AReaL: Instructions file for Claude Code

CLAUDE.md

AReaL CLAUDE.md is an instructions file for Claude Code from areal-project/AReaL. It costs 1,713 tokens per session, scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

Repository instructions for AReaL, a distributed framework for training large language models with reinforcement learning. Reinforcement learning trains a model through rewards, and distributed training spreads the work across multiple computers or processors.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them when working on training engines, rollout workflows, reward functions, datasets, checkpoints, distributed execution, or example training configurations.
Why use it?
They explain the framework's main components and purpose, helping agents place changes in the correct training, workflow, dataset, or infrastructure area.

Instructions file for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: the file is CLAUDE.md. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths; mentions CLAUDE.md.

This is areal-project/AReaL's own configuration. It tells Claude Code how to work on AReaL itself, so it is not a mod to install elsewhere. Copy it as a starting point and replace the rules that are about this project. Everything AReaL configures →

About the project

AReaL is an infrastructure system for training large language models with reinforcement learning, connecting model training to applications built around AI agents. Researchers and developers use it to train reasoning and agentic models through asynchronous workflows, and the catalogue add-ons support working with AReaL.

areal-project/AReaL · 5,888 stars · on GitHub · areal-ai.io

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to areal-project/AReaL. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/areal-project/AReaL/main/CLAUDE.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/areal-project/AReaL

Made for: Claude Code.

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Per session 1,713 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 1,713 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.01713 $0.01713
Opus 5.5 $0.00685 $0.00685
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00343 $0.00343
Haiku 4.5 $0.00171 $0.00171

Measured 14d ago against content hash 80afb5768b68, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

AReaL CLAUDE.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 14d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

CLAUDE.md · 172 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 172 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

CLAUDE.md - AReaL

WHAT: Project Overview

AReaL is a distributed RL training framework for LLM alignment via reinforcement learning.

Tech Stack: Python 3.12+ | PyTorch | FSDP2/Megatron | SGLang/vLLM

Core Directories:

  • areal/ - Core package
    • api/ - Config dataclasses, workflow/engine contracts
    • engine/ - FSDP2, Megatron, SGLang/vLLM adapters
      • fsdp_utils/ - FSDP2-specific utilities (checkpoint, grad, optimizer, parallel)
      • megatron_utils/ - Megatron/FP8 utilities (checkpoint, pipeline, quantization)
      • core/ - Engine-shared utilities (distributed, lock, model, offload)
    • infra/ - Infrastructure (launcher, scheduler, RPC)
      • utils/ - Infrastructure utilities (launcher, proc, http, concurrent, slurm, ray)
    • workflow/ - RolloutWorkflow implementations
    • reward/ - Reward functions
    • dataset/ - Dataset loaders
    • utils/ - Cross-cutting utilities (logging, data, checkpoints, network, RL functional)
  • examples/ - Training scripts and configs
  • docs/ - Jupyter Book source

WHY: Purpose

  • Enable efficient RL training for LLM alignment at scale
  • Async rollout + distributed training for high throughput
  • Modular design: workflows, engines, rewards, and datasets are independently extensible

HOW: Core Commands

# Check environment
python --version              # Requires 3.12+
uv --version                  # Install: https://docs.astral.sh/uv/

# Sync dependencies
uv sync --extra cuda          # CUDA + SGLang inference (default)
# For vLLM: cp pyproject.vllm.toml pyproject.toml && cp uv.vllm.lock uv.lock && uv sync --extra cuda
uv sync --group dev           # Include dev/test packages
uv run python3 areal/tools/validate_installation.py  # Validate installation

# Pre-commit hooks
pre-commit install --install-hooks  # Set up hooks (run once)
pre-commit run --all-files    # Format and lint

# Run tests
# First check GPU availability (many tests require GPU)
python -c "import torch; print('GPU available:', torch.cuda.is_available())"
uv run pytest tests/test_<topic>.py

# Generate CLI docs
uv run python docs/generate_cli_docs.py

# Build docs (canonical, release-aligned)
./docs/build_all.sh
# Do NOT use `jupyter-book build docs/en|docs/zh` directly for final preview/release,
# because it skips AReaL-specific static setup and output packaging.

Read the full file on GitHub · 172 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 14d ago Changed · +1 lines · +16 tokens per session 80afb5768b68
  2. 2mo ago First seen · 171 lines · 1,697 tokens per session scan A a7a812f4d120

Subscribe to this mod's changes

AReaL CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository areal-project/AReaL (5,888 stars, last pushed today), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 1,713 tokens to every session, about $0.0069 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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