mcpbeat

Experiment Tracking Swanlab

orchestra-research/experiment-tracking-swanlab

Provides guidance for experiment tracking with SwanLab. Use when you need open-source run tracking, local or self-hosted dashboards, and lightweight media logging for ML workflows.

6k tokens
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the whole folder, loaded on every use
3
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instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
11362
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository
npx skills add https://github.com/Orchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs --skill experiment-tracking-swanlab

The instruction itself

24 sections, as written by the author

SwanLab: Open-Source Experiment Tracking

When to Use This Skill

Use SwanLab when you need to:

  • Track ML experiments with metrics, configs, tags, and descriptions
  • Visualize training with scalar charts and logged media
  • Compare runs across seeds, checkpoints, and hyperparameters
  • Work locally or self-hosted instead of depending on managed SaaS
  • Integrate with PyTorch, Transformers, PyTorch Lightning, or Fastai

Deployment: Cloud, local, or self-hosted | Media: images, audio, text, GIFs, point clouds, molecules | Integrations: PyTorch, Transformers, PyTorch Lightning, Fastai

Installation

# Install SwanLab plus the media dependencies used in this skill
pip install "swanlab>=0.7.11" "pillow>=9.0.0" "soundfile>=0.12.0"

# Add local dashboard support for mode="local" and swanlab watch
pip install "swanlab[dashboard]>=0.7.11"

# Optional framework integrations
pip install transformers pytorch-lightning fastai

# Login for cloud or self-hosted usage
swanlab login

pillow and soundfile are the media dependencies used by the Image and Audio examples in this skill. swanlab[dashboard] adds the local dashboard dependency required by mode="local" and swanlab watch.

Quick Start

Basic Experiment Tracking

import swanlab

run = swanlab.init(
    project="my-project",
    experiment_name="baseline",
    config={
        "learning_rate": 1e-3,
        "epochs": 10,
        "batch_size": 32,
        "model": "resnet18",
    },
)

for epoch in range(run.config.epochs):
    train_loss = train_epoch()
    val_loss = validate()

    swanlab.log(
        {
            "train/loss": train_loss,
            "val/loss": val_loss,
            "epoch": epoch,
        }
    )

run.finish()

With PyTorch

import torch
import torch.nn as nn
import torch.optim as optim
import swanlab

run = swanlab.init(
    project="pytorch-demo",
    experiment_name="mnist-mlp",
    config={
        "learning_rate": 1e-3,
        "batch_size": 64,
        "epochs": 10,
        "hidden_size": 128,
    },
)

model = nn.Sequential(
    nn.Flatten(),
    nn.Linear(28 * 28, run.config.hidden_size),
    nn.ReLU(),
    nn.Linear(run.config.hidden_size, 10),
)
optimizer = optim.Adam(model.parameters(), lr=run.config.learning_rate)
criterion = nn.CrossEntropyLoss()

for epoch in range(run.config.epochs):
    model.train()
    for batch_idx, (data, target) in enumerate(train_loader):
        optimizer.zero_grad()
        logits = model(data)
        loss = criterion(logits, target)
        loss.backward()
        optimizer.step()

        if batch_idx % 100 == 0:
            swanlab.log(
                {
                    "train/loss": loss.item(),
                    "train/epoch": epoch,
                    "train/batch": batch_idx,
                }
            )

run.finish()

Core Concepts

1. Projects and Experiments

Project: Collection of related experiments

Experiment: Single execution of a training or evaluation workflow

import swanlab

run = swanlab.init(
    project="image-classification",
    experiment_name="resnet18-seed42",
    description="Baseline run on ImageNet subset",
    tags=["baseline", "resnet18"],
    config={
        "model": "resnet18",
        "seed": 42,
        "batch_size": 64,
        "learning_rate": 3e-4,
    },
)

print(run.id)
print(run.config.learning_rate)

2. Configuration Tracking

config = {
    "model": "resnet18",
    "seed": 42,
    "batch_size": 64,
    "learning_rate": 3e-4,
    "epochs": 20,
}

run = swanlab.init(project="my-project", config=config)

learning_rate = run.config.learning_rate
batch_size = run.config.batch_size

3. Metric Logging

# Log scalars
swanlab.log({"loss": 0.42, "accuracy": 0.91})

# Log multiple metrics
swanlab.log(
    {
        "train/loss": train_loss,
        "train/accuracy": train_acc,
        "val/loss": val_loss,
        "val/accuracy": val_acc,
        "lr": current_lr,
        "epoch": epoch,
    }
)

# Log with custom step
swanlab.log({"loss": loss}, step=global_step)

4. Media and Chart Logging

import numpy as np
import swanlab

# Image
image = np.random.randint(0, 255, (224, 224, 3), dtype=np.uint8)
swanlab.log({"examples/image": swanlab.Image(image, caption="Augmented sample")})

# Audio
wave = np.sin(np.linspace(0, 8 * np.pi, 16000)).astype("float32")
swanlab.log({"examples/audio": swanlab.Audio(wave, sample_rate=16000)})

# Text
swanlab.log({"examples/text": swanlab.Text("Training notes for this run.")})

# GIF video
swanlab.log({"examples/video": swanlab.Video("predictions.gif", caption="Validation rollout")})

# Point cloud
points = np.random.rand(128, 3).astype("float32")
swanlab.log({"examples/point_cloud": swanlab.Object3D(points, caption="Point cloud sample")})

# Molecule
swanlab.log({"examples/molecule": swanlab.Molecule.from_smiles("CCO", caption="Ethanol")})
# Custom chart with swanlab.echarts
line = swanlab.echarts.Line()
line.add_xaxis(["epoch-1", "epoch-2", "epoch-3"])
line.add_yaxis("train/loss", [0.92, 0.61, 0.44])
line.set_global_opts(
    title_opts=swanlab.echarts.options.TitleOpts(title="Training Loss")
)

swanlab.log({"charts/loss_curve": line})

See references/visualization.md for more chart and media patterns.

5. Local and Self-Hosted Workflows

import os
import swanlab

# Self-hosted or cloud login
swanlab.login(
    api_key=os.environ["SWANLAB_API_KEY"],
    host="http://your-server:5092",
)

# Local-only logging
run = swanlab.init(
    project="offline-demo",
    mode="local",
    logdir="./swanlog",
)

swanlab.log({"loss": 0.35, "epoch": 1})
run.finish()
# View local logs
swanlab watch -l ./swanlog

# Sync local logs later
swanlab sync ./swanlog

Integration Examples

HuggingFace Transformers

from transformers import Trainer, TrainingArguments

training_args = TrainingArguments(
    output_dir="./results",
    per_device_train_batch_size=8,
    evaluation_strategy="epoch",
    logging_steps=50,
    report_to="swanlab",
    run_name="bert-finetune",
)

trainer = Trainer(
    model=model,
    args=training_args,
    train_dataset=train_dataset,
    eval_dataset=eval_dataset,
)

trainer.train()

See references/integrations.md for callback-based setups and additional framework patterns.

PyTorch Lightning

import pytorch_lightning as pl
from swanlab.integration.pytorch_lightning import SwanLabLogger

swanlab_logger = SwanLabLogger(
    project="lightning-demo",
    experiment_name="mnist-classifier",
    config={"batch_size": 64, "max_epochs": 10},
)

trainer = pl.Trainer(
    logger=swanlab_logger,
    max_epochs=10,
    accelerator="auto",
)

trainer.fit(model, train_loader, val_loader)

Fastai

from fastai.vision.all import accuracy, resnet34, vision_learner
from swanlab.integration.fastai import SwanLabCallback

learn = vision_learner(dls, resnet34, metrics=accuracy)
learn.fit(
    5,
    cbs=[
        SwanLabCallback(
            project="fastai-demo",
            experiment_name="pets-classification",
            config={"arch": "resnet34", "epochs": 5},
        )
    ],
)

See references/integrations.md for fuller framework examples.

Best Practices

1. Use Stable Metric Names

# Good: grouped metric namespaces
swanlab.log({
    "train/loss": train_loss,
    "train/accuracy": train_acc,
    "val/loss": val_loss,
    "val/accuracy": val_acc,
})

# Avoid mixing flat and grouped names for the same metric family

2. Initialize Early and Capture Config Once

run = swanlab.init(
    project="image-classification",
    experiment_name="resnet18-baseline",
    config={
        "model": "resnet18",
        "learning_rate": 3e-4,
        "batch_size": 64,
        "seed": 42,
    },
)

3. Save Checkpoints Locally

import torch
import swanlab

checkpoint_path = "checkpoints/best.pth"
torch.save(model.state_dict(), checkpoint_path)

swanlab.log(
    {
        "best/val_accuracy": best_val_accuracy,
        "artifacts/checkpoint_path": swanlab.Text(checkpoint_path),
    }
)

4. Use Local Mode for Offline-First Workflows

run = swanlab.init(project="offline-demo", mode="local", logdir="./swanlog")
# ... training code ...
run.finish()

# Inspect later with: swanlab watch -l ./swanlog

5. Keep Advanced Patterns in References

  • Use references/visualization.md for advanced chart and media patterns
  • Use references/integrations.md for callback-based and framework-specific integration details

Resources

See Also

  • references/integrations.md - Framework-specific examples
  • references/visualization.md - Charts and media logging patterns

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take orchestra-research/experiment-tracking-swanlab from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.

Install what it needs

The instructions reference pip. Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.