HF model download

Tool ladder

Pick the first rung that fits; never hand-write a download loop the ladder already covers.

1. hfd — whole repo, multi-file, or filtered pulls. aria2c multi-thread + resume + include/exclude + token auth. The default for models and datasets.
2. hf download — whole repo when hfd is absent but a huggingface_hub venv exists: hf download <repo> --local-dir <dir> (respects https_proxy).
3. aria2c single file — one known big file: https://huggingface.co/<repo>/resolve/main/<path>, add header=Authorization: Bearer <token> for gated repos, -x 4 -c for threads + resume.
4. curl loop — only for a short list of filenames you already know. Probing an unknown repo layout with curl guesses is the failure mode hfd's metadata API exists to prevent.

hfd setup

hfd is not preinstalled; this skill ships the script.

cp <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/hfd ~/.local/bin/hfd && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/hfd
~/.local/bin/hfd --help   # usage banner printed = installed