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Advanced TrainingSwanLab Logging in NeMo AutoModel

SwanLab Logging in NeMo AutoModel

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Introduction

SwanLab is an experiment tracker with a W&B-compatible API. NeMo AutoModel can log every run to SwanLab in addition to Weights & Biases, which is also useful where the W&B servers are not reachable.

SwanLab logging mirrors the W&B logger instead of adding a second set of logging calls to every recipe: when it is enabled, each wandb.init, wandb.log, wandb.config.update, and finish a recipe makes is forwarded to SwanLab. SwanLab therefore records the same items as W&B: the project, run name, tags, group, notes, the full run config, and every logged metric at the same step (see Notes for one difference).

Prerequisites

Install the swanlab extra (it pulls in wandb as well):

uv pip install "nemo-automodel[swanlab]"

Provide your SwanLab API key through the SWANLAB_API_KEY environment variable (or run swanlab login once). The key is never part of the YAML.

Configuration

Add a swanlab sub-block to the recipe’s wandb section:

wandb:
  project: my-project
  name: qwen3_0p6b_hellaswag
  swanlab:
    mode: online

The run keeps logging to W&B as before and is also logged to SwanLab under the same project and run name.

Configuration Parameters

ParameterTypeDefaultDescription
modestronlineonline uploads to SwanLab, offline writes the run locally for a later swanlab sync, local keeps it local only, disabled turns SwanLab off.
workspacestrnullSwanLab workspace (user or organization). If null, uses the account’s default workspace.
log_dirstrnullLocal directory for SwanLab run files. If null, uses the SDK default.
upload_to_wandbbooltrueKeep uploading to W&B. Set to false where W&B is not reachable: W&B then runs in offline mode and only SwanLab receives the run.

SwanLab Only

Where W&B is not reachable, keep the wandb block (it drives the logging calls) and stop the W&B upload:

wandb:
  project: my-project
  swanlab:
    mode: online
    upload_to_wandb: false

Offline Clusters

On a cluster without internet access, write the run locally and upload it later from a machine that can reach SwanLab:

wandb:
  project: my-project
  swanlab:
    mode: offline
    upload_to_wandb: false
    log_dir: /path/to/swanlog
swanlab sync /path/to/swanlog/run-<id>

Notes

  • Numbers, strings, and images are mirrored. String values (for example the per-step timestamp) appear in SwanLab as text. Other W&B types such as wandb.Table and histograms are not mirrored.
  • When a recipe logs the same key twice at one step (for example a training and a validation record at the same step), W&B keeps the last value and SwanLab keeps the first.
  • A resumed W&B run (id / resume in the wandb block) starts a new SwanLab run.
  • With upload_to_wandb: false, W&B always runs in offline mode, even if the wandb block sets another mode.
  • The mirror is installed once per process; a second recipe in the same process keeps the first run’s SwanLab settings.