id: intro
title: Getting started
sidebar_label: Getting started
Introduction
Hydra is an open-source Python framework that simplifies the development of research and other complex applications. The key feature is the ability to dynamically create a hierarchical configuration by composition and override it through config files and the command line. The name Hydra comes from its ability to run multiple similar jobs - much like a Hydra with multiple heads.
Key features:
- Hierarchical configuration composable from multiple sources
- Configuration can be specified or overridden from the command line
- Dynamic command line tab completion
- Run your application locally or launch it to run remotely
- Run multiple jobs with different arguments with a single command
Versions
Hydra supports Linux, Mac and Windows.
| Version | Docs | Release notes | Python Version | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| βΊ | 0.11 (Stable) | 0.11 Docs | Release notes | 2.7, 3.5+ |
| 1.0 (Release candidate) | 1.0 docs | Release notes | 3.6+ |
Quick start guide
This guide will show you some of the most important features of Hydra. Read the tutorial to gain a deeper understanding.
Installation
Install Hydra 0.11 with pip install hydra-core --upgrade.
Basic example
Configuration file: config.yaml
db:
driver: mysql
user: omry
pass: secret
Python file: my_app.py
import hydra
from omegaconf import DictConfig
@hydra.main(config_path="config.yaml")
def my_app(cfg : DictConfig) -> None:
print(cfg.pretty())
if __name__ == "__main__":
my_app()
You can learn more about OmegaConf here later.
config.yaml is loaded automatically when you run your application
$ python my_app.py
db:
driver: mysql
pass: secret
user: omry
You can override values in the loaded config from the command line:
$ python my_app.py db.user=root db.pass=1234
db:
driver: mysql
user: root
pass: 1234
Composition example
You may want to alternate between two different databases. to support this create a config group named db,
and place one config file for each alternative inside:
The directory structure of our application now looks like:
βββ db
β βββ mysql.yaml
β βββ postgresql.yaml
βββ config.yaml
βββ my_app.py
Here is the new config.yaml
defaults:
- db: mysql
# some other config options in your config file.
website:
domain: example.com
defaults is a special directive telling Hydra to use db/mysql.yaml when composing the configuration object.
The resulting cfg object is a composition of configs from defaults with configs specified in your config.yaml.
You can now choose which database configuration to use from the and override values from the command line:
$ python my_app.py db=postgresql db.timeout=20
db:
driver: postgresql
pass: drowssap
timeout: 20
user: postgre_user
website:
domain: example.com
You can have as many config groups as you need.
Multirun
You can run your function multiple times with different configuration easily with the --multirun|-m flag.
$ python my_app.py --multirun db=mysql,postgresql
[HYDRA] Sweep output dir : multirun/2020-01-09/01-16-29
[HYDRA] Launching 2 jobs locally
[HYDRA] #0 : db=mysql
db:
driver: mysql
pass: secret
user: omry
website:
domain: example.com
[HYDRA] #1 : db=postgresql
db:
driver: postgresql
pass: drowssap
timeout: 10
user: postgre_user
website:
domain: example.com
There is a whole lot more to Hydra. Read the tutorial to learn more.
Other stuff
Community
Ask questions in the chat or StackOverflow (Use the tag #fb-hydra):
Follow Hydra on Twitter and Facebook:
Citing Hydra
If you use Hydra in your research please use the following BibTeX entry:
@Misc{,
author = {Omry Yadan},
title = {A framework for elegantly configuring complex applications},
howpublished = {Github},
year = {2019},
url = {https://github.com/facebookresearch/hydra}
}