Skip to main content
Version: 0.11

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.
Use the version switcher in the top bar to switch between documentation versions.

VersionRelease notesPython Versions
1.3 (Stable)Release notes3.6 - 3.11
1.2Release notes3.6 - 3.10
1.1Release notes3.6 - 3.9
1.0Release notes3.6 - 3.8
►0.11Release notes2.7, 3.5 - 3.8

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(OmegaConf.to_yaml(cfg))

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:

├── db
│   ├── mysql.yaml
│   └── postgresql.yaml
├── config.yaml
└── 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: postgres_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: postgres_user
website:
    domain: example.com

There is a whole lot more to Hydra. Read the tutorial to learn more.

Other stuff​

Community​

Ask questions on github 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{Yadan2019Hydra,
  author =       {Omry Yadan},
  title =        {Hydra - A framework for elegantly configuring complex applications},
  howpublished = {Github},
  year =         {2019},
  url =          {https://github.com/facebookresearch/hydra}
}