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Lightning integration guide#

Open in Colab

Custom dashboard displaying metadata logged with PyTorch Lightning

Lightning is a lightweight PyTorch wrapper for high-performance AI research. With the Neptune integration, you can:

  • Track training code, environment, and Git information
  • Log hyperparameters
  • Monitor hardware consumption
  • Monitor model training live
  • Save model checkpoints
  • Log performance charts and images
  • Log training, validation, and testing metrics and visualize them in the Neptune app

See example in Neptune  Code examples 

Quickstart#

  1. Set up Neptune in your environment.

    Show steps
    1. Sign up at neptune.ai/register .

    2. Create a project.

    3. Install the Neptune client library:

      pip install -U neptune
      
    4. Set your Neptune API token to the NEPTUNE_API_TOKEN environment variable.

      How to find your Neptune API token

      export NEPTUNE_API_TOKEN="uyVrZXkiOiIzNTd0Zj...ifQ=="
      
      setx NEPTUNE_API_TOKEN "uyVrZXkiOiIzNTd0Zj...ifQ=="
      
      %env NEPTUNE_API_TOKEN="uyVrZXkiOiIzNTd0Zj...ifQ=="
      
    5. Set the name of your Neptune project to the NEPTUNE_PROJECT environment variable.

      You can copy the full name from your project details.

      How to access project details

      export NEPTUNE_PROJECT="workspace-name/project-name"
      
      setx NEPTUNE_PROJECT "workspace-name/project-name"
      
      %env NEPTUNE_PROJECT="workspace-name/project-name"
      

    For detailed instructions, see Getting started.

  2. Create the logger:

    from lightning import LightningModule, Trainer
    from lightning.pytorch.loggers import NeptuneLogger
    
    neptune_logger = NeptuneLogger()
    
  3. Pass the logger to the logger argument of the trainer:

    trainer = Trainer(
        max_epochs=10,
        ...
        logger=neptune_logger,
    )
    

Success

Neptune logging will be enabled when you run your Trainer with trainer.fit().

Full walkthrough#

This guide walks you through connecting Neptune to your machine learning scripts and analyzing some logged metadata.

Before you start#

  • Sign up at neptune.ai/register.
  • Create a project for storing your metadata.
  • Set your Neptune credentials (API token and target project name).

    export NEPTUNE_API_TOKEN="h0dHBzOi8aHR0cHM.4kl0jvYh3Kb8...ifQ=="
    
    export NEPTUNE_PROJECT="ml-team/classification"
    
    export NEPTUNE_API_TOKEN="h0dHBzOi8aHR0cHM.4kl0jvYh3Kb8...ifQ=="
    
    export NEPTUNE_PROJECT="ml-team/classification"
    
    setx NEPTUNE_API_TOKEN "h0dHBzOi8aHR0cHM.4kl0jvYh3Kb8...ifQ=="
    
    setx NEPTUNE_PROJECT "ml-team/classification"
    

    You can also navigate to SettingsEdit the system environment variables and add the variables there.

    %env NEPTUNE_API_TOKEN="h0dHBzOi8aHR0cHM.4kl0jvYh3Kb8...ifQ=="
    
    %env NEPTUNE_PROJECT="ml-team/classification"
    
    How do I find my Neptune credentials?
    • API token: In the bottom-left corner of the Neptune app, open your user menu and select Get your API token. If you need the token of a service account, go to the workspace or project settings and select Service accounts.
    • Project name: Your full project name has the form workspace-name/project-name. You can copy it from the project menu ( Edit project details).
  • Install the Neptune client library and Lightning on your system.

    pip install -U neptune lightning
    
    conda install -c conda-forge neptune lightning
    

If you'd rather follow the guide without any setup, you can run the example in Colab .

Adding NeptuneLogger to the Lightning script#

Lightning has a unified way of logging metadata, by using loggers. You can learn more about logger support in the Lightning docs .

To enable Neptune logging:

  1. Create a NeptuneLogger instance:

    from lightning.pytorch.loggers import NeptuneLogger
    
    neptune_logger = NeptuneLogger() # (1)!
    
    1. If you haven't registered, you can try the integration anonymously:

      from neptune import ANONYMOUS_API_TOKEN
      
      neptune_logger = NeptuneLogger(
          project="common/pytorch-lightning-integration",
          api_token=ANONYMOUS_API_TOKEN,
      )
      
  2. To log hyperparameters, you can use the standard log_hyperparams() method from the Lightning logger.

    PARAMS = ...  # dict or argparse
    neptune_logger.log_hyperparams(params=PARAMS)
    
  3. Set up your LightningModule to log metrics or other outputs. You can also use Neptune methods to log additional metadata.

    Specifying the metadata structure

    Metrics are logged as nested dictionary-like structures. You can specify the structure with: self.log("path/to/metric", value)

    Example
    from lightning import LightningModule
    
    class MNISTModel(LightningModule):
        def training_step(self, batch, batch_idx):
            loss = ...
            self.log("train/batch/loss", loss)
    
            acc = ...
            self.log("train/batch/acc", acc)
    
        def training_epoch_end(self, outputs):
            loss = ...
            acc = ...
            self.log("train/epoch/loss", loss)
            self.log("train/epoch/acc", acc)
    
    Result
    training
    |—— train
        |—— batch
            |—— loss
            |—— acc
        |—— epoch
            |—— loss
            |—— acc
    
  4. Pass neptune_logger to the trainer:

    from lightning import Trainer
    
    trainer = Trainer(
        max_epochs=250,
        logger=neptune_logger,
    )
    
  5. Pass your LightningModule and DataLoader instances to the fit() method of the trainer:

    model = My_LightningModule()
    train_loader = My_DataLoader()
    
    trainer.fit(model, train_loader)
    
  6. Run your script:

    python main.py
    
If Neptune can't find your project name or API token

As a best practice, you should save your Neptune API token and project name as environment variables:

export NEPTUNE_API_TOKEN="h0dHBzOi8aHR0cHM6Lkc78ghs74kl0jv...Yh3Kb8"
export NEPTUNE_PROJECT="ml-team/classification"

Alternatively, you can pass the information when using a function that takes api_token and project as arguments:

run = neptune.init_run( # (1)!
    api_token="h0dHBzOi8aHR0cHM6Lkc78ghs74kl0jv...Yh3Kb8",  # your token here
    project="ml-team/classification",  # your full project name here
)
  1. Also works for init_model(), init_model_version(), init_project(), and integrations that create Neptune runs underneath the hood, such as NeptuneLogger or NeptuneCallback.

  2. API token: In the bottom-left corner, expand the user menu and select Get my API token.

  3. Project name: You can copy the path from the project details ( Edit project details).

If you haven't registered, you can log anonymously to a public project:

api_token=neptune.ANONYMOUS_API_TOKEN
project="common/quickstarts"

Make sure not to publish sensitive data through your code!

Your metadata will be logged in the given Neptune project for analysis, comparison, and collaboration.

To browse the metadata, follow the Neptune link in the console output.

Sample output

[neptune] [info ] Neptune initialized. Open in the app: https://app.neptune.ai/workspace/project/e/RUN-1

In the above example, the run ID is RUN-1.

Analyzing the logged metadata in Neptune#

To view the metadata from your Lightning run:

  1. In the Run details view mode, select All metadata.
  2. Click training (or the name of your custom namespace, if you specified a different prefix when creating the logger).

Metrics are logged as nested dictionary-like structures defined in the LightningModule.

Tip

Create a custom dashboard to visualize the metadata in different ways.

If your LightningModule code does not do any logging, the training namespace will only contain the status and (unless disabled) model checkpoints.

Comparing runs against each other#

In the top nav, select Compare runs and toggle the eye icons () to select runs for comparison.

You can also create comparison-specific widgets, such as scatter plots.

More options#

You can configure the Neptune logger in various ways to address custom logging needs.

Using additional logger options
from lightning.pytorch.loggers import NeptuneLogger

neptune_logger = NeptuneLogger(
    project="ml-team/nli-project",
    name="shallow-panda", # (1)!
    prefix="finetune",
    log_model_checkpoints=False,
)
  1. Sets a custom name, which you can use as a human-friendly ID.

    To display it in the app, add sys/name as a column.

    You can also edit the name in the run information view ( menu → Show run information).

For detailed parameter descriptions, see the API reference.

Uploading model checkpoints#

If you have ModelCheckpoint configured, the Neptune logger automatically logs whichever checkpoints are saved by the callback, respecting save_top_k and save_last.

Otherwise, only the final model checkpoint is uploaded.

Model weights are logged in the <prefix>/model/checkpoints namespace of the Neptune run.

How to disable

To disable this option, set log_model_checkpoints to False when you create the NeptuneLogger instance:

neptune_logger = NeptuneLogger(log_model_checkpoints=False)

Passing Neptune keyword arguments#

The Neptune logger accepts neptune.init_run() arguments. You can use them to supply more details, customize the behavior, or disable auto-logging that is enabled by default.

Example
from lightning.pytorch.loggers import NeptuneLogger

neptune_logger = NeptuneLogger(
    project="ml-team/nli-project",
    description="Quick training run with updated datasets",
    tags=["training", "lightning", "data v1.0.1"],
    source_files="*.py",
    dependencies="infer",
    git_ref=False,
)
Show init_run() parameters list

See in API reference: neptune.init_run()

Name      Type Default     Description
project str, optional None Name of a project in the form workspace-name/project-name. If None, the value of the NEPTUNE_PROJECT environment variable is used.
api_token str, optional None Your Neptune API token (or a service account's API token). If None, the value of the NEPTUNE_API_TOKEN environment variable is used.

To keep your token secure, avoid placing it in source code. Instead, save it as an environment variable.

with_id str, optional None The Neptune identifier of an existing run to resume, such as "CLS-11". The identifier is stored in the object's sys/id field. If omitted or None is passed, a new tracked run is created.
custom_run_id str, optional None A unique identifier that can be used to log metadata to a single run from multiple locations. Max length: 36 characters. If None and the NEPTUNE_CUSTOM_RUN_ID environment variable is set, Neptune will use that as the custom_run_id value. For details, see Set custom run ID.
mode str, optional async Connection mode in which the logging will work. Possible values are async, sync, offline, read-only, and debug.

If you leave it out, the value of the NEPTUNE_MODE environment variable is used. If that's not set, the default async is used.

name str, optional "Untitled" Custom name for the run. You can use it as a human-readable ID and add it as a column in the runs table (sys/name).
description str, optional "" Editable description of the run. You can add it as a column in the runs table (sys/description).
tags list, optional [] Must be a list of str which represent the tags for the run. You can edit them after run is created, either in the run information or runs table.
source_files list or str, optional None

List of source files to be uploaded. Must be list of str or a single str. Uploaded sources are displayed in the Source code section of the run.

If None is passed, the Python file from which the run was created will be uploaded. When resuming a run, no file will be uploaded by default. Pass an empty list ([]) to upload no files.

Unix style pathname pattern expansion is supported. For example, you can pass ".py" to upload all Python source files from the current directory. Paths of uploaded files are resolved relative to the calculated common root of all uploaded source files. For recursion lookup, use "**/.py" (for Python 3.5 and later). For details, see the glob library.

capture_stdout Boolean, optional True Whether to log the standard output stream. Is logged in the monitoring namespace.
capture_stderr Boolean, optional True Whether to log the standard error stream. Is logged in the monitoring namespace.
capture_hardware_metrics Boolean, optional True Whether to track hardware consumption (CPU, GPU, memory utilization). Logged in the monitoring namespace.
fail_on_exception Boolean, optional True If an uncaught exception occurs, whether to set run's Failed state to True.
monitoring_namespace str, optional "monitoring" Namespace inside which all monitoring logs will be stored.
flush_period float, optional 5 (seconds) In asynchronous (default) connection mode, how often Neptune should trigger disk flushing.
proxies dict, optional None Argument passed to HTTP calls made via the Requests library. For details on proxies, see the Requests documentation.
capture_traceback Boolean, optional True In case of an exception, whether to log the traceback of the run.
git_ref GitRef or Boolean None GitRef object containing information about the Git repository path.

If None, Neptune looks for a repository in the path of the script that is executed.

To specify a different location, set to GitRef(repository_path="path/to/repo").

To turn off Git tracking for the run, set to GitRef.DISABLED or False.

For examples, see Logging Git info.
dependencies str, optional None Tracks environment requirements. If you pass "infer" to this argument, Neptune logs dependencies installed in the current environment. You can also pass a path to your dependency file directly. If left empty, no dependency file is uploaded.
async_lag_callback NeptuneObjectCallback, optional None Custom callback function which is called if the lag between a queued operation and its synchronization with the server exceeds the duration defined by async_lag_threshold. The callback should take a Run object as the argument and can contain any custom code, such as calling stop() on the object.

Note: Instead of using this argument, you can use Neptune's default callback by setting the NEPTUNE_ENABLE_DEFAULT_ASYNC_LAG_CALLBACK environment variable to TRUE.

async_lag_threshold float, optional 1800.0 (seconds) Duration between the queueing and synchronization of an operation. If a lag callback (default callback enabled via environment variable or custom callback passed to the async_lag_callback argument) is enabled, the callback is called when this duration is exceeded.
async_no_progress_callback NeptuneObjectCallback, optional None Custom callback function which is called if there has been no synchronization progress whatsoever for the duration defined by async_no_progress_threshold. The callback should take a Run object as the argument and can contain any custom code, such as calling stop() on the object.

Note: Instead of using this argument, you can use Neptune's default callback by setting the NEPTUNE_ENABLE_DEFAULT_ASYNC_NO_PROGRESS_CALLBACK environment variable to TRUE.

async_no_progress_threshold float, optional 300.0 (seconds) For how long there has been no synchronization progress. If a no-progress callback (default callback enabled via environment variable or custom callback passed to the async_no_progress_callback argument) is enabled, the callback is called when this duration is exceeded.

Using an existing run#

To associate the logger with an existing Neptune run, initialize the run in your code and pass it to the run argument.

import neptune
from lightning.pytorch.loggers import NeptuneLogger

my_run = neptune.init_run(with_id="NLI-7") # (1)!
neptune_logger = NeptuneLogger(run=my_run)
  1. In this example, the project key would be NLI and the run ID NLI-7.
How do I find the ID?

The Neptune ID is a unique identifier for the run. In the table view, it's displayed in the leftmost column.

The ID is stored in the system namespace (sys/id).

If the run is active, you can obtain its ID with run["sys/id"].fetch(). For example:

>>> run = neptune.init_run(project="ml-team/classification")
>>> run["sys/id"].fetch()
'CLS-26'

Using logger methods in LightningModule#

You can use the default logging methods with the Neptune logger:

  • log()
  • log_metrics()
  • log_hyperparams()
Example
from lightning import LightningModule

class LitModel(LightningModule):
    def training_step(self, batch, batch_idx):
        # log metrics
        acc = ...
        self.log("train/loss", loss)  # standard log method

As another example, the below code results in two Float series (acc and loss) logged under the namespace val.

class LitModel(LightningModule):
    def validation_epoch_end(self, outputs):
        loss = ...
        y_true = ...
        y_pred = ...
        acc = accuracy_score(y_true, y_pred)
        self.log("val/loss", loss)
        self.log("val/acc", acc)

The val namespace is nested under the base namespace (<prefix>/val).

See result in Neptune 

Using Neptune methods in LightningModule#

To log custom metadata (such as images, CSV files, or interactive charts) you can access the Neptune run directly with the self.logger.experiment attribute.

You can then use logging methods from the Neptune client library to track your metadata, such as append(), track_files(), and upload().

from neptune.types import File

class LitModel(LightningModule):
    def any_lightning_module_function_or_hook(self):
        # Log images, using the Neptune client library
        img = ...
        self.logger.experiment["train/misclassified_imgs"].append(File.as_image(img))

        # Generic recipe, using the Neptune client library
        metadata = ...
        self.logger.experiment["your/metadata/structure"] = metadata

Logging model metadata#

Best model score and path#

If you have ModelCheckpoint configured, the Neptune logger automatically logs the best_model_path and best_model_score values.

They are logged in the <prefix>/model namespace of the Neptune run.

Model summary#

You can log the model summary, as generated by the ModelSummary utility from Lightning.

The summary is logged in the <prefix>/model/summary namespace of the Neptune run.

neptune_logger = NeptuneLogger()
model = ...  # LightningModule

neptune_logger.log_model_summary(model=model, max_depth=-1)

Logging after fitting or testing is finished#

You can use the created Neptune logger outside of the Trainer context, which lets you log objects after the fitting or testing methods are finished.

This way, you're not restricted to the LightningModule class – you can log from any method or class in your project code.

Example
from lightning.pytorch.loggers import NeptuneLogger

# Create logger
neptune_logger = NeptuneLogger()

trainer = Trainer(logger=neptune_logger)
model = ...
datamodule = ...

# Run fit and test
trainer.fit(model, datamodule=datamodule)
trainer.test(model, datamodule=datamodule)

Log additional metadata after fit and test:

Log confusion matrix as image
from neptune.types import File

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
plot_confusion_matrix(y_true, y_pred, ax=ax)
neptune_logger.experiment["test/confusion_matrix"].upload(File.as_image(fig))

neptune_logger.experiment.stop()

Generic recipe for logging additional metadata:

metadata = ...
neptune_logger.experiment["your/metadata/structure"] = metadata