> This page is for Evo 2, version 2.1.0.
> For other versions, use one of these documentation indexes:
> - 2.2.0 (Latest) (default): https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/bionemo/evo2/2.2.0/llms.txt
> - 2.1.0: https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/bionemo/evo2/2.1.0/llms.txt
> - 2.0.0: https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/bionemo/evo2/2.0.0/llms.txt
> - 1.0.2: https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/bionemo/evo2/1.0.2/llms.txt
> - 1.0.1: https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/bionemo/evo2/1.0.1/llms.txt
> - 1.0.0: https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/bionemo/evo2/1.0.0/llms.txt

> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/bionemo/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.nvidia.com/nim/bionemo/_mcp/server.

# Loading Custom and Fine-Tuned Evo 2 NIM Model Checkpoints

## Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following prerequisites are met:

- Your model has been trained or fine-tuned using the [NVIDIA BioNeMo Framework](https://github.com/NVIDIA/bionemo-framework).
- The model is saved in the NeMo format (the default output format of the BioNeMo Framework).

## Specifying a Custom Evo 2 NIM Model Checkpoint

To configure NIM to load a custom checkpoint, follow these steps:

1. **Disable automatic model downloading**

   Set the `NIM_DISABLE_MODEL_DOWNLOAD` environment variable to `1`.
   This prevents NIM from attempting to download the default model from NGC.

2. **Mount and specify the model path**

   Mount your custom checkpoint directory into the Docker container and set the
   `MODEL_PATH` environment variable inside the container pointing it to the
   mounted directory.

### Example: Loading a Custom or Manually Downloaded Evo 2 Model

You can test this process by manually downloading the original Evo 2 7B 1M
model and instructing NIM to load it as a custom checkpoint, even if you have
not performed fine-tuning.

1. Set the required variables and paths:

   ```bash
   MODEL=evo2-7b:2.0.0
   MODEL_PATH="$PWD/$(echo "$MODEL" | sed s/:/_v/)"
   ```

2. Download the model:

   ```bash
   ngc registry model download-version nim/arc/$MODEL
   ```

3. Run NIM with the appropriate mount points and environment variables:

   ```bash
   docker run -it \
       --runtime=nvidia \
       --gpus='"device=0,1"' \
       -p 8000:8000 \
       -v "$MODEL_PATH":"$MODEL_PATH":ro \
       -e MODEL_PATH="$MODEL_PATH" \
       -e NIM_DISABLE_MODEL_DOWNLOAD=1 \
       nvcr.io/nim/arc/evo2:2
   ```

This sequence of commands will start the NIM container and load your custom
model checkpoints.  For additional examples and information, refer to the
[Quickstart Guide for Evo 2 NIM](/nim/bionemo/evo2/2.1.0/quickstart-guide).