diff --git a/lib/mlx_lm.rb b/lib/mlx_lm.rb
index fc06890..10bfc97 100644
--- a/lib/mlx_lm.rb
+++ b/lib/mlx_lm.rb
@@ -127,6 +127,7 @@
 require_relative "mlx_lm/quantize"
 require_relative "mlx_lm/quant/awq"
 require_relative "mlx_lm/quant/gptq"
+require_relative "mlx_lm/hub"
 require_relative "mlx_lm/load_utils"
 require_relative "mlx_lm/evaluate"
 require_relative "mlx_lm/tuner/callbacks"
diff --git a/lib/mlx_lm/hub.rb b/lib/mlx_lm/hub.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..470c888
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/mlx_lm/hub.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+require "fileutils"
+require "json"
+require "net/http"
+require "pathname"
+require "uri"
+
+module MlxLm
+  # Minimal pure-Ruby equivalent of huggingface_hub.snapshot_download.
+  # Cache layout matches the Python client so caches are mutually reusable.
+  module Hub
+    DEFAULT_ENDPOINT = "https://huggingface.co".freeze
+    MAX_REDIRECTS = 5
+    DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = 300
+
+    module_function
+
+    # Download a model snapshot from Hugging Face Hub.
+    #
+    # @param repo_id [String] e.g. "mlx-community/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-4bit"
+    # @param revision [String] branch, tag, or commit SHA (default "main")
+    # @param allow_patterns [Array<String>, String, nil] glob patterns to include
+    # @param token [String, nil] defaults to ENV["HF_TOKEN"]
+    # @param cache_dir [String, Pathname, nil] defaults to HF_HUB_CACHE / HF_HOME/hub / ~/.cache/huggingface/hub
+    # @param endpoint [String, nil] defaults to HF_ENDPOINT or huggingface.co
+    # @return [Pathname] absolute path to the snapshot directory
+    def snapshot_download(repo_id, revision: "main", allow_patterns: nil, token: nil, cache_dir: nil, endpoint: nil)
+      endpoint ||= ENV["HF_ENDPOINT"] || DEFAULT_ENDPOINT
+      token ||= ENV["HF_TOKEN"]
+      cache_dir = resolve_cache_dir(cache_dir)
+      patterns = normalize_patterns(allow_patterns)
+
+      info = fetch_model_info(endpoint, repo_id, revision, token)
+      sha = info.fetch("sha")
+      siblings = info.fetch("siblings").map { |s| s.fetch("rfilename") }
+
+      repo_folder = cache_dir.join("models--#{repo_id.gsub("/", "--")}")
+      snapshot_dir = repo_folder.join("snapshots", sha)
+      FileUtils.mkdir_p(snapshot_dir)
+      FileUtils.mkdir_p(repo_folder.join("refs"))
+      File.write(repo_folder.join("refs", revision), sha)
+
+      siblings.each do |rel|
+        next unless pattern_match?(rel, patterns)
+        target = snapshot_dir.join(rel)
+        next if target.file? && target.size > 0
+
+        FileUtils.mkdir_p(target.dirname)
+        url = "#{endpoint}/#{repo_id}/resolve/#{revision}/#{rel}"
+        download_file(url, target.to_s, token)
+      end
+
+      snapshot_dir
+    end
+
+    def resolve_cache_dir(explicit)
+      return Pathname.new(explicit) if explicit
+      if (v = ENV["HF_HUB_CACHE"]) && !v.empty?
+        Pathname.new(v)
+      elsif (v = ENV["HF_HOME"]) && !v.empty?
+        Pathname.new(v).join("hub")
+      else
+        Pathname.new(Dir.home).join(".cache", "huggingface", "hub")
+      end
+    end
+
+    def normalize_patterns(p)
+      return nil if p.nil?
+      p.is_a?(::Array) ? p : [p]
+    end
+
+    def pattern_match?(filename, patterns)
+      return true if patterns.nil? || patterns.empty?
+      patterns.any? do |pat|
+        File.fnmatch(pat, filename, File::FNM_PATHNAME) ||
+          File.fnmatch(pat, File.basename(filename))
+      end
+    end
+
+    def fetch_model_info(endpoint, repo_id, revision, token)
+      url = "#{endpoint}/api/models/#{repo_id}/revision/#{revision}"
+      body = http_get_body(url, token)
+      JSON.parse(body)
+    end
+
+    def http_get_body(url, token, limit = MAX_REDIRECTS)
+      raise "Too many redirects fetching #{url}" if limit <= 0
+      uri = URI.parse(url)
+      Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: uri.scheme == "https") do |http|
+        req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)
+        req["Authorization"] = "Bearer #{token}" if token && uri.host.end_with?("huggingface.co")
+        req["User-Agent"] = user_agent
+        resp = http.request(req)
+        case resp
+        when Net::HTTPSuccess then resp.body
+        when Net::HTTPRedirection then http_get_body(URI.join(url, resp["location"]).to_s, token, limit - 1)
+        else raise "HTTP #{resp.code} #{resp.message} fetching #{url}: #{resp.body}"
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
+    def download_file(url, output_path, token = nil, limit = MAX_REDIRECTS)
+      raise "Too many redirects fetching #{url}" if limit <= 0
+      uri = URI.parse(url)
+      Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: uri.scheme == "https", read_timeout: DEFAULT_TIMEOUT) do |http|
+        req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)
+        req["Authorization"] = "Bearer #{token}" if token && uri.host.end_with?("huggingface.co")
+        req["User-Agent"] = user_agent
+        http.request(req) do |resp|
+          case resp
+          when Net::HTTPSuccess
+            tmp = "#{output_path}.download.#{Process.pid}"
+            File.open(tmp, "wb") { |f| resp.read_body { |chunk| f.write(chunk) } }
+            FileUtils.mv(tmp, output_path)
+          when Net::HTTPRedirection
+            return download_file(URI.join(url, resp["location"]).to_s, output_path, token, limit - 1)
+          else
+            raise "HTTP #{resp.code} #{resp.message} fetching #{url}"
+          end
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
+    def user_agent
+      v = defined?(MlxLm::VERSION) ? MlxLm::VERSION : "unknown"
+      "mlx-ruby-lm/#{v}"
+    end
+
+    private_class_method :resolve_cache_dir, :normalize_patterns, :pattern_match?,
+      :fetch_model_info, :download_file, :user_agent
+  end
+end
diff --git a/lib/mlx_lm/load_utils.rb b/lib/mlx_lm/load_utils.rb
index 02bbfa2..e5e8d73 100644
--- a/lib/mlx_lm/load_utils.rb
+++ b/lib/mlx_lm/load_utils.rb
@@ -4,17 +4,29 @@ module MlxLm
   module LoadUtils
     module_function
 
-    # Load a model and tokenizer from a local directory.
+    # Load a model and tokenizer from a local directory or Hugging Face repo id.
     #
-    # @param model_path [String] Path to the model directory
+    # @param model_path [String] Local directory path, or HF repo id like "org/model"
     # @param tokenizer_config [Hash] Additional tokenizer config overrides
+    # @param revision [String] HF branch/tag/sha; ignored for local paths
     # @return [Array(nn::Module, TokenizerWrapper)] The loaded model and tokenizer
-    def load(model_path, tokenizer_config: nil)
-      model, _config = load_model(model_path)
-      tokenizer = load_tokenizer(model_path)
+    def load(model_path, tokenizer_config: nil, revision: "main")
+      local_path = resolve_path(model_path, revision: revision)
+      model, _config = load_model(local_path)
+      tokenizer = load_tokenizer(local_path)
       [model, tokenizer]
     end
 
+    # Resolve a path-or-repo-id to a local directory, downloading from HF Hub if needed.
+    def resolve_path(path_or_repo, revision: "main")
+      return path_or_repo if File.directory?(path_or_repo)
+      Hub.snapshot_download(
+        path_or_repo,
+        revision: revision,
+        allow_patterns: ["*.json", "*.txt", "*.safetensors", "*.jinja", "*.model"],
+      ).to_s
+    end
+
     # Load model from a local directory containing config.json and safetensors.
     #
     # @param model_path [String] Path to the model directory
diff --git a/lib/mlx_lm/weight_utils.rb b/lib/mlx_lm/weight_utils.rb
index cffa5c4..abdcf36 100644
--- a/lib/mlx_lm/weight_utils.rb
+++ b/lib/mlx_lm/weight_utils.rb
@@ -51,30 +51,21 @@ def _tensor_to_mlx(info, mx)
       dtype_str = info["dtype"]
       data = info["data"]
 
-      # For F32/float32, unpack as little-endian floats
-      if dtype_str == "F32" || dtype_str == "float32"
-        values = data.unpack("e*")
-        mx.array(values).reshape(shape)
-      elsif dtype_str == "F16"
-        # 16-bit float: unpack as uint16, create array as float32, then view as float16
-        values = data.unpack("S<*")
-        mx.array(values, dtype: mx.uint16).view(mx.float16).reshape(shape)
-      elsif dtype_str == "BF16"
-        values = data.unpack("S<*")
-        mx.array(values, dtype: mx.uint16).view(mx.bfloat16).reshape(shape)
-      elsif dtype_str == "I32" || dtype_str == "int32"
-        values = data.unpack("l<*")
-        mx.array(values, dtype: mx.int32).reshape(shape)
-      elsif dtype_str == "I64"
-        values = data.unpack("q<*")
-        mx.array(values, dtype: mx.int64).reshape(shape)
-      elsif dtype_str == "U8"
-        values = data.unpack("C*")
-        mx.array(values, dtype: mx.uint8).reshape(shape)
+      dtype_str = "F32" if dtype_str == "float32"
+      dtype_str = "I32" if dtype_str == "int32"
+
+      # F16/BF16 lack a direct unpack path; stage through uint16 + .view.
+      if dtype_str == "F16" || dtype_str == "BF16"
+        view_dtype = dtype_str == "F16" ? mx.float16 : mx.bfloat16
+        return mx.array(data.unpack("S<*"), dtype: mx.uint16).view(view_dtype).reshape(shape)
+      end
+
+      format_str, dtype_sym = DTYPE_UNPACK[dtype_str]
+      if format_str
+        mx.array(data.unpack(format_str), dtype: mx.__send__(dtype_sym)).reshape(shape)
       else
-        # Fallback: try F32
-        values = data.unpack("e*")
-        mx.array(values).reshape(shape)
+        # Unknown dtype — interpret raw bytes as little-endian F32.
+        mx.array(data.unpack("e*")).reshape(shape)
       end
     end