Support option to skip the optimizer for training step

Author: RissyRan

src/maxtext/configs/base.yml

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright 2023–2025 Google LLC
+# Copyright 2023–2026 Google LLC
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -790,6 +790,15 @@ gradient_clipping_threshold: 1.0
 gradient_accumulation_steps: 1
 
 opt_type: "adamw"  # one of "adamw", "adam_pax", "sgd", or "muon"
+
+# If True, skip the training step when loss or gradient spike is detected
+# No updates for both weights and momentums (if applies)
+skip_step_on_spikes: False
+# The rolling interval to calculate the mean and standard deviation
+skip_step_interval: 128
+# The scaling factor to determine if a spike occurred
+skip_step_scaling_factor: 6.0
+
 # List of parameter names/patterns to train.
 # If non-empty, all other parameters will be frozen. Example: ['.*indexer.*'].
 # If empty (default), all parameters are trained.

src/maxtext/configs/types.py

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Copyright 2023–2025 Google LLC
+# Copyright 2023–2026 Google LLC
 
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 # you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -1150,6 +1150,13 @@ class Optimizer(BaseModel):
   """Configuration for the optimizer and learning rate schedule."""
 
   opt_type: OptimizerType = Field(OptimizerType.ADAMW, description="The type of optimizer to use.")
+  skip_step_on_spikes: bool = Field(
+      False, description="If True, skip the training step when loss or gradient spike is detected."
+  )
+  skip_step_interval: PositiveInt = Field(
+      128, description="The rolling interval to calculate the mean and standard deviation."
+  )
+  skip_step_scaling_factor: float = Field(6.0, description="The scaling factor to determine if a spike occurred.")
   gradient_accumulation_steps: PositiveInt = Field(
       1, description="Number of steps to accumulate gradients before updating."
   )

src/maxtext/optimizers/optimizers.py

@@ -48,6 +48,119 @@ def get_adamw_mask(config):
   return _get_path_mask_fn(getattr(config, "adamw_mask", None), match_returns_true=False)
 
 
+def _compute_rolling_stats(arr: jax.Array, count: jax.Array, interval: int):
+  """Computes mean and unbiased std (Bessel's correction) over a rolling window."""
+  valid_elements = jnp.minimum(count, interval)
+  safe_elements = jnp.maximum(1, valid_elements)
+  mask = jnp.arange(interval) < valid_elements
+
+  mean = jnp.sum(jnp.where(mask, arr, 0.0)) / safe_elements
+  sq_diff = jnp.where(mask, (arr - mean) ** 2, 0.0)
+
+  # Use Bessel's correction (N - 1) for unbiased variance to align with torch.std
+  variance = jnp.sum(sq_diff) / jnp.maximum(1, valid_elements - 1)
+  std = jnp.sqrt(variance)
+  return mean, std
+
+
+def skip_step_on_spikes(
+    inner_opt: optax.GradientTransformation, interval: int, scaling_factor: float
+) -> optax.GradientTransformationExtraArgs:
+  """Wrapper that skips updates when loss or grad_norm spike.
+
+  This wrapper calculates a rolling mean and standard deviation (using
+  Bessel's correction) over the last `interval` steps for both the loss
+  and the gradient norm. If the current step's loss or gradient norm
+  exceeds `mean + scaling_factor * std`, the update is zeroed and the
+  optimizer state is not advanced, effectively skipping the step.
+
+  Reference implementation:
+  https://github.com/allenai/OLMo-core/blob/c757b7c3c15197154c753d883330afbfa4869dcc/src/olmo_core/optim/skip_step_optimizer.py#L12
+
+  Args:
+    inner_opt: The inner Optax gradient transformation to wrap.
+    interval: The number of recent steps to use for calculating mean and std.
+    scaling_factor: The multiplier for standard deviation to set the spike threshold.
+
+  Returns:
+    An optax.GradientTransformationExtraArgs that skips spikes.
+  """
+
+  def init_fn(params):
+    return {
+        "inner_state": inner_opt.init(params),
+        "losses": jnp.zeros(interval, dtype=jnp.float32),
+        "grad_norms": jnp.zeros(interval, dtype=jnp.float32),
+        "count": jnp.zeros((), dtype=jnp.int32),
+    }
+
+  def update_fn(updates, state, params=None, **extra_args):
+    # Using `pop()` removes `loss` and `grad_norm` from `extra_args` before they are
+    # passed downstream to `inner_opt.update()`. This prevents `TypeError` if the
+    # inner optimizer doesn't explicitly accept these as `kwargs`.
+    loss = extra_args.pop("loss", None)
+    grad_norm = extra_args.pop("grad_norm", None)
+
+    # Fallback to standard update if loss is not provided
+    if loss is None:
+      inner_updates, new_inner_state = inner_opt.update(updates, state["inner_state"], params, **extra_args)
+      return inner_updates, {
+          "inner_state": new_inner_state,
+          "losses": state["losses"],
+          "grad_norms": state["grad_norms"],
+          "count": state["count"],
+      }
+
+    count = state["count"]
+    losses = state["losses"]
+    grad_norms = state["grad_norms"]
+
+    # Compute rolling stats
+    loss_mean, loss_std = _compute_rolling_stats(losses, count, interval)
+    grad_norm_mean, grad_norm_std = _compute_rolling_stats(grad_norms, count, interval)
+
+    # Check if the current metrics are within the allowed thresholds
+    is_loss_ok = (loss - loss_mean) <= scaling_factor * loss_std
+    if grad_norm is not None:
+      is_grad_norm_ok = (grad_norm - grad_norm_mean) <= scaling_factor * grad_norm_std
+      is_ok = jnp.logical_and(is_loss_ok, is_grad_norm_ok)
+    else:
+      is_ok = is_loss_ok
+
+    # Only enforce skip if we have at least half the interval filled (or 2 elements minimum)
+    min_history = max(2, interval // 2)
+    is_warmup = (count + 1) < min_history
+    is_ok = jnp.logical_or(is_warmup, is_ok)
+
+    # Conditionally execute the inner optimizer to prevent momentum poisoning
+    def do_update():
+      return inner_opt.update(updates, state["inner_state"], params, **extra_args)
+
+    def skip_update():
+      inner_updates = jax.tree_util.tree_map(jnp.zeros_like, updates)
+      return inner_updates, state["inner_state"]
+
+    inner_updates, new_inner_state = jax.lax.cond(is_ok, do_update, skip_update)
+
+    # Update rolling buffers (we append even if skipped so spikes can become the new baseline)
+    idx = count % interval
+    new_losses = losses.at[idx].set(loss)
+
+    new_grad_norms = grad_norms
+    if grad_norm is not None:
+      new_grad_norms = grad_norms.at[idx].set(grad_norm)
+
+    new_state = {
+        "inner_state": new_inner_state,
+        "losses": new_losses,
+        "grad_norms": new_grad_norms,
+        "count": count + 1,
+    }
+    return inner_updates, new_state
+
+  return optax.GradientTransformationExtraArgs(init_fn, update_fn)
+
+
 def get_optimizer(config, learning_rate_schedule, model=None):
   """Create optimizer."""
   if config.opt_type == "adamw":
@@ -100,6 +213,13 @@ def get_optimizer(config, learning_rate_schedule, model=None):
   else:
     raise ValueError(f"{config.opt_type=} is not a supported.")
 
+  if getattr(config, "skip_step_on_spikes", False):
+    base_opt = skip_step_on_spikes(
+        base_opt,
+        interval=config.skip_step_interval,
+        scaling_factor=config.skip_step_scaling_factor,
+    )
+
   # If a whitelist of trainable parameters is provided, freeze everything else.
   # When trainable_parameters_mask is empty, freeze_mask_fn is None and all parameters are trained.
   trainable_patterns = getattr(config, "trainable_parameters_mask", None)

src/maxtext/trainers/pre_train/train.py

@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 from absl import app
 
 import numpy as np
+import optax
 
 import pathwaysutils  # pylint: disable=unused-import
 
@@ -391,7 +392,20 @@ def move(path, value):
             jax.tree_util.tree_map_with_path(move, state_mesh_shardings.params),
         )
     )
-  new_state = state.apply_gradients(grads=grads)
+
+  if getattr(config, "skip_step_on_spikes", False):
+    grad_norm = max_utils.l2norm_pytree(grads)
+    # TrainState.apply_gradients doesn't pass **kwargs to tx.update, so we unpack it manually.
+    updates, new_opt_state = state.tx.update(grads, state.opt_state, state.params, loss=loss, grad_norm=grad_norm)
+    new_params = optax.apply_updates(state.params, updates)
+
+    new_state = state.replace(
+        step=state.step + 1,
+        params=new_params,
+        opt_state=new_opt_state,
+    )
+  else:
+    new_state = state.apply_gradients(grads=grads)
 
   # Apply updates for Auxiliary-Loss-Free load balancing for DeepSeek family
   if config.routed_bias and config.routed_bias_update_rate > 0.0 and moe_bias_updates is not None:

tests/unit/optimizers_test.py

@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
 import unittest
 from unittest.mock import patch
 import jax
+import optax
+import jax.numpy as jnp
 
 import pytest
 from absl.testing import parameterized
@@ -428,5 +430,54 @@ def learning_rate_schedule(step):
     self.assertFalse(jax.numpy.all(updates["layer1"]["kernel"] == 0))
 
 
+class SkipStepOnSpikesTest(parameterized.TestCase):
+  """Tests for the skip_step_on_spikes optimizer wrapper."""
+
+  def _run_spike_test(self, spike_kwargs):
+    inner_opt = optax.sgd(0.1)
+    opt = optimizers.skip_step_on_spikes(inner_opt, interval=4, scaling_factor=1.0)
+
+    params = {"x": jnp.array([1.0])}
+    opt_state = opt.init(params)
+
+    # Base kwargs for warmup
+    base_kwargs = {k: jnp.array(1.0) for k in spike_kwargs.keys()}
+
+    # Step 0: count = 0 < 2, will not skip (count should be >= interval / 2)
+    updates, opt_state = opt.update({"x": jnp.array([1.0])}, opt_state, params, **base_kwargs)
+    self.assertFalse(jnp.all(updates["x"] == 0.0))
+
+    # Step 1: count = 1 < 2, will not skip. mean=1.0, std=0.0 (count should be >= interval / 2)
+    updates, opt_state = opt.update({"x": jnp.array([1.0])}, opt_state, params, **base_kwargs)
+    self.assertFalse(jnp.all(updates["x"] == 0.0))
+
+    # Step 2: count = 2. Spike!
+    spike_kwargs_jnp = {k: jnp.array(v) for k, v in spike_kwargs.items()}
+    updates, opt_state = opt.update({"x": jnp.array([1.0])}, opt_state, params, **spike_kwargs_jnp)
+    self.assertTrue(jnp.all(updates["x"] == 0.0))
+
+  def test_skip_step_on_loss_spike(self):
+    self._run_spike_test({"loss": 100.0})
+
+  def test_skip_step_on_grad_norm_spike(self):
+    self._run_spike_test({"loss": 1.0, "grad_norm": 100.0})
+
+  def test_skip_step_on_both_spike(self):
+    self._run_spike_test({"loss": 100.0, "grad_norm": 100.0})
+
+  def test_no_skip_without_kwargs(self):
+    inner_opt = optax.sgd(0.1)
+    opt = optimizers.skip_step_on_spikes(inner_opt, interval=4, scaling_factor=1.0)
+
+    params = {"x": jnp.array([1.0])}
+    opt_state = opt.init(params)
+
+    # Missing kwargs should act normally
+    updates, opt_state = opt.update({"x": jnp.array([1.0])}, opt_state, params)
+    self.assertFalse(jnp.all(updates["x"] == 0.0))
+    # Count shouldn't have incremented
+    self.assertEqual(opt_state["count"], 0)
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
   unittest.main()