Configure hyperparameters from the CLI (legacy)¶

Warning

This is the documentation for the use of Python’s argparse to implement a CLI. This approach is no longer recommended, and people are encouraged to use the new LightningCLI class instead.

Lightning has utilities to interact seamlessly with the command line ArgumentParser and plays well with the hyperparameter optimization framework of your choice.

ArgumentParser¶

Lightning is designed to augment a lot of the functionality of the built-in Python ArgumentParser

from argparse import ArgumentParser

parser = ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument("--layer_1_dim", type=int, default=128)
args = parser.parse_args()

This allows you to call your program like so:

python trainer.py --layer_1_dim 64

Argparser Best Practices¶

It is best practice to layer your arguments in three sections.

Trainer args (accelerator, devices, num_nodes, etc…)
Model specific arguments (layer_dim, num_layers, learning_rate, etc…)
Program arguments (data_path, cluster_email, etc…)

We can do this as follows. First, in your LightningModule, define the arguments specific to that module. Remember that data splits or data paths may also be specific to a module (i.e.: if your project has a model that trains on Imagenet and another on CIFAR-10).

class LitModel(LightningModule):
    @staticmethod
    def add_model_specific_args(parent_parser):
        parser = parent_parser.add_argument_group("LitModel")
        parser.add_argument("--encoder_layers", type=int, default=12)
        parser.add_argument("--data_path", type=str, default="/some/path")
        return parent_parser

Now in your main trainer file, add the Trainer args, the program args, and add the model args

# ----------------
# trainer_main.py
# ----------------
from argparse import ArgumentParser

parser = ArgumentParser()

# add PROGRAM level args
parser.add_argument("--conda_env", type=str, default="some_name")
parser.add_argument("--notification_email", type=str, default="[email protected]")

# add model specific args
parser = LitModel.add_model_specific_args(parser)

# add all the available trainer options to argparse
# ie: now --accelerator --devices --num_nodes ... --fast_dev_run all work in the cli
parser = Trainer.add_argparse_args(parser)

args = parser.parse_args()

Now you can call run your program like so:

python trainer_main.py --accelerator 'gpu' --devices 2 --num_nodes 2 --conda_env 'my_env' --encoder_layers 12

Finally, make sure to start the training like so:

# init the trainer like this
trainer = Trainer.from_argparse_args(args, early_stopping_callback=...)

# NOT like this
trainer = Trainer(accelerator=hparams.accelerator, devices=hparams.devices, ...)

# init the model with Namespace directly
model = LitModel(args)

# or init the model with all the key-value pairs
dict_args = vars(args)
model = LitModel(**dict_args)

Trainer args¶

To recap, add ALL possible trainer flags to the argparser and init the Trainer this way

parser = ArgumentParser()
parser = Trainer.add_argparse_args(parser)
hparams = parser.parse_args()

trainer = Trainer.from_argparse_args(hparams)

# or if you need to pass in callbacks
trainer = Trainer.from_argparse_args(hparams, enable_checkpointing=..., callbacks=[...])

Multiple Lightning Modules¶

We often have multiple Lightning Modules where each one has different arguments. Instead of polluting the main.py file, the LightningModule lets you define arguments for each one.

class LitMNIST(LightningModule):
    def __init__(self, layer_1_dim, **kwargs):
        super().__init__()
        self.layer_1 = nn.Linear(28 * 28, layer_1_dim)

    @staticmethod
    def add_model_specific_args(parent_parser):
        parser = parent_parser.add_argument_group("LitMNIST")
        parser.add_argument("--layer_1_dim", type=int, default=128)
        return parent_parser

class GoodGAN(LightningModule):
    def __init__(self, encoder_layers, **kwargs):
        super().__init__()
        self.encoder = Encoder(layers=encoder_layers)

    @staticmethod
    def add_model_specific_args(parent_parser):
        parser = parent_parser.add_argument_group("GoodGAN")
        parser.add_argument("--encoder_layers", type=int, default=12)
        return parent_parser

Now we can allow each model to inject the arguments it needs in the main.py

def main(args):
    dict_args = vars(args)

    # pick model
    if args.model_name == "gan":
        model = GoodGAN(**dict_args)
    elif args.model_name == "mnist":
        model = LitMNIST(**dict_args)

    trainer = Trainer.from_argparse_args(args)
    trainer.fit(model)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    parser = ArgumentParser()
    parser = Trainer.add_argparse_args(parser)

    # figure out which model to use
    parser.add_argument("--model_name", type=str, default="gan", help="gan or mnist")

    # THIS LINE IS KEY TO PULL THE MODEL NAME
    temp_args, _ = parser.parse_known_args()

    # let the model add what it wants
    if temp_args.model_name == "gan":
        parser = GoodGAN.add_model_specific_args(parser)
    elif temp_args.model_name == "mnist":
        parser = LitMNIST.add_model_specific_args(parser)

    args = parser.parse_args()

    # train
    main(args)

and now we can train MNIST or the GAN using the command line interface!

$ python main.py --model_name gan --encoder_layers 24
$ python main.py --model_name mnist --layer_1_dim 128