CVAT Python SDK

Overview

CVAT SDK is a Python library. It provides you access to Python functions and objects that simplify server interaction and provide additional functionality like data validation and serialization.

SDK API includes several layers:

  • Low-level API with REST API wrappers. Located at cvat_sdk.api_client. Read more
  • High-level API. Located at cvat_sdk.core. Read more
  • PyTorch adapter. Located at cvat_sdk.pytorch. Read more
  • Auto-annotation API. Located at cvat_sdk.auto_annotation. Read more

In general, the low-level API provides single-request operations, while the high-level one implements composite, multi-request operations, and provides local proxies for server objects. For most uses, the high-level API should be good enough, and it should be the right point to start your integration with CVAT.

The PyTorch adapter is a specialized layer that represents datasets stored in CVAT as PyTorch Dataset objects. This enables direct use of such datasets in PyTorch-based machine learning pipelines.

The auto-annotation API is a specialized layer that lets you automatically annotate CVAT datasets by running a custom function on the local machine. See also the auto-annotate command in the CLI.

Installation

To install an official release of CVAT SDK use this command:

pip install cvat-sdk

To use the PyTorch adapter, request the pytorch extra:

pip install "cvat-sdk[pytorch]"

We support Python versions 3.9 and higher.

Usage

To import package components, use the following code:

For the high-level API:

import cvat_sdk
# or
import cvat_sdk.core

For the low-level API:

import cvat_sdk.api_client

For the PyTorch adapter:

import cvat_sdk.pytorch