Hugging Face Hub review

Q: How do I install Hugging Face Hub?

Run curl -LsSf https://hf.co/cli/install.sh | bash. It needs Node.js >=18. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Hugging Face Hub is the official CLI and Python client for downloading, uploading and managing models, datasets and Spaces on the Hugging Face Hub.

Updated Nov 1, 2026. Review written Oct 22, 2026 from the project's own sources; usage data refreshed every Monday.

TL;DR

Hugging Face Hub (huggingface_hub) is the official Python library and hf CLI for the Hugging Face Hub. It is for developers who download or publish models, datasets and Spaces, run inference, or run jobs on Hugging Face infrastructure. Both interfaces ship in one package and are designed to work for humans and AI coding agents.

4kGitHub stars
+24new stars, week of Oct 25
~68.3Mdownloads a week, +11% vs 4-week avg
#6in Model SDKs and gateways this week

Hugging Face Hub at a glance

Category: Model SDKs and gateways
Maintained by: Hugging Face (organization, @huggingface on GitHub)
License: Apache 2.0
Language: Python, Shell, PowerShell
Repository: github.com/huggingface/huggingface_hub
Website: huggingface.co/docs/huggingface_hub
npm package: @huggingface/hub 2.17.8
PyPI package: huggingface_hub 2.2.0
Latest release: @huggingface/hub 2.17.8 on npm, Oct 15, 2026
First published: Dec 22, 2020

What Hugging Face Hub does

Hugging Face Hub downloads single files or entire repositories from the Hub into a local cache folder.
Hugging Face Hub creates repositories and uploads files or whole folders to models, datasets or Spaces.
Hugging Face Hub runs inference on deployed models and lists models served by Inference Providers.
Hugging Face Hub runs jobs on Hugging Face infrastructure, including automatic retries, reruns and scheduled job rescheduling.
Hugging Face Hub syncs local folders to storage buckets with the hf buckets sync command.
Hugging Face Hub searches models, datasets and Spaces, shares model cards, and handles community PRs and comments.
Hugging Face Hub deduplicates Xet files across repos in its cache, storing each file once and symlinking it.

How it works

Hugging Face Hub ships one package with two interfaces: the hf CLI for the terminal and the huggingface_hub Python library. You authenticate with a Hub token, then download, upload, search or run jobs against the Hugging Face Hub. Large files use Xet, the Hub's chunk-deduplicated storage backend. The CLI adapts its output when run by a coding agent, and an optional MCP module is available.

How to install and start using Hugging Face Hub

hf CLI on macOS and Linux

curl -LsSf https://hf.co/cli/install.sh | bash

hf CLI on Windows

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://hf.co/cli/install.ps1 | iex"

Python library with pip

pip install huggingface_hub

Requirements

Python 3.10 or later for the huggingface_hub package.
A Hugging Face Hub token to authenticate applications.
The separate @huggingface/hub npm package requires Node.js 18 or later.

First steps

Log in with hf auth login, or pass --token $HF_TOKEN in non-interactive environments.
Download a model with hf download Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B.
Upload files to your own repo with hf upload username/my-cool-model ./model.safetensors.
Run hf --help to discover the other commands.

Who Hugging Face Hub is for

Python developers who download pre-trained models and datasets from the Hugging Face Hub.
ML practitioners publishing models, datasets or Spaces and documenting them with model cards.
Developers using coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor with Hub workflows.
ML library authors who want Hub hosting and versioning for their users' models.

Limitations to know

Hugging Face Hub v2.0 moved its HTTP stack to httpx2, so custom client factories and transport-error handlers must use httpx2 types.
Hugging Face Hub keeps the default package minimal; features such as the MCP module need optional dependencies.
Hugging Face Hub's Validating progress bar for large Xet uploads requires hf-xet>=1.6.0.

Is Hugging Face Hub growing? Usage data

In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Hugging Face Hub ranked #169 on the Devtoolwatch Board and #6 in Model SDKs and gateways, with a momentum score of 49 out of 100. Its main package had about 68.3M downloads that week, +11% against its own 4-week average.

New GitHub stars per week for the last 12 weeks, from GitHub's stargazer history (today's stargazers by the week they starred).

Show the weekly numbers

New GitHub stars per week for Hugging Face Hub
Week of	New stars
Aug 9, 2026	18
Aug 16, 2026	24
Aug 23, 2026	26
Aug 30, 2026	18
Sep 6, 2026	16
Sep 13, 2026	22
Sep 20, 2026	31
Sep 27, 2026	13
Oct 4, 2026	20
Oct 11, 2026	18
Oct 18, 2026	19
Oct 25, 2026	24

On Hacker News

Qwen 3.8 27B, 1438 points and 793 comments (Aug 14, 2026)
Kimi-K3 on HuggingFace, 1382 points and 544 comments (Jul 27, 2026)
DeepSeek-v3.2: Pushing the frontier of open large language models [pdf], 982 points and 465 comments (Dec 1, 2025)
DeepSeek-v4.1-Flash-1017, 959 points and 721 comments (Oct 17, 2026)
GLM-5.3 is now open-weight, 806 points and 280 comments (Aug 28, 2026)

The Board ranks tools by four signals each week: new stars, new stars for the repo's size, added downloads and download growth beyond the market. How the ranking works.

Hugging Face Hub alternatives

Other LLM SDKs and gateways on the Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum:

Model SDKs and gateways ranked by momentum, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026
Rank	Tool	Stars	Downloads/wk
#1	thinking-orbsthinking-orbs is a React library of dotted, animated thought-orb loading indicators for AI and agent user interfaces.	3.9k	1.4M
#2	HeadroomHeadroom compresses tool outputs, logs, files, and RAG chunks locally before they reach the LLM, as a library, proxy, or MCP server.	78.5k	125.8k
#3	LiteLLMLiteLLM is an open source AI gateway and Python SDK that calls 100+ LLM providers through one OpenAI-format interface.	62.5k	23.1M
#4	Honcho Memory library for building stateful agents	7.9k	–
#5	Anthropic SDKAnthropic SDK is the official Python library for calling the Claude API from Python applications.	4k	111M
#7	OpenAI SDKOpenAI SDK is the official Python library for the OpenAI API, with typed sync and async clients generated from OpenAI's OpenAPI…	32k	141.3M

All LLM SDKs and gateways, ranked

Recent Hugging Face Hub releases

v2.2.0, Oct 8, 2026
v2.1.1, Oct 1, 2026
v2.1.0, Oct 1, 2026
v2.0.0, Sep 24, 2026
v1.33.0, Sep 24, 2026

Hugging Face Hub FAQ

Is Hugging Face Hub free and open source?

Yes. Hugging Face Hub's source code is on GitHub (huggingface/huggingface_hub) under the Apache 2.0 license, so you can use it for free. Its website also links to a pricing page (https://huggingface.co/pricing) for any paid plans.

How do I install Hugging Face Hub?

Run curl -LsSf https://hf.co/cli/install.sh | bash. It needs Node.js >=18. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Is Hugging Face Hub still maintained?

Yes. The huggingface/huggingface_hub repository was last updated on Oct 21, 2026, and the latest release, @huggingface/hub 2.17.8 on npm, came out on Oct 15, 2026.

How popular is Hugging Face Hub?

Hugging Face Hub has 4k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 24 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 21 a week. Its main package had about 68.3M downloads that week, +11% against its own 4-week average. That made it #6 among LLM SDKs and gateways on the Devtoolwatch Board.

What are the best alternatives to Hugging Face Hub?

Other LLM SDKs and gateways on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: thinking-orbs (#1), Headroom (#2), LiteLLM (#3), Honcho (#4), Anthropic SDK (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

What is Hugging Face Hub?

Hugging Face Hub (huggingface_hub) is the official CLI and Python client for the Hugging Face Hub, a platform for sharing machine learning models, datasets and demos. It ships the hf CLI and the Python library in one package.

What is Hugging Face Hub used for?

Hugging Face Hub is used to download and upload files, manage repositories, run inference on deployed models, run jobs on Hugging Face infrastructure, search models, datasets and Spaces, share model cards, and engage with the community through PRs and comments.

Does Hugging Face Hub work with AI coding agents?

Yes. The hf CLI adapts its output when run by an agent. The hf skills add command installs a CLI Skill for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Pi and any agent that loads skills from .agents/skills.

Where does Hugging Face Hub store downloaded files?

Hugging Face Hub downloads files into a local cache folder. Since v1.32.0, Xet files are stored once in a shared blob store, and each repo that needs them gets a relative symlink.

How do I authenticate with Hugging Face Hub?

Hugging Face Hub uses tokens to authenticate applications. Run hf auth login to log in, or use --token $HF_TOKEN in non-interactive environments.

Sources

Hugging Face Hub README badge

Maintainers can show the tool's weekly Board rank in their README:

[![Devtoolwatch](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/badge/hf-hub.svg)](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/hf-hub/)

How this page is made: Devtoolwatch writes each review from the project's README, releases, package metadata and website, with an AI model, then checks every claim against the source it cites and drops what the sources don't support. The numbers come from Devtoolwatch's daily GitHub snapshots, GitHub's stargazer history, and the npm and PyPI download APIs. Spotted an error? Email [email protected].