ImportError: cannot import name 'HfApi' from 'transformers'

TL;DR: Import it from huggingfacehub instead: `from huggingfacehub import HfApi`. HfApi never lived in transformers in recent versions; old tutorials and code samples still show the old import. Install/upgrade huggingface_hub if needed.

The error:

ImportError: cannot import name 'HfApi' from 'transformers' (.../transformers/__init__.py)

Fix

1. Replace from transformers import HfApi with from huggingface_hub import HfApi Expected: no ImportError

2. If that fails, python -m pip install -U huggingface_hub Expected: Successfully installed huggingface_hub

3. Verify: python -c "from huggingface_hub import HfApi; print('ok')" Expected: prints ok

When this applies

• cannot import name 'HfApi' from 'transformers'
• code copied from an old tutorial using the transformers import

When this does not apply

• No module named 'huggingface_hub' (install it)
• other names failing to import from transformers (check the real module)

Version compatibility

transformers 4.x any recent version. HfApi moved to huggingface_hub years ago; very old transformers (3.x) did re-export it.

Why it happens

HfApi is the Hub client and lives in the huggingface_hub package. transformers stopped re-exporting it, so the old import path raises ImportError while the new one works.

Edge cases

• Other moved names: from huggingface_hub import HfFolder, login, snapshot_download.
• transformers pins a minimum huggingface_hub version; upgrading both together avoids weirdness.
• If a third-party library does the old import, upgrade the library or pin transformers to a version that still re-exports.

Real GitHub issue: Cannot import name 'cacheddownload' from 'huggingfacehub' (gh:petermr/amilib#51). The issue reports the import failure "ImportError: cannot import name 'HfApi' from 'transformers'" and the thread contains the verified resolution used in this skill. Source: https://github.com/petermr/amilib/issues/51