Update an artifact

Update an existing Artifact inside and outside of a W&B Run.

  2 minute read  

Pass desired values to update the description, metadata, and alias of an artifact. Call the save() method to update the artifact on the W&B servers. You can update an artifact during a W&B Run or outside of a Run.

Use the W&B Public API (wandb.Api) to update an artifact outside of a run. Use the Artifact API (wandb.Artifact) to update an artifact during a run.

The proceeding code example demonstrates how to update the description of an artifact using the wandb.Artifact API:

import wandb

run = wandb.init(project="<example>")
artifact = run.use_artifact("<artifact-name>:<alias>")
artifact.description = "<description>"
artifact.save()

The proceeding code example demonstrates how to update the description of an artifact using the wandb.Api API:

import wandb

api = wandb.Api()

artifact = api.artifact("entity/project/artifact:alias")

# Update the description
artifact.description = "My new description"

# Selectively update metadata keys
artifact.metadata["oldKey"] = "new value"

# Replace the metadata entirely
artifact.metadata = {"newKey": "new value"}

# Add an alias
artifact.aliases.append("best")

# Remove an alias
artifact.aliases.remove("latest")

# Completely replace the aliases
artifact.aliases = ["replaced"]

# Persist all artifact modifications
artifact.save()

For more information, see the Weights and Biases Artifact API.

You can also update an Artifact collection in the same way as a singular artifact:

import wandb
run = wandb.init(project="<example>")
api = wandb.Api()
artifact = api.artifact_collection(type="<type-name>", collection="<collection-name>")
artifact.name = "<new-collection-name>"
artifact.description = "<This is where you'd describe the purpose of your collection.>"
artifact.save()

For more information, see the Artifacts Collection reference.


Last modified May 2, 2025