How the evolution chains page works
The /market/evolution-chains page shows the full multi-generation ancestry of every abliterated model as expandable cards. Currently 500 root bases with descendants spanning up to 0 generations, 0 nodes in total. This article walks through what a chain is, how deep the trees go, how to read the color coding, and how the page differs from the fork graph article.
Each card on the page represents one node in a fork tree - a base model and, indented below it, everything descended from it: abliterations, quantizations, merges, and further derivatives. Clicking a card expands the next generation. Color of the left rail signals depth. Numbers on each card show downloads for that node and cumulative descendants. The point is to make visible that most abliterations are not first-generation work - they sit two, three, or four levels below the original base model.
- What an evolution chain is and how it differs from a single fork
- The color scheme: how depth maps to color
- How to read the descendant count on each card
- The click behavior - expanding one branch vs the whole tree
- How this page relates to /wiki/how-fork-graph-works and the fork graph query
- Why not every abliteration produces a chain of the same depth
What the page is
The /market/evolution-chains page renders every root abliterated model in our catalog as an expandable card. Clicking a card reveals its direct descendants; clicking one of those reveals theirs. The tree can be walked all the way down to leaf nodes - the deepest chains currently reach 0 generations from root to bottom.
Roots on the page are foundation-model families (Qwen, Llama, Gemma, etc.) that have at least one abliterated descendant. From each root, the tree branches into direct abliterations, then their re-quantizations, then their merges, then further derivatives, and so on. Every model in the catalog appears somewhere in one of these trees.
What counts as an evolution chain
A chain is a path from a root node down to any descendant, following declared base_model relationships. The chain is not a single lineage - it is the whole subtree rooted at a node. When the page shows "Qwen3.8-27B → 12 direct forks → 47 grandchildren → 118 great-grandchildren," each of those levels is one generation in the tree.
A chain of length 1 is a base with only direct forks and no further descendants - no re-quantizations, no merges. A chain of length 5 means someone abliterated the base, someone else quantized that abliteration, a third party merged the quantization with something, a fourth made a further variant, a fifth quantized it again. This actually happens in the catalog. Deep chains are a signature of a very active family.
Color coding - how depth is signaled
Because the tree is presented as a flat vertical stack (each card full width, not indented), depth is signaled by color rather than by physical indentation. The left rail of each card and the color of its "N forks" badge shift as you go deeper:
- Root generation - the foundational color of the family (yellow-orange for Qwen, green for Llama, etc.)
- Second generation - the abliterated color (usually purple)
- Third generation and deeper - progressively bluer shades signaling further removal from the source
The color of the "+ N forks" badge on a card is the color of what will open when you click it. This lets you see at a glance whether the next click will reveal same-generation siblings or one level deeper.
The numbers on each card
Every card shows two numbers next to the model name:
- Downloads - lifetime downloads of this specific model, from the latest snapshot
- N forks / N children - how many direct descendants this node has one level below it
The N forks count on a parent card is not the same as the total descendants; it is only the direct-child count. To see the full descendant count for a deep branch, expand and look at the "N models" line at the top of the section that opens.
Click behavior
Clicking anywhere on a card summary toggles that card's children container open or closed. Clicking on the model name (which is a link) navigates to the model card page on our site - the click bubbling is stopped so it does not toggle the parent.
Multiple cards can be open at once, at any depth. The page state is not preserved across reloads - refresh returns everything to the collapsed state. This is deliberate: the default view is meant to show the whole forest, not one branch's opened path.
How this page differs from related resources
- This page (/market/evolution-chains) - the operational view: browse the trees, expand branches, click into models. Interactive.
- The fork graph wiki article (/wiki/how-fork-graph-works) - the methodology: how the parent-child relationships are extracted from declared base_model metadata, how the recursive traversal works, known noise in the declared graph. Static reference.
- The disenchantment page (/market/disenchantment) - a specific reading of the same trees: for each root, what share of the download market has flowed into the descendant subtree. Focused on the DAI metric.
- The catalog search (/models) - the flat model list, filterable by base with
?base=<id>. The tree structure is not visible there; each descendant just appears as its own row.
Why chain depth varies so much
A family with a single popular base can generate a deep chain. Its first abliteration was released, then quantized, then merged, then further processed - five or six generations follow. Meanwhile a smaller, less-followed base might have exactly one direct abliteration and nothing beyond. Both are legitimate - one just has an active downstream community and the other does not.
The lengths of chains in the tree are a proxy for community activity, not for the quality or importance of any individual model. A chain of depth 6 does not mean the sixth-generation model is important. It means the family has been worked on continuously.
How the page updates
The full fork tree is queried fresh at each site build from the catalog's base_model declarations. Every night at 05:00 UTC the site rebuilds after new snapshots are ingested; new abliterations that declare a base already in the tree extend the tree; new roots that were not seen before appear as new top-level cards.
Where to read more
- The fork graph - how the parent-child structure is built from declared base_model metadata
- Every number on the market page, explained - master guide covering all three tabs and extra pages
- How the disenchantment page works - companion article for the sibling detail page
- The page itself