Organize collections or artifact versions with tags

Create and add tags to organize your collections or artifact versions within your registry. Add, modify, view, or remove tags to a collection or artifact version with the W&B App UI or the W&B Python SDK.

When to use a tag versus using an alias

Use aliases when you need to reference a specific artifact version uniquely. For example, use an alias such as 'production' or 'latest' to ensure that artifact_name:alias always points to a single, specific version.

Use tags when you want more flexibility for grouping or searching. Tags are ideal when multiple versions or collections can share the same label, and you don’t need the guarantee that only one version is associated with a specific identifier.

Add a tag to a collection

Use the W&B App UI or Python SDK to add a tag to a collection:

W&B App UI

Use the W&B App UI to add a tag to a collection:

1. Navigate to the W&B Registry at https://wandb.ai/registry
2. Click on a registry card
3. Click View details next to the name of a collection
4. Within the collection card, click on the plus icon (+) next to the Tags field and type in the name of the tag
5. Press Enter on your keyboard

Python SDK

import wandb

COLLECTION_TYPE = "<collection_type>"
ORG_NAME = "<org_name>"
REGISTRY_NAME = "<registry_name>"
COLLECTION_NAME = "<collection_name>"

full_name = f"{ORG_NAME}/wandb-registry-{REGISTRY_NAME}/{COLLECTION_NAME}"

collection = wandb.Api().artifact_collection(
    type_name = COLLECTION_TYPE, 
    name = full_name
    )

collection.tags = ["your-tag"]
collection.save()

Update tags that belong to a collection

Update a tag programmatically by reassigning or by mutating the tags attribute. W&B recommends, and it is good Python practice, that you reassign the tags attribute instead of in-place mutation.

For example, the proceeding code snippet shows common ways to update a list with reassignment. For brevity, we continue the code example from the Add a tag to a collection section:

collection.tags = [*collection.tags, "new-tag", "other-tag"]
collection.tags = collection.tags + ["new-tag", "other-tag"]

collection.tags = set(collection.tags) - set(tags_to_delete)
collection.tags = []  # deletes all tags

The following code snippet shows how you can use in-place mutation to update tags that belong to an artifact version:

collection.tags += ["new-tag", "other-tag"]
collection.tags.append("new-tag")

collection.tags.extend(["new-tag", "other-tag"])
collection.tags[:] = ["new-tag", "other-tag"]
collection.tags.remove("existing-tag")
collection.tags.pop()
collection.tags.clear()

View tags that belong to a collection

Use the W&B App UI to view tags added to a collection:

1. Navigate to the W&B Registry at https://wandb.ai/registry
2. Click on a registry card
3. Click View details next to the name of a collection

If a collection has one or more tags, you can view those tags within the collection card next to the Tags field.

Tags added to a collection also appear next to the name of that collection.

For example, in the proceeding image, a tag called "tag1" was added to the "zoo-dataset-tensors" collection.

Remove a tag from a collection

Use the W&B App UI to remove a tag from a collection:

1. Navigate to the W&B Registry at https://wandb.ai/registry
2. Click on a registry card
3. Click View details next to the name of a collection
4. Within the collection card, hover your mouse over the name of the tag you want to remove
5. Click on the cancel button (X icon)

Add a tag to an artifact version

Add a tag to an artifact version linked to a collection with the W&B App UI or with the Python SDK.

W&B App UI

1. Navigate to the W&B Registry at https://wandb.ai/registry
2. Click on a registry card
3. Click View details next to the name of the collection you want to add a tag to
4. Scroll down to Versions
5. Click View next to an artifact version
6. Within the Version tab, click on the plus icon (+) next to the Tags field and type in the name of the tag
7. Press Enter on your keyboard

Python SDK

Fetch the artifact version you want to add or update a tag to. Once you have the artifact version, you can access the artifact object's tag attribute to add or modify tags to that artifact. Pass in one or more tags as list to the artifacts tag attribute.

Like other artifacts, you can fetch an artifact from W&B without creating a run or you can create a run and fetch the artifact within that run. In either case, ensure to call the artifact object's save method to update the artifact on the W&B servers.

Based on your use case, copy and paste one of the code cells below to add or modify an artifact version's tag. Ensure to replace the values in <> with your own.

The proceeding code snippet shows how to fetch an artifact and add a tag without creating a new run:

Add a tag to an artifact version without creating a new run

import wandb

ARTIFACT_TYPE = "<TYPE>"
ORG_NAME = "<org_name>"
REGISTRY_NAME = "<registry_name>"
COLLECTION_NAME = "<collection_name>"
VERSION = "<artifact_version>"

artifact_name = f"{ORG_NAME}/wandb-registry-{REGISTRY_NAME}/{COLLECTION_NAME}:v{VERSION}"

artifact = wandb.Api().artifact(name = artifact_name, type = ARTIFACT_TYPE)
artifact.tags = ["tag2"] # Provide one or more tags in a list
artifact.save()

The proceeding code snippet shows how to fetch an artifact and add a tag by creating a new run:

Add a tag to an artifact version during a run

import wandb

ORG_NAME = "<org_name>"
REGISTRY_NAME = "<registry_name>"
COLLECTION_NAME = "<collection_name>"
VERSION = "<artifact_version>"

run = wandb.init(entity = "<entity>", project="<project>")

artifact_name = f"{ORG_NAME}/wandb-registry-{REGISTRY_NAME}/{COLLECTION_NAME}:v{VERSION}"

artifact = run.use_artifact(artifact_or_name = artifact_name)
artifact.tags = ["tag2"] # Provide one or more tags in a list
artifact.save()

Update tags that belong to an artifact version

Update a tag programmatically by reassigning or by mutating the tags attribute. W&B recommends, and it is good Python practice, that you reassign the tags attribute instead of in-place mutation.

For example, the proceeding code snippet shows common ways to update a list with reassignment. For brevity, we continue the code example from the Add a tag to an artifact version section:

artifact.tags = [*artifact.tags, "new-tag", "other-tag"]
artifact.tags = artifact.tags + ["new-tag", "other-tag"]

artifact.tags = set(artifact.tags) - set(tags_to_delete)
artifact.tags = []  # deletes all tags

The following code snippet shows how you can use in-place mutation to update tags that belong to an artifact version:

artifact.tags += ["new-tag", "other-tag"]
artifact.tags.append("new-tag")

artifact.tags.extend(["new-tag", "other-tag"])
artifact.tags[:] = ["new-tag", "other-tag"]
artifact.tags.remove("existing-tag")
artifact.tags.pop()
artifact.tags.clear()

View tags that belong to an artifact version

View tags that belong to an artifact version that is linked to a registry with the W&B App UI or with the Python SDK.

W&B App UI

1. Navigate to the W&B Registry at https://wandb.ai/registry
2. Click on a registry card
3. Click View details next to the name of the collection you want to add a tag to
4. Scroll down to Versions section

If an artifact version has one or more tags, you can view those tags within the Tags column.

Python SDK

Fetch the artifact version to view its tags. Once you have the artifact version, you can view tags that belong to that artifact by viewing the artifact object's tag attribute.

Like other artifacts, you can fetch an artifact from W&B without creating a run or you can create a run and fetch the artifact within that run.

Based on your use case, copy and paste one of the code cells below to view an artifact version's tags. Ensure to replace the values in <> with your own.

The proceeding code snippet shows how to fetch and view an artifact version's tags without creating a new run:

Add a tag to an artifact version without creating a new run

import wandb

ARTIFACT_TYPE = "<TYPE>"
ORG_NAME = "<org_name>"
REGISTRY_NAME = "<registry_name>"
COLLECTION_NAME = "<collection_name>"
VERSION = "<artifact_version>"

artifact_name = f"{ORG_NAME}/wandb-registry-{REGISTRY_NAME}/{COLLECTION_NAME}:v{VERSION}"

artifact = wandb.Api().artifact(name = artifact_name, type = artifact_type)
print(artifact.tags)

The proceeding code snippet shows how to fetch and view artifact version's tags by creating a new run:

Add a tag to an artifact version during a run

import wandb

ORG_NAME = "<org_name>"
REGISTRY_NAME = "<registry_name>"
COLLECTION_NAME = "<collection_name>"
VERSION = "<artifact_version>"

run = wandb.init(entity = "<entity>", project="<project>")

artifact_name = f"{ORG_NAME}/wandb-registry-{REGISTRY_NAME}/{COLLECTION_NAME}:v{VERSION}"

artifact = run.use_artifact(artifact_or_name = artifact_name)
print(artifact.tags)

Remove a tag from an artifact version

1. Navigate to the W&B Registry at https://wandb.ai/registry
2. Click on a registry card
3. Click View details next to the name of the collection you want to add a tag to
4. Scroll down to Versions
5. Click View next to an artifact version
6. Within the Version tab, hover your mouse over the name of the tag
7. Click on the cancel button (X icon)

Search existing tags

Use the W&B App UI to search existing tags in collections and artifact versions:

1. Navigate to the W&B Registry at https://wandb.ai/registry
2. Click on a registry card
3. Within the search bar, type in the name of a tag