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Create a run#

Use the init_run() function to create a new run.

The following code starts a new Neptune run in the project specified by the NEPTUNE_PROJECT environment variable:

import neptune

run = neptune.init_run()
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(
    api_token="h0dHBzOi8aHR0cHM6Lkc78ghs74kl0jv...Yh3Kb8", # (1)!
    project="ml-team/classification", # (2)!
)
  1. In the bottom-left corner, expand the user menu and select Get my API token.
  2. You can copy the path from the project details ( → Details & privacy).

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!

The started run is now tracking some system metrics in the background, plus whatever metadata you log in your code. By default, Neptune periodically synchronizes the data with the servers in the background.

The connection to Neptune remains open until the run is stopped or the script finishes executing.

Stop the run when done

Once you are done logging, you should stop the connection to the Neptune run. When logging from a Jupyter notebook or other interactive environments, you need to do this manually:

run.stop()

If you're running a script, the connection is stopped automatically when the script finishes executing. In interactive sessions, however, the connection to Neptune is only stopped when the kernel stops.

Additional init_run() keyword arguments#

You can use a number of additional arguments to control aspects of your run.

For example:

run = neptune.init_run(
    project="ml-team/nlp",
    name="First BERT", # (1)!
    description="First BERT run for NLP project", # (2)!
    mode="async", # (3)!
    tags=["huggingface", "test", "BERT"], # (4)!
    source_files=["training_with_bert.py", "net.py"], # (5)!
    capture_hardware_metrics=False, # (6)!
    dependencies="infer", # (7)!
)
  1. Add a custom name for the run. It's displayed in the app, where it can also be edited.
  2. Add free-form text that describes the run. It's displayed and editable in the app.
  3. Set the mode for the logging. To learn more about modes, see Connection modes reference.
  4. Tags help you keep runs organized. You can see and manage tags in the app as well. For details, see Add tags.
  5. Specify exactly which source files to log for the run. By default, Neptune logs the script that was executed.
  6. Turn certain auto-logged metrics off. For more info, see What is logged automatically.
  7. Generate a requirements.txt file based on dependencies installed in the environment. Learn more: Track dependencies
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 Neptune ID Custom name for the run. You can use it as a human-readable ID and add it as a column in the experiments table (sys/name). If left empty, once the run is synchronized with the server, Neptune sets the auto-generated identifier (sys/id) as the name.
description str, optional "" Editable description of the run. You can add it as a column in the experiments 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 experiments 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.