stable-baselines3 skill
Production-ready reinforcement learning algorithms (PPO, SAC, DQN, TD3, DDPG, A2C) with scikit-learn-like API. Use for standard RL experiments, quick prototyping, and well-documented algorithm implementations. Best for single-agent RL with Gymnasium environments. For high-performance parallel training, multi-agent systems, or custom vectorized environments, use pufferlib instead.
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Install the stable-baselines3 skill
A skill is a folder. Copy it into your agent's skills folder and the agent loads it when the task matches its description.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills.git /tmp/scientific-agent-skills mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills cp -r /tmp/scientific-agent-skills/skills/stable-baselines3 ~/.claude/skills/stable-baselines3
In the Claude apps, zip the folder and upload it from the Skills settings. The folder on GitHub
The instructions your agent would load
SKILL.md as published, without the frontmatter. Read it on GitHub
Stable Baselines3
Overview
Stable Baselines3 (SB3) is a PyTorch-based library providing reliable implementations of reinforcement learning algorithms. This skill provides comprehensive guidance for training RL agents, creating custom environments, implementing callbacks, and optimizing training workflows using SB3's unified API.
Current upstream: SB3 2.8.0 (April 2026). Docs: stable-baselines3.readthedocs.io.
Installation
Tested against stable-baselines3 2.8.0. Requires Python 3.10+ (3.9 dropped in 2.8.0) and PyTorch >= 2.3.
# Basic installation
uv pip install "stable-baselines3>=2.8"
# With extra dependencies (TensorBoard, ale-py for Atari, etc.)
uv pip install "stable-baselines3[extra]>=2.8"On zsh, quote brackets: uv pip install 'stable-baselines3[extra]>=2.8'.
For MuJoCo continuous-control benchmarks:
uv pip install "gymnasium[mujoco]"Check your version:
import stable_baselines3
print(stable_baselines3.__version__)Related Projects
- SB3-Contrib: experimental algorithms (MaskablePPO, CrossQ, QR-DQN, RecurrentPPO) — separate sb3-contrib package
- RL Baselines3 Zoo: pre-trained agents, hyperparameters, training scripts
- SBX: SB3 + JAX implementations for users who prefer JAX over PyTorch
Core Capabilities
1. Training RL Agents
Basic Training Pattern:
import gymnasium as gym
from stable_baselines3 import PPO
# Create environment
env = gym.make("CartPole-v1")
# Initialize agent (device="cpu" is often faster for MlpPolicy on small envs)
model = PPO("MlpPolicy", env, verbose=1)
# Train the agent
model.learn(total_timesteps=10000)
# Save the model
model.save("ppo_cartpole")
# Load the model (without prior instantiation)
model = PPO.load("ppo_cartpole", env=env)Important Notes:
- total_timesteps is a lower bound; actual training may exceed this due to batch collection
- Use model.load() as a static method, not on an existing instance
- The replay buffer is NOT saved with the model to save space
Algorithm Selection: Use references/algorithms.md for detailed algorithm characteristics and selection guidance. Quick reference:
- PPO/A2C: General-purpose, supports all action space types, good for multiprocessing
- SAC/TD3: Continuous control, off-policy, sample-efficient
- DQN: Discrete actions, off-policy
- HER: Goal-conditioned tasks
See scripts/trainrlagent.py for a complete training template with best practices.
2. Custom Environments
Requirements: Custom environments must inherit from gymnasium.Env and implement:
- init(): Define actionspace and observationspace
- reset(seed, options): Return initial observation and info dict
- step(action): Return observation, reward, terminated, truncated, info
- render(): Visualization (optional)
- close(): Cleanup resources
Key Constraints:
- Image observations must be np.uint8 in range [0, 255]
- Use channel-first format when possible (channels, height, width)
- SB3 normalizes images automatically by dividing by 255
- Set normalizeimages=False in policykwargs if pre-normalized
- SB3 does NOT support Discrete or MultiDiscrete spaces with start!=0
Validation:
from stable_baselines3.common.env_checker import check_env
check_env(env, warn=True)See scripts/customenvtemplate.py for a complete custom environment template and references/custom_environments.md for comprehensive guidance.
3. Vectorized Environments
Purpose: Vectorized environments run multiple environment instances in parallel, accelerating training and enabling certain wrappers (frame-stacking, normalization).
Types:
- DummyVecEnv: Sequential execution on current process (for lightweight environments)
- SubprocVecEnv: Parallel execution across processes (for compute-heavy environments)
Quick Setup:
from stable_baselines3.common.env_util import make_vec_env
# Create 4 parallel environments
env = make_vec_env("CartPole-v1", n_envs=4, vec_env_cls=SubprocVecEnv)
model = PPO("MlpPolicy", env, verbose=1)
model.learn(total_timesteps=25000)Off-Policy Optimization: When using multiple environments with off-policy algorithms (SAC, TD3, DQN), set gradient_steps=-1 to perform one gradient update per environment step, balancing wall-clock time and sample efficiency.
API Differences:
- reset() returns only observations (info available in vecenv.resetinfos)
- step() returns 4-tuple: (obs, rewards, dones, infos) not 5-tuple
- Environments auto-reset after episodes
- Terminal observations available via infos[envidx]["terminalobservation"]
See references/vectorized_envs.md for detailed information on wrappers and advanced usage.
4. Callbacks for Monitoring and Control
Purpose: Callbacks enable monitoring metrics, saving checkpoints, implementing early stopping, and custom training logic without modifying core algorithms.
Common Callbacks:
- EvalCallback: Evaluate periodically and save best model
- CheckpointCallback: Save model checkpoints at intervals
- StopTrainingOnRewardThreshold: Stop when target reward reached
- ProgressBarCallback: Display training progress with timing
Custom Callback Structure:
from stable_baselines3.common.callbacks import BaseCallback
class CustomCallback(BaseCallback):
def _on_training_start(self):
# Called before first rollout
pass
def _on_step(self):
# Called after each environment step
# Return False to stop training
return True
def _on_rollout_end(self):
# Called at end of rollout
passAvailable Attributes:
- self.model: The RL algorithm instance
- self.num_timesteps: Total environment steps
- self.training_env: The training environment
Chaining Callbacks:
from stable_baselines3.common.callbacks import CallbackList
callback = CallbackList([eval_callback, checkpoint_callback, custom_callback])
model.learn(total_timesteps=10000, callback=callback)See references/callbacks.md for comprehensive callback documentation.
5. Model Persistence and Inspection
Saving and Loading:
# Save model
model.save("model_name")
# Save normalization statistics (if using VecNormalize)
vec_env.save("vec_normalize.pkl")
# Load model
model = PPO.load("model_name", env=env)
# Load normalization statistics
vec_env = VecNormalize.load("vec_normalize.pkl", vec_env)Parameter Access:
# Get parameters
params = model.get_parameters()
# Set parameters
model.set_parameters(params)
# Access PyTorch state dict
state_dict = model.policy.state_dict()6. Evaluation and Recording
Evaluation:
from stable_baselines3.common.evaluation import evaluate_policy
mean_reward, std_reward = evaluate_policy(
model,
env,
n_eval_episodes=10,
deterministic=True
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