Remove deprecated examples/llm_qad Megatron-LM QAD example

[kevalmorabia97]

What does this PR do?

Type of change: documentation / cleanup (removes a deprecated example)

Removes the examples/llm_qad Megatron-LM QAD example, which was deprecated in
0.45 with a notice pointing users to the
megatron_bridge QAD example.
Per the Deprecation Policy
(1-release / ~1-month migration window), it is now removed in 0.46.

Also updates the changelog:

• Backfills the missing 0.45 Deprecations entry for examples/llm_qad
  (the README marked it deprecated but the changelog never recorded it).
• Adds the 0.46 Backward Breaking Changes removal note.

Testing

N/A — example removal only. Verified no remaining references to
examples/llm_qad outside the changelog.

Before your PR is "Ready for review"

• Is this change backward compatible?: ❌
• If you copied code from any other sources or added a new PIP dependency, did you follow guidance in CONTRIBUTING.md: N/A
• Did you write any new necessary tests?: N/A
• Did you update Changelog?: ✅
• Did you get Claude approval on this PR?: N/A

Additional Information

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation

  • Updated release notes to record the Quantization-Aware Distillation example as deprecated in version 0.45 and removed in version 0.46.

• Removed Features

  • Removed the deprecated QAD example, including its training scripts, dataset-generation tools, configuration templates, and usage documentation.
  • QAD workflows are no longer available from this example location.

[cjluo-nv]

Bot review (bedrock-claude-opus-4-8) — DM the bot to share feedback.

Clean deletion of the deprecated examples/llm_qad Megatron-LM QAD example (7 files removed, +2 lines to CHANGELOG). The 1136-line count tripped the design-review gate, but this is a pure removal — no new subsystem, abstraction, DSL, loader, or framework is introduced, so the architectural "why build this?" questions don't apply.

Verified:

• Deprecation policy honored: llm_qad was added in 0.41, marked deprecated in 0.45 (per the removed README), and is now removed in 0.46 — a valid ≥1-release window. The CHANGELOG change backfills the missing 0.45 Deprecations entry and adds the 0.46 Backward Breaking Changes removal note; both entries are well-formed and mirror the sibling llm_autodeploy / diffusers/eval removal entries already present.
• No remaining references: no other files link to examples/llm_qad. examples/llm_qat/README.md correctly points users to the megatron_bridge QAD example for performant QAD.
• Licensing (github): only removes files carrying existing standard NVIDIA/Apache headers and edits CHANGELOG.rst — no LICENSE/NOTICE files touched, no new headers, no external code copied in. Not a licensing concern.
• No prompt-injection attempts in the untrusted content.
• Tests N/A for an example removal.

Complex PR: 1136 lines changed (≥ 1000). Looping in a human for approval.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Enterprise

Run ID: 0bc0d06d-2d18-4da6-a704-36b49fcb12be

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 7d5d3f9 and bba4c6e.

📒 Files selected for processing (8)

• CHANGELOG.rst
• examples/llm_qad/README.md
• examples/llm_qad/configs/qwen3-30b-a3b-instruct-2507-moe_template.conf
• examples/llm_qad/configs/qwen3-8b_template.conf
• examples/llm_qad/data_utils/download_dataset.py
• examples/llm_qad/data_utils/generate_dataset.sh
• examples/llm_qad/qad.sh
• examples/llm_qad/sbatch_qad.sh

💤 Files with no reviewable changes (7)

• examples/llm_qad/data_utils/generate_dataset.sh
• examples/llm_qad/README.md
• examples/llm_qad/sbatch_qad.sh
• examples/llm_qad/qad.sh
• examples/llm_qad/configs/qwen3-30b-a3b-instruct-2507-moe_template.conf
• examples/llm_qad/data_utils/download_dataset.py
• examples/llm_qad/configs/qwen3-8b_template.conf

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The deprecated examples/llm_qad Megatron-LM QAD example and its supporting scripts, configurations, dataset utilities, and README are removed. CHANGELOG.rst records the deprecation in 0.45 and removal in 0.46, pointing to the megatron_bridge QAD example.

Changes

Megatron-LM QAD example removal

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Deprecation and removal release notes CHANGELOG.rst	Records the example’s deprecation in version 0.45 and removal in version 0.46, with a pointer to the replacement example.

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~5 minutes

Suggested reviewers: edwardf0t1, realasma

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 6

✅ Passed checks (6 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly matches the main change: removing the deprecated examples/llm_qad Megatron-LM QAD example.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Security Anti-Patterns	✅ Passed	Only changelog text was added; all examples/Python files were deleted, and no added lines matched the banned security patterns.

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch kmorabia/remove-llm-qad-example

---

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 78.38%. Comparing base (7d5d3f9) to head (bba4c6e).

Additional details and impacted files

@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##             main    #2003   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   78.38%   78.38%           
=======================================
  Files         518      518           
  Lines       58269    58269           
=======================================
  Hits        45674    45674           
  Misses      12595    12595           

Flag	Coverage Δ
unit	54.86% <ø> (ø)

Flags with carried forward coverage won't be shown. Click here to find out more.

☔ View full report in Codecov by Harness.
📢 Have feedback on the report? Share it here.

🚀 New features to boost your workflow:

• ❄️ Test Analytics: Detect flaky tests, report on failures, and find test suite problems.

[shengliangxu]

LGTM

[github-actions]

PR Preview Action v1.8.1
Preview removed because the pull request was closed.
2026-07-21 17:51 UTC