The outcome

Get into the official Xinference experience with the right account and a setup you understand.

Xinference is a Open-source platform for launching and serving language, embedding, reranking, image, audio, video, and custom models locally or in distributed clusters. Running and managing multiple open or custom model types behind local or cluster APIs with model lifecycle, resource, authentication, permission, audit, and monitoring controls. This guide narrows that broad capability into one repeatable outcome, with checkpoints that keep the source material and your judgment in the loop.

Before you begin

Set the boundary before the tool starts.

Choose one real task, identify who will use the result, and decide what evidence or test will make the result acceptable. Gather only the source material needed for that task. If the work contains confidential, personal, regulated, or client-owned information, confirm that the platform and account are approved before sharing it.

Troiana principle

AI should make the work easier to inspect. If the workflow removes the source, the owner, or the review step, redesign the workflow.

Step by step

A workflow you can repeat.

  1. 01

    Start at https://inference.readthedocs.io/ and confirm the domain before entering account or payment information.

  2. 02

    For desktop use, follow the official download link. Current availability: Xinference runs as local or distributed Python and container services with a built-in web UI, command line, REST API, Python client, and OpenAI-compatible access..

  3. 03

    A supported Python or container environment, compatible CPU or accelerator hardware, licensed models, sufficient storage and memory, protected networking, initialized authentication, persistent auth secrets and database, backups, monitoring, and update ownership.

  4. 04

    Sign in with the account you intend to keep using, then review plan, data, notification, and permission settings.

  5. 05

    Run one low-risk test task before connecting sensitive files, repositories, or workspace data.

Working standard

What good use looks like.

  • Use official download pages.
  • Review permissions during setup.
  • Keep installers and applications updated.

Xinference 3.0 replaced the legacy auth system with database-backed authentication enabled by default. The first unauthenticated setup call wins, so initialize before exposure; disabling authentication makes every endpoint public. Persist the JWT secret, API-key encryption key, and auth database consistently across API processes. Separate model-read, model-write, registration, log, cache, key, and user permissions; isolate supervisor and worker traffic, vet custom model code, protect logs and monitoring, cap actor recovery, and test migration and restore.

Official references

Check the current product documentation.

Features, plan limits, availability, and data controls change. These official pages are the starting points used for this collection.