Compare runs: Overview#

Comparison view in the Neptune web app

The comparison view mode is all about gathering multiple runs into a single view. To enter the comparison mode, click Compare runs in the top nav.

Toggle the eye icons () in the leftmost column of the runs table to add runs to the comparison.

Getting more space

To enlarge the metadata area, you can:

Minimize the left sidebar with the button.
Collapse the toolbar with the icon.
Adjust the number of table columns shown by unpinning them or dragging to minimize the table area.
Enter distraction-free mode with the button, to temporarily maximize the metadata area.

To instead compare runs one by one, you can also configure a dashboard in the Run details tab, then switch between runs manually to contrast the metadata.

Charts#

You can compare any metadata that were logged as series of values (with the append() or extend() methods of the Neptune client library). For example, metrics and losses.

See example charts in Neptune

Editing the legend#

To show additional fields in the legend, pin the corresponding column in the runs table.

Zooming the chart#

Click and drag to select an area of the chart to zoom in on.

You can reset the zoom with the icon above the smoothing slider.

Tips

You can compare runs in groups.
You can filter the displayed charts with the Filter widgets input box, and click Save as new to save the result as a custom dashboard.

Images#

You can compare images between selected runs, for example:

for computer vision problems, such as classification, object detection, and segmentation.
to compare custom metrics logged as images using a visualization library, such as Matplotlib.

Tip

To have more information and context in a single view, you can create a custom dashboard where you include:

A Single image comparison widget for the image you wish to compare between runs.
A Chart widget where you display relevant metrics.

See example image comparison in Neptune

To populate the example view, select runs with the eye icons ().

Parallel coordinates#

The parallel coordinates view is built with the HiPlot visualization tool. You can use it to:

See how model parameters affect the metrics.
Explore different parameter and metric ranges by selecting a range of a metric or a parameter of interest.
Download the comparison as CSV or PNG.

To use the parallel coordinates view:

Navigate to the Runs table.
Make sure that the fields you want to display are added as columns to the table.
Select the runs to compare by toggling the eye icons ().
Navigate to the Compare runs tab and select the Parallel coordinates dashboard.

The plot shows values that are different between the selected runs.

See example in Neptune

Side-by-side#

This table view focuses on the differences between selected runs.

To use the side-by-side view:

Navigate to the Runs table.
Make sure that the fields you want to display are added as columns to the table. These will be displayed at the top of the comparison view for easier browsing.
Select the runs to compare by toggling the eye icons ().
Navigate to the Compare runs tab and select the Side-by-side dashboard.

Tips

To filter out fields that are the same for each run, tick the Rows with diff only box.
To see the change in values relative to the reference run, tick the Show cell changes box.
- To set the reference run, click the pin icon () on the header row.
Click the eye icon () to remove a run from the comparison view.

See example in Neptune

Artifacts#

In the Artifacts tab, you can see artifact metadata differences between a source and target run.

This includes differences in path, size, MD5 hash, and which other runs use the given artifact version.

See artifact comparison example in Neptune

Custom dashboards#

To see the metadata visualized in multiple ways in a single place, you can combine and display widgets of your choosing to create a custom dashboard.

Your custom dashboards are available project-wide.

See example dashboard in Neptune