Confit

Confit is a complete and easy-to-use configuration framework aimed at improving the reproducibility of experiments by relying on the Python typing system, minimal configuration files and command line interfaces.

Getting started

Install the library with pip:

pip install confit

Confit only abstracts the boilerplate code related to configuration and leaves the rest of your code unchanged.

Here is an example:

script.py

+ from confit import Cli, Registry, RegistryCollection
  
+ class registry(RegistryCollection):
+     factory = Registry(("test_cli", "factory"), entry_points=True)
 
+ @registry.factory.register("submodel")
class SubModel:
    # Type hinting is optional but recommended !
    def __init__(self, value: float, desc: str = ""):
        self.value = value
        self.desc = desc
 
 
+ @registry.factory.register("bigmodel")
class BigModel:
    def __init__(self, date: datetime.date, submodel: SubModel):
        self.date = date
        self.submodel = submodel
 
+ app = Cli(pretty_exceptions_show_locals=False)
 
+ @app.command(name="script", registry=registry)
def func(modelA: BigModel, modelB: BigModel, other: int, seed: int):
    assert modelA.submodel is modelB.submodel
    assert modelA.date == datetime.date(2010, 10, 10)
    print("Other:", other)
 
+ if __name__ == "__main__":
+     app()

Create a new config file

config.cfg

# CLI sections
[script]
modelA = ${modelA}
modelB = ${modelB}

# CLI common parameters
[modelA]
@factory = "bigmodel"
date = "2003-02-01"

[modelA.submodel]
@factory = "submodel"
value = 12

[modelB]
date = "2003-04-05"
submodel = ${modelA.submodel}

and run the following command from the terminal

python script.py --config config.cfg --seed 42

You can still call the function method from your code, but now also benefit from argument validation !

from script import func, BigModel, SubModel

# To seed before creating the models
from confit.utils.random import set_seed

seed = 42
set_seed(seed)

submodel = SubModel(value=12)
# BigModel will cast date strings as datetime.date objects
modelA = BigModel(date="2003-02-01", submodel=submodel)
modelB = BigModel(date="2003-04-05", submodel=submodel)
func(
    modelA=modelA,
    modelB=modelA,
    seed=seed,
)

Visit the documentation for more information!

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris and AP-HP Foundation for funding this project.