Specification for annotators

Learn how to easily create and add specification for annotators using the Guide feature.

The Guide feature provides a built-in markdown editor that allows you to create specification for annotators.

Once you create and submit the specification, it will be accessible from the annotation interface (see below).

You can attach the specification to Projects or to Tasks.

The attachment procedure is the same for individual users and organizations.

See:

Adding specification to Project

To add specification to the Projects, do the following:

  1. Go to the Projects page and click on the project to which you want to add specification.
  2. Under the Project description, click Edit.

Project specification

  1. Add instruction to the Markdown editor, and click Submit.

Editing rights

  • For individual users: only the project owner and the project assignee can edit the specification.
  • For organizations: specification additionally can be edited by the organization owner and maintainer

Editor rights

Adding specification to Task

To add specification to the Task, do the following:

  1. Go to the Tasks page and click on the task to which you want to add specification.

  2. Under the Task description, click Edit.

    Task specification

  3. Add instruction to the Markdown editor, and click Submit.

Editing rights

  • For individual users: only the task owner and task assignee can edit the specification.
  • For organizations: only the task owner, maintainer, and task assignee can edit the specification.

Editor rights

Access to specification for annotators

The specification is opened automatically when the job has new annotation state. It means, that it will open when the assigned user begins working on the first job within a Project or Task.

The specifications will not automatically reopen if the user moves to another job within the same Project or Task.

If a Project or Task is reassigned to another annotator, the specifications will automatically be shown when the annotator opens the first job but will not reappear for subsequent jobs.

To enable the option for specifications to always open automatically, append the ?openGuide parameter to the end of the job URL you share with the annotator:

/tasks/<task_id>/jobs/<job_id>?openGuide

For example:

https://app.cvat.ai/tasks/taskID/jobs/jobID?openGuide

To open specification manually, do the following:

  1. Open the job to see the annotation interface.
  2. In the top right corner, click Guide button(Guide Icon).

Markdown editor guide

The markdown editor for Guide has two panes. Add instructions to the left pane, and the editor will immediately show the formatted result on the right.

Markdown editor

You can write in raw markdown or use the toolbar on the top of the editor.

Markdown editor

Element Description
1 Text formatting: bold, cursive, and strikethrough.
2 Insert a horizontal rule (horizontal line).
3 Add a title, heading, or subheading. It provides a drop-down list to select the title level (from 1 to 6).
4 Add a link.
Note: If you left-click on the link, it will open in the same window.
5 Add a quote.
6 Add a single line of code.
7 Add a block of code.
8 Add a comment. The comment is only visible to Guide editors and remains invisible to annotators.
9 Add a picture. To use this option, first, upload the picture to an external resource and then add the link in the editor. Alternatively, you can drag and drop a picture into the editor, which will upload it to the CVAT server and add it to the specification.
10 Add a list: bullet list, numbered list, and checklist.
11 Hide the editor pane: options to hide the right pane, show both panes or hide the left pane.
12 Enable full-screen mode.

Specification for annotators’ video tutorial

Video tutorial on how to use the Guide feature.