Version: 1.0

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
►	1.0 (Stable)	1.0 Docs	Release notes	3.6+
	0.11	Switch to 0.11 Docs	Release notes	2.7, 3.5+

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#

pip install hydra-core --upgrade

Basic example#

Config:

config.yaml

db:
  driver: mysql
  user: omry
  pass: secret

Application:

my_app.py

import hydra
from omegaconf import DictConfig, OmegaConf

@hydra.main(config_name="config")
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:

config.yaml

defaults:
  - db: mysql

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