fix tool parsing to load json if json

## Motivation

failed again for kimi on a machine that had never downloaded it.

## Test Plan

### Manual Testing
it worked this time

bench/exo_bench.py

@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ def load_tokenizer_for_bench(model_id: str) -> Any:
         model_path = Path(
             snapshot_download(
                 model_id,
-                allow_patterns=["*.json", "*.py", "*.tiktoken"],
+                allow_patterns=["*.json", "*.py", "*.tiktoken", "*.model"],
             )
         )
 

dashboard/src/routes/downloads/+page.svelte

@@ -412,7 +412,7 @@
                   <div>{col.label}</div>
                   {#if col.diskAvailable != null}
                     <div
-                      class="text-[9px] text-exo-light-gray/60 normal-case tracking-normal mt-0.5"
+                      class="text-[9px] text-white/70 normal-case tracking-normal mt-0.5"
                     >
                       {formatBytes(col.diskAvailable)} free
                     </div>
@@ -436,7 +436,7 @@
                       </div>
                       {#if row.prettyName}
                         <div
-                          class="text-[10px] text-exo-light-gray/60"
+                          class="text-[10px] text-white/60"
                           title={row.modelId}
                         >
                           {row.modelId}
@@ -450,7 +450,7 @@
                       title="View model details"
                     >
                       <svg
-                        class="w-4 h-4 text-white/30 hover:text-white/60"
+                        class="w-4 h-4 text-white/60 hover:text-white/80"
                         viewBox="0 0 24 24"
                         fill="currentColor"
                       >
@@ -483,12 +483,12 @@
                             clip-rule="evenodd"
                           ></path>
                         </svg>
-                        <span class="text-xs text-exo-light-gray/70"
+                        <span class="text-xs text-white/70"
                           >{formatBytes(cell.totalBytes)}</span
                         >
                         <button
                           type="button"
-                          class="text-exo-light-gray/40 hover:text-red-400 transition-colors mt-0.5 cursor-pointer"
+                          class="text-white/50 hover:text-red-400 transition-colors mt-0.5 cursor-pointer"
                           onclick={() =>
                             deleteDownload(col.nodeId, row.modelId)}
                           title="Delete from this node"
@@ -530,7 +530,7 @@
                             ).toFixed(1)}%"
                           ></div>
                         </div>
-                        <span class="text-[10px] text-exo-light-gray/60"
+                        <span class="text-[10px] text-white/70"
                           >{formatSpeed(cell.speed)}</span
                         >
                       </div>
@@ -542,7 +542,7 @@
                           : "Download pending"}
                       >
                         {#if cell.downloaded > 0 && cell.total > 0}
-                          <span class="text-exo-light-gray/70 text-xs"
+                          <span class="text-white/70 text-xs"
                             >{formatBytes(cell.downloaded)} / {formatBytes(
                               cell.total,
                             )}</span
@@ -561,7 +561,7 @@
                           {#if row.shardMetadata}
                             <button
                               type="button"
-                              class="text-exo-light-gray/50 hover:text-exo-yellow transition-colors cursor-pointer"
+                              class="text-white/50 hover:text-exo-yellow transition-colors cursor-pointer"
                               onclick={() =>
                                 startDownload(col.nodeId, row.shardMetadata!)}
                               title="Resume download on this node"
@@ -581,14 +581,13 @@
                               </svg>
                             </button>
                           {:else}
-                            <span class="text-exo-light-gray/40 text-[10px]"
-                              >paused</span
+                            <span class="text-white/50 text-[10px]">paused</span
                             >
                           {/if}
                         {:else if row.shardMetadata}
                           <button
                             type="button"
-                            class="text-exo-light-gray/30 hover:text-exo-yellow transition-colors cursor-pointer"
+                            class="text-white/50 hover:text-exo-yellow transition-colors cursor-pointer"
                             onclick={() =>
                               startDownload(col.nodeId, row.shardMetadata!)}
                             title="Start download on this node"
@@ -608,8 +607,7 @@
                             </svg>
                           </button>
                         {:else}
-                          <span class="text-exo-light-gray/50 text-sm">...</span
-                          >
+                          <span class="text-white/40 text-sm">...</span>
                         {/if}
                       </div>
                     {:else if cell.kind === "failed"}
@@ -631,7 +629,7 @@
                         {#if row.shardMetadata}
                           <button
                             type="button"
-                            class="text-exo-light-gray/40 hover:text-exo-yellow transition-colors cursor-pointer"
+                            class="text-white/50 hover:text-exo-yellow transition-colors cursor-pointer"
                             onclick={() =>
                               startDownload(col.nodeId, row.shardMetadata!)}
                             title="Retry download on this node"
@@ -663,7 +661,7 @@
                         {#if row.shardMetadata}
                           <button
                             type="button"
-                            class="text-exo-light-gray/30 hover:text-exo-yellow transition-colors mt-0.5 opacity-0 group-hover:opacity-100 cursor-pointer"
+                            class="text-white/50 hover:text-exo-yellow transition-colors mt-0.5 opacity-0 group-hover:opacity-100 cursor-pointer"
                             onclick={() =>
                               startDownload(col.nodeId, row.shardMetadata!)}
                             title="Download to this node"

nix/mlx.nix

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ let
 
   mlx = stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     pname = "mlx";
-    version = let v = "0.30.7.dev20260220+13998a05"; in
+    version = let v = "0.30.7.dev20260224+e862b122"; in
       assert v == uvLockMlxVersion || throw "MLX version mismatch: nix/mlx.nix has ${v} but uv.lock has ${uvLockMlxVersion}. Update both the version and hash in nix/mlx.nix.";
       v;
     pyproject = true;
@@ -49,8 +49,8 @@ let
     src = fetchFromGitHub {
       owner = "rltakashige";
       repo = "mlx-jaccl-fix-small-recv";
-      rev = "13998a054715edcdc93618fb1496c79c7c25ff7c";
-      hash = "sha256-fAqA3hFwNBx7FcoGnhQsIFpAIRbC2EerACm4Fvne0Cc=";
+      rev = "e862b1223a2310d4cc8df1135aed42f5246bc50a";
+      hash = "sha256-GosFIWxIB48Egb1MqJrR3xhsUsQeWdRk5rV93USY6wQ=";
     };
 
     patches = [

src/exo/master/tests/test_placement.py

@@ -14,10 +14,12 @@ from exo.shared.models.model_cards import ModelCard, ModelId, ModelTask
 from exo.shared.topology import Topology
 from exo.shared.types.commands import PlaceInstance
 from exo.shared.types.common import CommandId, NodeId
-from exo.shared.types.events import InstanceCreated, InstanceDeleted
+from exo.shared.types.events import InstanceCreated, InstanceDeleted, TaskStatusUpdated
 from exo.shared.types.memory import Memory
 from exo.shared.types.multiaddr import Multiaddr
 from exo.shared.types.profiling import NetworkInterfaceInfo, NodeNetworkInfo
+from exo.shared.types.tasks import TaskId, TaskStatus, TextGeneration
+from exo.shared.types.text_generation import InputMessage, TextGenerationTaskParams
 from exo.shared.types.topology import Connection, SocketConnection
 from exo.shared.types.worker.instances import (
     Instance,
@@ -456,3 +458,117 @@ def test_tensor_rdma_backend_connectivity_matrix(
         else:
             ip_part = coordinator.split(":")[0]
             assert len(ip_part.split(".")) == 4
+
+
+def _make_task(
+    instance_id: InstanceId,
+    status: TaskStatus = TaskStatus.Running,
+) -> TextGeneration:
+    return TextGeneration(
+        task_id=TaskId(),
+        task_status=status,
+        instance_id=instance_id,
+        command_id=CommandId(),
+        task_params=TextGenerationTaskParams(
+            model=ModelId("test-model"),
+            input=[InputMessage(role="user", content="hello")],
+        ),
+    )
+
+
+def test_get_transition_events_delete_instance_cancels_running_tasks(
+    instance: Instance,
+):
+    # arrange
+    instance_id = InstanceId()
+    current_instances: dict[InstanceId, Instance] = {instance_id: instance}
+    target_instances: dict[InstanceId, Instance] = {}
+    task = _make_task(instance_id, TaskStatus.Running)
+    tasks = {task.task_id: task}
+
+    # act
+    events = get_transition_events(current_instances, target_instances, tasks)
+
+    # assert – cancellation event should come before the deletion event
+    assert len(events) == 2
+    assert isinstance(events[0], TaskStatusUpdated)
+    assert events[0].task_id == task.task_id
+    assert events[0].task_status == TaskStatus.Cancelled
+    assert isinstance(events[1], InstanceDeleted)
+    assert events[1].instance_id == instance_id
+
+
+def test_get_transition_events_delete_instance_cancels_pending_tasks(
+    instance: Instance,
+):
+    # arrange
+    instance_id = InstanceId()
+    current_instances: dict[InstanceId, Instance] = {instance_id: instance}
+    target_instances: dict[InstanceId, Instance] = {}
+    task = _make_task(instance_id, TaskStatus.Pending)
+    tasks = {task.task_id: task}
+
+    # act
+    events = get_transition_events(current_instances, target_instances, tasks)
+
+    # assert
+    assert len(events) == 2
+    assert isinstance(events[0], TaskStatusUpdated)
+    assert events[0].task_id == task.task_id
+    assert events[0].task_status == TaskStatus.Cancelled
+    assert isinstance(events[1], InstanceDeleted)
+
+
+def test_get_transition_events_delete_instance_ignores_completed_tasks(
+    instance: Instance,
+):
+    # arrange
+    instance_id = InstanceId()
+    current_instances: dict[InstanceId, Instance] = {instance_id: instance}
+    target_instances: dict[InstanceId, Instance] = {}
+    tasks = {
+        t.task_id: t
+        for t in [
+            _make_task(instance_id, TaskStatus.Complete),
+            _make_task(instance_id, TaskStatus.Failed),
+            _make_task(instance_id, TaskStatus.TimedOut),
+            _make_task(instance_id, TaskStatus.Cancelled),
+        ]
+    }
+
+    # act
+    events = get_transition_events(current_instances, target_instances, tasks)
+
+    # assert – only the InstanceDeleted event, no cancellations
+    assert len(events) == 1
+    assert isinstance(events[0], InstanceDeleted)
+
+
+def test_get_transition_events_delete_instance_cancels_only_matching_tasks(
+    instance: Instance,
+):
+    # arrange
+    instance_id_a = InstanceId()
+    instance_id_b = InstanceId()
+    current_instances: dict[InstanceId, Instance] = {
+        instance_id_a: instance,
+        instance_id_b: instance,
+    }
+    # only delete instance A, keep instance B
+    target_instances: dict[InstanceId, Instance] = {instance_id_b: instance}
+
+    task_a = _make_task(instance_id_a, TaskStatus.Running)
+    task_b = _make_task(instance_id_b, TaskStatus.Running)
+    tasks = {task_a.task_id: task_a, task_b.task_id: task_b}
+
+    # act
+    events = get_transition_events(current_instances, target_instances, tasks)
+
+    # assert – only task_a should be cancelled
+    cancel_events = [e for e in events if isinstance(e, TaskStatusUpdated)]
+    delete_events = [e for e in events if isinstance(e, InstanceDeleted)]
+    assert len(cancel_events) == 1
+    assert cancel_events[0].task_id == task_a.task_id
+    assert cancel_events[0].task_status == TaskStatus.Cancelled
+    assert len(delete_events) == 1
+    assert delete_events[0].instance_id == instance_id_a

src/exo/worker/engines/mlx/auto_parallel.py

@@ -852,6 +852,8 @@ class QwenShardingStrategy(TensorParallelShardingStrategy):
                 layer.self_attn.o_proj = self.sharded_to_all_linear(
                     layer.self_attn.o_proj
                 )
+                layer.self_attn.n_heads //= self.N
+                layer.self_attn.n_kv_heads //= self.N
             else:
                 assert isinstance(layer, Qwen3NextDecoderLayer)
                 if hasattr(layer, "linear_attn"):

src/exo/worker/runner/llm_inference/tool_parsers.py

@@ -51,11 +51,33 @@ def _parse_json_calls(text: str) -> list[ToolCallItem] | None:
         return None
 
 
+def _try_parse_json(v: str) -> str | dict[str, Any] | list[Any]:
+    stripped = v.strip()
+    if (stripped.startswith("[") and stripped.endswith("]")) or (
+        stripped.startswith("{") and stripped.endswith("}")
+    ):
+        try:
+            parsed: dict[str, Any] | list[Any] = json.loads(stripped)  # pyright: ignore[reportAny]
+            return parsed
+        except (json.JSONDecodeError, ValueError):
+            pass
+    return v
+
+
 def _flatten(p: dict[str, Any]) -> dict[str, str]:
-    return {
-        k: json.dumps(v) if isinstance(v, (dict, list)) else str(v)  # pyright: ignore[reportAny]
-        for k, v in p.items()  # pyright: ignore[reportAny]
-    }
+    result: dict[str, str] = {}
+    for k, v in p.items():  # pyright: ignore[reportAny]
+        if isinstance(v, dict):
+            resolved: dict[str, Any] = {
+                str(ik): _try_parse_json(str(iv)) if isinstance(iv, str) else iv  # pyright: ignore[reportUnknownArgumentType]
+                for ik, iv in v.items()  # pyright: ignore[reportUnknownVariableType]
+            }
+            result[k] = json.dumps(resolved)
+        elif isinstance(v, list):
+            result[k] = json.dumps(v)
+        else:
+            result[k] = str(v)  # pyright: ignore[reportAny]
+    return result
 
 
 json_tool_parser = ToolParser(

tests/get_all_models_on_cluster.py

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ from urllib.request import urlopen
 
 h = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else sys.exit(f"USAGE: {sys.argv[0]} host")
 ts = subprocess.run(
-    ["/Applications/Tailscale.app/Contents/MacOS/Tailscale", "status"], check=True, text=True, capture_output=True
+    ["tailscale", "status"], check=True, text=True, capture_output=True
 ).stdout.splitlines()
 ip = next(
     (sl[0] for line in ts if len(sl := line.split()) >= 2 if sl[1] == h), None

tests/start_distributed_test.py

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ if not (args := sys.argv[1:]):
 kind = args[0] if args[0] in ("jaccl", "ring") else "both"
 hosts = args[1:] if kind != "both" else args
 ts = subprocess.run(
-    ["/Applications/Tailscale.app/Contents/MacOS/Tailscale", "status"], check=True, text=True, capture_output=True
+    ["tailscale", "status"], check=True, text=True, capture_output=True
 ).stdout.splitlines()
 ip = {sl[1]: sl[0] for line in ts if len(sl := line.split()) >= 2}
 ips = [ip[h] for h in hosts]

uv.lock

@@ -378,7 +378,7 @@ dependencies = [
     { name = "loguru", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
     { name = "mflux", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
     { name = "mlx", version = "0.30.6", source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }, extra = ["cpu"], marker = "sys_platform == 'linux'" },
-    { name = "mlx", version = "0.30.7.dev20260220+13998a05", source = { git = "https://github.com/rltakashige/mlx-jaccl-fix-small-recv.git?branch=address-rdma-gpu-locks#13998a054715edcdc93618fb1496c79c7c25ff7c" }, marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin'" },
+    { name = "mlx", version = "0.30.7.dev20260224+e862b122", source = { git = "https://github.com/rltakashige/mlx-jaccl-fix-small-recv.git?branch=address-rdma-gpu-locks#e862b1223a2310d4cc8df1135aed42f5246bc50a" }, marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin'" },
     { name = "mlx-lm", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
     { name = "msgspec", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
     { name = "openai-harmony", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
@@ -1025,7 +1025,7 @@ dependencies = [
     { name = "huggingface-hub", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
     { name = "matplotlib", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
     { name = "mlx", version = "0.30.6", source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }, extra = ["cuda13"], marker = "sys_platform == 'linux'" },
-    { name = "mlx", version = "0.30.7.dev20260220+13998a05", source = { git = "https://github.com/rltakashige/mlx-jaccl-fix-small-recv.git?branch=address-rdma-gpu-locks#13998a054715edcdc93618fb1496c79c7c25ff7c" }, marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin'" },
+    { name = "mlx", version = "0.30.7.dev20260224+e862b122", source = { git = "https://github.com/rltakashige/mlx-jaccl-fix-small-recv.git?branch=address-rdma-gpu-locks#e862b1223a2310d4cc8df1135aed42f5246bc50a" }, marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin'" },
     { name = "numpy", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
     { name = "opencv-python", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
     { name = "piexif", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
@@ -1072,8 +1072,8 @@ cuda13 = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "mlx"
-version = "0.30.7.dev20260220+13998a05"
-source = { git = "https://github.com/rltakashige/mlx-jaccl-fix-small-recv.git?branch=address-rdma-gpu-locks#13998a054715edcdc93618fb1496c79c7c25ff7c" }
+version = "0.30.7.dev20260224+e862b122"
+source = { git = "https://github.com/rltakashige/mlx-jaccl-fix-small-recv.git?branch=address-rdma-gpu-locks#e862b1223a2310d4cc8df1135aed42f5246bc50a" }
 resolution-markers = [
     "sys_platform == 'darwin'",
 ]
@@ -1108,7 +1108,7 @@ version = "0.30.7"
 source = { registry = "https://pypi.org/simple" }
 dependencies = [
     { name = "jinja2", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
-    { name = "mlx", version = "0.30.7.dev20260220+13998a05", source = { git = "https://github.com/rltakashige/mlx-jaccl-fix-small-recv.git?branch=address-rdma-gpu-locks#13998a054715edcdc93618fb1496c79c7c25ff7c" }, marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin'" },
+    { name = "mlx", version = "0.30.7.dev20260224+e862b122", source = { git = "https://github.com/rltakashige/mlx-jaccl-fix-small-recv.git?branch=address-rdma-gpu-locks#e862b1223a2310d4cc8df1135aed42f5246bc50a" }, marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin'" },
     { name = "numpy", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
     { name = "protobuf", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },
     { name = "pyyaml", marker = "sys_platform == 'darwin' or sys_platform == 'linux'" },