The Basics
This tutorial demonstrates the fundamentals of Data Designer by generating a product review dataset.
For more detail about column behavior, see the open-source library’s version of this tutorial.
Prerequisites
Ensure you have completed the tutorials prerequisites.
Part 1: Build the Configuration
Use the data_designer.config package to define your dataset schema. This configuration code is identical to working with the standalone Data Designer library.
Define Models
Start by defining the models you want to use:
Add Columns
Define the columns for your dataset. The library documentation explains these column types in detail.
Part 2: Execute
You can submit your configuration to the Data Designer API for execution via the CLI or the SDK.
CLI Execution
Save the configuration in a Python file such as product_reviews.py and expose a load_config_builder() function that returns the config_builder.
Preview the dataset:
Generate a larger dataset:
SDK Execution
The DataDesignerResource is your SDK interface for Data Designer execution on NeMo Platform. You can access it from an existing SDK instance:
Previewing the Dataset
Use the preview method for API-backed rapid iteration. Generate a small sample, inspect the results, adjust your configuration, and repeat:
More about preview results
The PreviewResults object returned by client.data_designer.preview stores all its fields in memory; nothing is persisted to disk by default.
Use standard Python methods to save any preview data you want to keep around longer term.
For example, the dataset is a regular Pandas DataFrame and can be saved to disk via methods like to_csv or to_parquet.
Iterate: Adjust column configurations, prompts, or parameters in your config_builder, then run preview again until you’re satisfied with the results.
Scaling Up with Jobs
When you’re happy with the preview, create a larger service-managed generation job:
More about job results
The Data Designer library writes several artifacts to disk when running a full generation job, including the final dataset as parquet.
When a Data Designer job runs through NeMo Services, the entire working directory of artifacts produced by the library is saved as a job result.
The download_artifacts method downloads this artifacts directory (stored as a .tar.gz archive),
unarchives it, and returns a DataDesignerJobResults object that can be used to load results into memory as DataFrames or other objects for programmatic inspection.
By default, download_artifacts saves the artifacts to a relative local directory named after the job.
An alternative path can be passed to download_artifacts.
What Happens Under the Hood
- Configuration Validation: The service validates your configuration and resolves column dependencies
- NeMo Services Execution: Preview runs through the Data Designer API; create runs as a service-managed job
- Inference Routing: LLM calls are routed through Inference Gateway to your configured model providers
- Artifact Storage: Job datasets and analysis reports are stored in job artifact storage
- Job Completion: You can monitor job status and load results when complete
Next Steps
- Seed data: Learn how to use external datasets in the seeding tutorial
- Column types: Explore all available column types in the library documentation
- Advanced features: Learn about processors and validation