Understand open weights
Read the model card and license
Inspect intended use, limitations, artifacts, provenance, and legal terms before downloading or building on a model.
A model page is not just a download button.
Start with the model card. It should explain what the model does, its intended uses, known limitations, training or fine-tuning information, datasets, and evaluation results.
Then read the license itself. A familiar label such as Apache 2.0 is different from a custom model license with restrictions. Do not assume that “free to download” means “free to use commercially” or “free to redistribute.”
Check these fields:
- who published the repository
- the exact base model and version
- license and additional usage terms
- supported languages and tasks
- architecture and runtime requirements
- available full-precision and quantized artifacts
- context length and prompt template
- evaluations and their conditions
- limitations and out-of-scope uses
Also inspect the files. A community quantization is a new artifact maintained by someone other than the original model creator. Check its source model, conversion notes, hashes when supplied, and community history.
A detailed model card does not prove every claim. It gives you a starting point for your own evaluation.
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