Download an artifact from a registry

Use the W&B Python SDK to download an artifact linked to a registry. To download and use an artifact, you need to know the name of the registry, the name of the collection, and the alias or index of the artifact version you want to download.

Once you know the properties of the artifact, you can construct the path to the linked artifact and download the artifact. Alternatively, you can copy and paste a pre-generated code snippet from the W&B App UI to download an artifact linked to a registry.

Construct path to linked artifact

To download an artifact linked to a registry, you must know the path of that linked artifact. The path consists of the registry name, collection name, and the alias or index of the artifact version you want to access.

Once you have the registry, collection, and alias or index of the artifact version, you can construct the path to the linked artifact using the proceeding string template:

# Artifact name with version index specified
f"wandb-registry-{REGISTRY}/{COLLECTION}:v{INDEX}"

# Artifact name with alias specified
f"wandb-registry-{REGISTRY}/{COLLECTION}:{ALIAS}"

Replace the values within the curly braces {} with the name of the registry, collection, and the alias or index of the artifact version you want to access.

info

Specify "model" or "dataset" if you want to link an artifact version to the core Model registry or the core Dataset registry, respectively.

Use the wandb.init.use_artifact method to access the artifact and download its contents once you have the path of the linked artifact. The proceeding code snippet shows how to use and download an artifact linked to the W&B Registry. Ensure to replace values within <> with your own:

import wandb

REGISTRY = '<registry_name>'
COLLECTION = '<collection_name>'
ALIAS = '<artifact_alias>'

run = wandb.init(
   entity = '<team_name>',
   project = '<project_name>'
   )  

artifact_name = f"wandb-registry-{REGISTRY}/{COLLECTION}:{ALIAS}"
# artifact_name = '<artifact_name>' # Copy and paste Full name specified on the Registry App
fetched_artifact = run.use_artifact(artifact_or_name = artifact_name)  
download_path = fetched_artifact.download()  

The .use_artifact() method both creates a run and marks the artifact you download as the input to that run. Marking an artifact as the input to a run enables W&B to track the lineage of that artifact.

If you do not want to create a run, you can use the wandb.Api() object to access the artifact:

import wandb

REGISTRY = "<registry_name>"
COLLECTION = "<collection_name>"
VERSION = "<version>"

api = wandb.Api()
artifact_name = f"wandb-registry-{REGISTRY}/{COLLECTION}:{VERSION}"
artifact = api.artifact(name = artifact_name)

Example: Use and download an artifact linked to the W&B Registry

The proceeding code example shows how a user can download an artifact linked to a collection called "phi3-finetuned" in the "Fine-tuned Models" registry. The alias of the artifact version is set to "production".

import wandb

TEAM_ENTITY = "product-team-applications"
PROJECT_NAME = "user-stories"

REGISTRY = "Fine-tuned Models"
COLLECTION = "phi3-finetuned"
ALIAS = 'production'

# Initialize a run inside the specified team and project
run = wandb.init(entity=TEAM_ENTITY, project = PROJECT_NAME)

artifact_name = f"wandb-registry-{REGISTRY}/{COLLECTION}:{ALIAS}"

# Access an artifact and mark it as input to your run for lineage tracking
fetched_artifact = run.use_artifact(artifact_or_name = name)  

# Download artifact. Returns path to downloaded contents
downloaded_path = fetched_artifact.download()  

See use_artifact and Artifact.download() in the API Reference guide for more information on possible parameters and return type.

Users with a personal entity that belong to multiple organizations

Users with a personal entity that belong to multiple organizations must also specify either the name of their organization or use a team entity when accessing artifacts linked to a registry.

import wandb

REGISTRY = "<registry_name>"
COLLECTION = "<collection_name>"
VERSION = "<version>"

# Ensure you are using your team entity to instantiate the API
api = wandb.Api(overrides={"entity": "<team-entity>"})
artifact_name = f"wandb-registry-{REGISTRY}/{COLLECTION}:{VERSION}"
artifact = api.artifact(name = artifact_name)

# Use org display name or org entity in the path
api = wandb.Api()
artifact_name = f"{ORG_NAME}/wandb-registry-{REGISTRY}/{COLLECTION}:{VERSION}"
artifact = api.artifact(name = artifact_name)

Where the ORG_NAME is the display name of your organization. Multi-tenant SaaS users can find the name of their organization in the organization's settings page at https://wandb.ai/account-settings/. Dedicated Cloud and Self-Managed users, contact your account administrator to confirm your organization's display name.

Copy and paste pre-generated code snippet

W&B creates a code snippet that you can copy and paste into your Python script, notebook, or terminal to download an artifact linked to a registry.

1. Navigate to the Registry App.
2. Select the name of the registry that contains your artifact.
3. Select the name of the collection.
4. From the list of artifact versions, select the version you want to access.
5. Select the Usage tab.
6. Copy the code snippet shown in the Usage API section.
7. Paste the code snippet into your Python script, notebook, or terminal.