EasySteer: A Unified Framework for High-Performance and Extensible LLM Steering

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Xu, Haolei, Mei, Xinyu, Yan, Yuchen, Zhou, Rui, Zhang, Wenqi, Lu, Weiming, Zhuang, Yueting, Shen, Yongliang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Xu, Haolei
Mei, Xinyu
Yan, Yuchen
Zhou, Rui
Zhang, Wenqi
Lu, Weiming
Zhuang, Yueting
Shen, Yongliang
author_facet Xu, Haolei
Mei, Xinyu
Yan, Yuchen
Zhou, Rui
Zhang, Wenqi
Lu, Weiming
Zhuang, Yueting
Shen, Yongliang
contents Large language model (LLM) steering has emerged as a promising paradigm for controlling model behavior at inference time through targeted manipulation of hidden states, offering a lightweight alternative to expensive retraining. However, existing steering frameworks suffer from critical limitations: computational inefficiency, limited extensibility, and restricted functionality that hinder both research progress and practical deployment. We present EasySteer, a unified framework for high-performance, extensible LLM steering built on vLLM. Our system features modular architecture with pluggable interfaces for both analysis-based and learning-based methods, fine-grained parameter control, pre-computed steering vectors for eight application domains, and an interactive demonstration system. Through deep integration with vLLM's optimized inference engine, EasySteer achieves 10.8-22.3$\times$ speedup over existing frameworks. Extensive experiments demonstrate its effectiveness in overthinking mitigation, hallucination reduction, and other key applications. EasySteer transforms steering from research technique to production-ready capability, establishing critical infrastructure for deployable, controllable language models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_25175
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle EasySteer: A Unified Framework for High-Performance and Extensible LLM Steering
Xu, Haolei
Mei, Xinyu
Yan, Yuchen
Zhou, Rui
Zhang, Wenqi
Lu, Weiming
Zhuang, Yueting
Shen, Yongliang
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Large language model (LLM) steering has emerged as a promising paradigm for controlling model behavior at inference time through targeted manipulation of hidden states, offering a lightweight alternative to expensive retraining. However, existing steering frameworks suffer from critical limitations: computational inefficiency, limited extensibility, and restricted functionality that hinder both research progress and practical deployment. We present EasySteer, a unified framework for high-performance, extensible LLM steering built on vLLM. Our system features modular architecture with pluggable interfaces for both analysis-based and learning-based methods, fine-grained parameter control, pre-computed steering vectors for eight application domains, and an interactive demonstration system. Through deep integration with vLLM's optimized inference engine, EasySteer achieves 10.8-22.3$\times$ speedup over existing frameworks. Extensive experiments demonstrate its effectiveness in overthinking mitigation, hallucination reduction, and other key applications. EasySteer transforms steering from research technique to production-ready capability, establishing critical infrastructure for deployable, controllable language models.
title EasySteer: A Unified Framework for High-Performance and Extensible LLM Steering
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25175