From 86a204d22ae209556b99eb1a9d520da1c14509a2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: chenyu <chenyu@fastmail.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2026 21:26:58 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] allow Tensor setitem input to be list/tuple (#14432)

matches assign, and generally matches numpy
---
 test/unit/test_assign.py |  5 +++++
 tinygrad/tensor.py       | 11 +++++------
 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/test/unit/test_assign.py b/test/unit/test_assign.py
index 24c2ce60e4..076f2b14f3 100644
--- a/test/unit/test_assign.py
+++ b/test/unit/test_assign.py
@@ -456,6 +456,11 @@ class TestAssign(unittest.TestCase):
     assign.realize()
     np.testing.assert_allclose(a.numpy(), [2., 2., 2., 2., 1., 1., 1., 1.])
 
+  def test_setitem_list(self):
+    a = Tensor.zeros(8).contiguous().realize()
+    a[2:5] = [1, 2, 3]
+    np.testing.assert_allclose(a.numpy(), [0., 0., 1., 2., 3., 0., 0., 0.])
+
   @unittest.skip("don't use output buffer, and mismatch dtype no longer supported")
   def test_cast_assignment(self):
     a = Tensor(np.arange(N*N, dtype=np.float32)).reshape(N,N)
diff --git a/tinygrad/tensor.py b/tinygrad/tensor.py
index 2e664f5484..430a7f04a2 100644
--- a/tinygrad/tensor.py
+++ b/tinygrad/tensor.py
@@ -275,13 +275,13 @@ class Tensor(OpMixin):
     self.uop = x.uop
     return self
 
-  def assign(self, x) -> Tensor:
+  def assign(self, x:Tensor|PyConst|list|tuple) -> Tensor:
     # TODO: this is a hack for writing to DISK. remove with working assign
     if isinstance(self.device, str) and self.device.startswith("DISK"):
-      if x.__class__ is not Tensor: x = Tensor(x, device="CPU", dtype=self.dtype)
+      if not isinstance(x, Tensor): x = Tensor(x, device="CPU", dtype=self.dtype)
       self._buffer().copyin(x._data())
       return self
-    if x.__class__ is not Tensor: x = Tensor(x, device=self.device, dtype=self.dtype)
+    if not isinstance(x, Tensor): x = Tensor(x, device=self.device, dtype=self.dtype)
     if self.uop is x.uop: return self  # a self assign is a NOOP
     # NOTE: we allow cross device assign
     # broadcast x
@@ -1268,13 +1268,12 @@ class Tensor(OpMixin):
     """
     return self._getitem(indices)
 
-  def __setitem__(self, indices, v:Tensor|PyConst) -> None:
+  def __setitem__(self, indices, v:Tensor|PyConst|list|tuple) -> None:
     if isinstance(self.device, str) and self.device.startswith("DISK"):
       self.realize()._getitem(indices).assign(v)
       return
     # NOTE: check that setitem target is valid first
-    if isinstance(v, get_args(PyConst)): v = Tensor(v, device=self.device, dtype=self.dtype)
-    if not isinstance(v, Tensor): raise TypeError(f"can't set a {type(v).__name__} to a Tensor")
+    if not isinstance(v, Tensor): v = Tensor(v, device=self.device, dtype=self.dtype)
     if self.requires_grad or v.requires_grad: raise NotImplementedError("setitem with requires_grad is not supported")
     self.realize()
     if not self.uop.is_contiguous(): raise RuntimeError("setitem target needs to be contiguous")