Manage model assets¶

Goal: control where model assets live, when they download, and how to run authenticated or optional downloads. For the generated inventory (sizes, exact paths), see the Assets reference.

Where assets are cached¶

By default, assets are stored under the platform cache directory in patronus_ark/. Override the location with model_dir (Python) / the model-dir argument (Rust):

PythonRust

scanner = SecurityGateway(
    categories=["injection"],
    max_level="l3",
    model_dir="/opt/patronus-ark-assets",
    download_files=True,
    download_categories=["injection"],
)

let scanner = SecurityGateway::with_download_categories(
    vec![SecurityCategory::Injection],
    SecurityLevel::L3,
    Some("/opt/patronus-ark-assets".into()),   // model_dir
    true,                                       // download_files
    Some(vec![SecurityCategory::Injection]),
);

A custom model_dir is convenient for shipping a pre-populated cache to another machine (see Offline & air-gapped).

Control what downloads¶

Setting	Effect
`download_files=False`	Never download; use native L1 + already-cached assets only.
`download_files=True`	Download required assets for configured categories on demand.
`download_categories=[…]`	Restrict automatic downloads to just these categories.
`PATRONUS_DOWNLOAD_OPTIONAL_ASSETS=1`	Also fetch non-required asset files (currently `tokenizer_config.json` for the legacy L3 manifest), which are skipped by default.

Required assets download during warmup() (or, in Rust, prepare_assets()); optional ones stay skipped unless the environment variable is set.

Authenticated / rate-limited access¶

Set HF_TOKEN when the Hugging Face repositories require authentication or you are being rate limited:

export HF_TOKEN=hf_xxx

HF_HOME is respected for the underlying Hugging Face cache location.

Split download from runtime (delivery windows)¶

If downloads must not happen at runtime, use the two-phase lifecycle (Rust only): prepare_assets() while the network is available, then warmup_from_local_assets() at runtime (local-only). In Python, warmup() always performs the combined prepare-and-warmup cycle; ship a pre-populated model_dir and reconstruct offline with download_files=False instead (see Offline & air-gapped). See Architecture → asset & runtime lifecycle.

Local model overrides¶

Point a category at a local NTDB directory with the PATRONUS_NTDB_*_DIR environment variables (one per model-backed category) — see the configuration reference. Local overrides are treated as canonical and are never rewritten by the asset manager.

Inspect the cache¶

asset_readiness() (Rust only) reports what is present locally without downloading or loading anything into memory; runtime_readiness() (both languages) reports initialized runtime state. Use these to verify a cache before going offline.