Smoke-Testing LFM Fine-tuning with Codex and Liquid AI's LEAP

Melvin Vivas · X post · 2026-08-11 · Open on X

Topics: Fine-tuning & Model Customization, AI Dev Tools & Productivity · Level: intermediate

Summary

The creator is trying out fine-tuning Liquid AI's LFM models with the LEAP framework, using Codex as a coding assistant. He starts with a 100-row smoke-test dataset to get a feel for the workflow. It shows a cheap way to check a fine-tuning pipeline before scaling up.

Key points

• Run a smoke test with a tiny dataset (about 100 rows) before a full fine-tuning run.
• A smoke test checks data format, the training loop and outputs quickly and cheaply.
• Liquid AI's LEAP framework can be used to train and fine-tune LFM models.
• A coding agent like Codex can help write and run the fine-tuning scripts.

Resources mentioned

• Liquid AI (@liquidai) on X · website · x.com · free
  An AI company that builds efficient foundation models. The quoted post shows its PII handling working on Japanese text.
  Also in: Zero-Shot Prompt Routing with Liquid AI's LFM 2.5-Encoder-350M (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Liquid AI LFM 2.5 Encoder: a CPU-friendly encoder model (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Fine-tuning Liquid AI LFM2/LFM2.5 MoE models with the new Halo framework (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Liquid AI's LFM2-Longevity models for aging-data analysis (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 19 more
• LEAP (Liquid AI) · tool · leap.liquid.ai · check price
  Liquid AI's framework for fine-tuning and customizing its small models.
  Also in: Small Local Models + Fine-Tuning Instead of More Compute (Liquid AI, LEAP) (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), LFM2.5-2.6B Matches DeepSeek-V4-Flash on Tool Calling; LEAP Fine-Tuning (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)
• Liquid Foundation Models (LFM) · tool · liquid.ai · free
  Liquid AI's family of efficient foundation models that can be fine-tuned.
• OpenAI Codex · tool · openai.com · paid
  OpenAI's coding agent. In the diagram it writes code, fixes review findings and drives the build loop. The creator also used it to make this video.
  Also in: An agent bot that installs and drives Codex on its own (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Asking a Coder bot to install Codex (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Sign in with ChatGPT: Setting Usage Limits for Each App (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Codex Cloud Environments Must Be Saved & Published Before Use (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 240 more

Try this

• Smoke-test your fine-tuning pipeline on about 100 rows before a full training run.
• Fine-tune a small Liquid AI LFM model on a custom dataset using LEAP, with a coding agent writing the training scripts.