kl_seq.detach().unsqueeze(-1) log_seq_importance_ratio = torch.clamp(log_seq_importance_ratio, max=10.0) # clamp for numerical stability # finaly exp() to remove log seq_importance_ratio = torch.exp(log_seq_importance_ratio) pg_losses1 = -advantages * seq_importance_ratio pg_losses2 = -advantages * torch.clamp(seq_importance_ratio, 1 - clip_ratio_low, 1 + clip_ratio_high) pg_losses = torch.maximum(pg_losses1, pg_losses2) # Apply rollout importance sampling weights if provided if rollout_is_weights is not None: pg_losses = pg_losses * rollout_is_weights # for GSPO, we need to aggregate the loss at the sequence level (seq-mean-token-mean) pg_loss = agg_loss(loss_mat=pg_losses, loss_mask=response_mask, loss_agg_mode="seq-mean-token-mean") # For compatibility, return zero for pg_clipfrac_lower (not used in standard GSPO) pg_clipfrac = verl_F.masked_mean(torch.gt(pg_losses2, pg_losses1).float(), response_mask) pg_clipfrac_lower = torch.tensor(0.0, device=pg_loss.device) ppo_kl = verl_F.masked_mean(-negative_approx_kl, response_mask) return pg_loss, pg_clipfrac, ppo_kl, pg_clipfrac_lower
DAPO
优化目标:
其中
其loss agg mode是token-mean。