MinKeep

MinKeep sets a floor on the number of candidate tokens that survive after every filter (TopK, TopP, MinP, TypicalP, etc.) runs. If filters would leave fewer than MinKeep tokens, the engine widens them until at least MinKeep tokens remain.

Quick reference
Type int
Default 1
Range 1 and above
Category Safety / filter floor
Field on SamplerParameters.MinKeep

What it does

After all filters run, count the surviving candidates. If the count is below MinKeep, the engine relaxes the filters to bring it back up to MinKeep — typically by reverting the last applied filter or by keeping the top-MinKeep candidates regardless of probability.

  • MinKeep = 1 (default) — guarantees at least one token survives. Safe default; prevents the pathological case where every filter combines to produce zero candidates.
  • MinKeep = 5 — always keep at least five candidates. Adds variety floor at the cost of filter tightness.

MinKeep is a backstop rather than a primary tuning knob. Most users leave it at the default.

When to change it

Scenario Value
Default safe floor 1
Guarantee variety even under strict filters 3 – 5
Very aggressive tightness with unusual filter combos Keep at 1 or lower

Raising MinKeep effectively weakens the other filters in corner cases where they combine too tightly. Lowering is not useful — 1 is already the minimum meaningful value.

Example

var preset = new Qwen25Preset();
preset.SamplerParameters.TopK = 5;       // tight
preset.SamplerParameters.TopP = 0.3f;    // tight
preset.SamplerParameters.MinP = 0.2f;    // tight
preset.SamplerParameters.MinKeep = 3;    // but at least 3 candidates always survive

using var api = AsposeLLMApi.Create(preset);

Interactions

  • TopK — MinKeep floors the candidate count regardless.
  • TopP — same — nucleus can’t cut below MinKeep.
  • MinP — same.
  • TypicalP — same.
  • Mirostat — uses its own candidate-management algorithm; MinKeep is not relevant when Mirostat is active.

What’s next

  • Sampler parameters hub — all sampler knobs at a glance.
  • TopK — count-based filter that respects MinKeep.
  • TopP — cumulative-mass filter that respects MinKeep.
Seed TypicalP