Add nvtriton (Triton TileIR backend) to helion Dockerfile

[glassmanK]

Summary

• Install nvtriton (Triton with TileIR compiler backend) into the helion Docker image
• The nvtriton wheel replaces the upstream triton==3.6.0 that ships with PyTorch cu130 (same package name triton, drop-in compatible)
• Sets ENABLE_TILE=1 to activate the TileIR backend by default

What is nvtriton / TileIR?

TileIR is an alternative compiler backend for Triton that lowers Triton IR to the cuda_tile dialect, then compiles via tileiras. It ships with embedded CUDA dependencies (ptxas, tileiras, libnvvm) so no external CUDA toolkit is needed for compilation.

Changes

Single Dockerfile change: after PyTorch install, before Helion install:

# nvtriton (Triton with TileIR backend — replaces upstream triton)
RUN curl -L -o /tmp/nvtriton-3.6.0-cp313-cp313-linux_x86_64.whl \
    https://github.com/triton-lang/Triton-to-tile-IR/releases/download/v3.6.0-rc1/nvtriton-3.6.0-cp313-cp313-linux_x86_64.whl \
    && sudo uv pip install --system /tmp/nvtriton-3.6.0-cp313-cp313-linux_x86_64.whl \
    && rm /tmp/nvtriton-3.6.0-cp313-cp313-linux_x86_64.whl

ENV ENABLE_TILE=1

Test plan

All verified inside the built Docker image on NVIDIA B200 (sm100):

• Docker build: docker build --no-cache -f docker/helion.Dockerfile -t helion-tileir . — OK
• TileIRDriver activation: from triton.runtime.driver import driver; type(driver.active).__name__ → TileIRDriver
• tileiras embedded discovery: TileIREnvConf.get_tileiras_path() → .../cuda_dep_x86/bin/tileiras
• Triton dot kernel (fp16 64×64): max diff: 0.0 ✅
• Helion matmul (fp16 256×256): max diff: 0.0 ✅
• IR pipeline dump: convert-triton-to-cuda-tile → cuda_tile.module → fuse-fma → strip-debuginfo confirmed
• Helion full test suite (HELION_BACKEND=tileir ENABLE_TILE=1 pytest -n4 -rf --timeout=60 --ignore=test/test_examples_dist.py .): 834 passed, 463 skipped, 0 failed (109s)
• Helion import: import helion → OK

Docker build log (excerpt)

#11 [ 8/11] RUN curl -L -o /tmp/nvtriton-3.6.0-cp313-cp313-linux_x86_64.whl ...
#11 25.66 Using Python 3.13.12 environment at: /usr
#11 26.08 Uninstalled 1 package in 41ms
#11 26.08  - triton==3.6.0
#11 26.08 Installed 1 package in 647ms
#11 26.08  + triton==3.6.0 (from file:///tmp/nvtriton-3.6.0-cp313-cp313-linux_x86_64.whl)

[glassmanK]

Build & test logs for reviewers

Full Docker build log and helion test suite log attached for your convenience:

🔗 Build & test logs (gist)

Contents:

• helion-tileir-build-20260311-063909.log — full docker build --no-cache output (1967 lines)
• helion-test-tileir-20260311-072602.log — HELION_BACKEND=tileir ENABLE_TILE=1 pytest -n4 -rf --timeout=60 --ignore=test/test_examples_dist.py . output: 834 passed, 463 skipped, 0 failed

Tested on NVIDIA B200 (sm100, compute capability 10.0).