---
title: "PyTorch Integration"
sidebarTitle: "PyTorch"
description: Use a LanceDB table as a PyTorch IterableDataset, mapped onto the `torch.utils.data` concepts you already know.
icon: fire
availability:
  oss: available
  enterprise: available
  summary: >-
    The PyTorch integration works with local, object-storage and deployment
    tables in the Python SDK.
---

`StreamingDataset` is a LanceDB table exposed as a PyTorch
[`IterableDataset`](https://docs.pytorch.org/docs/stable/data.html#torch.utils.data.IterableDataset),
so it drops into a stock [`DataLoader`](https://docs.pytorch.org/docs/stable/data.html#torch.utils.data.DataLoader).
It handles per-epoch shuffling, sharding across ranks and workers, prefetching, and exact resume, so you
don't write those yourself. The shuffle is fixed when the dataset is constructed, so each epoch needs a new
`StreamingDataset` built with that epoch's number.

## Quickstart {#quickstart}

```py Python icon=Python
import lancedb, pyarrow as pa, torch
from torch import nn
from lancedb.streaming import StreamingDataset

def to_samples(rb: pa.RecordBatch):
    f = lambda c: torch.from_dlpack(rb[c].flatten()).view(len(rb), -1)
    rows = zip(f("observation_state"), f("action"))
    return [{"state": s, "action": a} for s, a in rows]

uri = "hf://datasets/lance-format/lerobot-xvla-soft-fold/data"
db = lancedb.connect(uri, storage_options={"hf_enable_resolve_cache": "true"})
table = db.open_table("frames")
train = StreamingDataset(
    table, columns=["observation_state", "action"],
    transform=to_samples)

model = nn.Sequential(nn.Linear(96, 256), nn.ReLU(), nn.Linear(256, 14))
opt = torch.optim.AdamW(model.parameters(), lr=1e-3)
for batch in torch.utils.data.DataLoader(train, batch_size=256):
    loss = nn.MSELoss()(model(batch["state"]), batch["action"])
    opt.zero_grad()
    loss.backward()
    opt.step()
```

`StreamingDataset` is a standard PyTorch `IterableDataset`, so it works with everything built for one: a stock
`DataLoader`, its default `collate_fn`, and worker processes. The transform returns plain tensors, so the
model, loss and optimizer are unmodified PyTorch. Here it streams the
[`lerobot-xvla-soft-fold`](https://huggingface.co/datasets/lance-format/lerobot-xvla-soft-fold) dataset
straight from the Hugging Face Hub to train a policy that predicts each `action` from the robot's
`observation_state`.

## PyTorch concepts in LanceDB {#concept-map}

| In PyTorch you would write | In LanceDB you use |
| --- | --- |
| An `IterableDataset` that reads files in `__iter__` | `StreamingDataset(table)` |
| `DistributedSampler`, or sharding by `get_worker_info()` in `__iter__` | `rank=` and `world_size=`. Each rank and each DataLoader worker reads its own disjoint splits |
| Decoding in `__getitem__` or `collate_fn` | `transform=`, which receives a whole Arrow `RecordBatch` and runs in a thread pool |
| `random_split`, `Subset`, or reading only the fields a model needs | `filter="<SQL predicate>"` and `columns=[...]`. Unselected columns are never read from storage |
| `StatefulDataLoader` | `state_dict()` and `load_state_dict()`, plus `StreamingDataLoader` for workers |

The dataset does not copy your data. At construction it computes a shuffled assignment of row IDs to
`num_splits` fixed splits, then reads rows from the table as it iterates. It reads the table version
that exists at construction, so rows appended later do not appear mid-epoch.

## Optimizations {#optimizations}

The quickstart works as written. These sections cover what to tune as training scales up: the transform that
builds each sample, running across many GPUs, and the output format of a `Table` or `Permutation`.

### Transform {#transform}

A `transform` turns a batch of Arrow rows into the per-sample items your `DataLoader` collates. It receives a
whole `pyarrow.RecordBatch` (`read_batch_size` rows, 64 by default) rather than one sample at a time, so
vectorized code is cheap, and it must return exactly one item per row. The quickstart's transform is the
whole pattern: columns become tensors and each row becomes a dict, which the default `collate_fn` stacks into
a batch. Without a transform, rows arrive as plain Python dicts.

Heavier per-sample work belongs in the same function, such as decoding video. Store each clip in a blob v2
column (`lancedb.blob("video")`). A scan returns small descriptors instead of the video bytes, so reading
other columns never pulls video in. `fetch_blob_files` opens the clips for a batch of rows as file handles,
and torchcodec's `VideoDecoder` decodes just the frames you ask for. `ExtractFrames` samples 8 evenly spaced
frames from each clip:

```py Python icon=Python
import functools
from torchcodec.decoders import VideoDecoder

class ExtractFrames:
    def __init__(self, uri: str, name: str, num_frames: int = 8) -> None:
        self.uri, self.name, self.num_frames = uri, name, num_frames

    @functools.cached_property
    def table(self) -> lancedb.table.Table:
        return lancedb.connect(self.uri).open_table(self.name)

    def __call__(self, rb: pa.RecordBatch) -> list[dict[str, torch.Tensor]]:
        samples = []
        for blob in self.table.fetch_blob_files("video", rb["_rowid"]):
            decoder = VideoDecoder(blob)
            idx = torch.linspace(0, len(decoder) - 1, self.num_frames).long()
            samples.append({"frames": decoder.get_frames_at(idx.tolist()).data})
        return samples

# `clips` is the table "clips" in the database at `uri`, with a blob v2 column "video"
train = StreamingDataset(clips, columns=["_rowid"], transform=ExtractFrames(uri, "clips"))
```

Transforms run in a thread pool, one thread per CPU by default (`transform_parallelism`), overlapping with
storage reads and your training step. NumPy, PyArrow and PyTorch release the GIL, so vectorized
work runs in parallel. A pure-Python loop does not. If a profile shows the transform is the bottleneck, move
it into [DataLoader workers](#using-multiple-dataloader-workers).

Real data has bad rows, such as a truncated frame. Raise inside the transform and set
`on_transform_error="skip"` (or `"warn"` to log each failure). LanceDB re-runs the failing batch one row at a
time, drops only the rows that raise, and counts them in `dataset.rows_skipped`. When the bad rows match a SQL
predicate, prefer `filter=`: it runs before the splits are built, so every split keeps the same length.

### Distributed Training {#distributed-training}

`StreamingDataset` takes the place of `DistributedSampler`. Pass the rank and world size, and each rank reads
its own disjoint part of the table, together covering it once per epoch:

```py Python icon=Python
import torch.distributed as dist

dist.init_process_group("nccl")
train = StreamingDataset(
    table, columns=["observation_state", "action"], transform=to_samples,
    num_splits=48, shuffle_seed=42, epoch=epoch,
    rank=dist.get_rank(), world_size=dist.get_world_size())
```

Everything after the dataset is standard distributed PyTorch. Wrap the model in `DistributedDataParallel`
and pass `batch_size` to the `DataLoader` per GPU, so the global batch is `batch_size * world_size`. Nothing
in the data path changes.

Three arguments matter in distributed runs:

- **`num_splits`** is how many fixed streams the table is divided into. It must be divisible by `world_size`,
  and by `world_size * num_workers` when you use DataLoader workers. Choose a number with many divisors, such
  as 48, and runs on 8, 4 or 2 GPUs see the same data at every step, provided the global batch size is a multiple of
  `num_splits`.
- **`shuffle_seed` and `epoch`** must be identical on every rank. Pass a fixed `shuffle_seed` and increase
  `epoch` each epoch. `shuffle_seed=None` draws a different random seed in each process, so ranks would read
  overlapping rows and miss others.
- **`rank` and `world_size`** come from your launcher, for example `torchrun`.

To resume after a failure, save `train.state_dict()` next to the model. It records progress per split, so the
resumed run continues from the same row even on a different number of GPUs. See
[Parallelism & Elasticity](/training/data-loading#parallelism-&-elasticity) and
[Checkpointing](/training/data-loading#checkpointing) for the batch-size rules and the multi-worker case.

### Output Formats {#output-formats}

By default, a `Table` data loader will emit Arrow data. `collate_fn` is PyTorch's batching hook: PyTorch calls it to
turn the fetched items into one batch. PyTorch's default collate function only knows how to combine tensors, NumPy
arrays, numbers, dicts, and lists, so it does not accept Arrow data directly. When using a `Table` directly, pass
LanceDB's `lancedb.util.tbl_to_tensor` helper as PyTorch's `collate_fn`; it converts numeric Arrow columns into a
column-major `torch.Tensor` with shape `(columns, rows)`.

`Permutation` works differently: its default output is a list of Python dicts, which PyTorch's default collate function
can batch into a dict of tensors. This is usually more convenient when you are getting started. However, there is a
significant performance penalty converting from Arrow, Lance's internal representation, to this default format. If you
want the default PyTorch dict-of-tensors behavior, use a `Permutation` as-is; if you want direct Arrow-to-tensor
conversion, either pass `lancedb.util.tbl_to_tensor` as `collate_fn` with a direct `Table` or configure a `Permutation`
with one of the transform formats described below.

To address this, the `Permutation` class provides a set of builtin transform functions that can be applied to map
the Arrow data in different ways.  The `arrow` and `polars` formats will always avoid data copies.  However, `numpy`,
`pandas`, and `torch_col` formats will also avoid data copies in most cases.  The `python`, `python_col`, and
`torch` formats will all require at least one full copy of the data and are the slowest options.

#### Using the torch column format with a torch data loader {#using-the-torch-column-format-with-a-torch-data-loader}

The `torch_col` format is the most efficient way to convert from Arrow to a `torch.Tensor`.  It will convert the
entire Arrow batch to a _column-major_ `torch.Tensor`.  In other words, given C columns and R rows, the resulting
Tensor will have shape `(C, R)`.  However, this format generates an error if you are using a
`torch.utils.data.DataLoader` with the default collation function:

```text
TypeError: stack(): argument 'tensors' (position 1) must be tuple of Tensors, not Tensor
```

This error occurs because the default collation function does not currently expect a single two-dimensional tensor.
It expects a list of tensors which it will then stack.  This is what is output by the `torch` format but that format
requires a data copy.  To avoid this error, and avoid data copies, you will need to provide a custom collation function
in addition to specifying the `torch_col` format.

```py Python icon=Python 
from lancedb.permutation import Permutation

permutation = Permutation.identity(table).with_format("torch_col")
dataloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(permutation, collate_fn=lambda x: x)
```

This will now output a single two-dimensional tensor for each batch.

## Selecting columns {#selecting-columns}

By default, the `Table` class will return all columns in the table when used as input to PyTorch. If you only need
a subset of columns, you can significantly reduce your I/O requirements by selecting only the columns you need.  The
`Permutation` class provides a `select_columns` method that provides this functionality.

```py Python icon=Python 
import lancedb
import pyarrow as pa
import torch
from lancedb.permutation import Permutation

db = lancedb.connect("memory://")
prompts = db.create_table(
    "prompts",
    pa.table(
        {
            "id": range(4),
            "prompt": ["north", "south", "east", "west"],
            "embedding": [[0.1, 0.2], [0.3, 0.4], [0.5, 0.6], [0.7, 0.8]],
        }
    ),
)

permutation = Permutation.identity(prompts).select_columns(["id", "prompt"])
dataloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(
    permutation, batch_size=1024, shuffle=True
)

for batch in dataloader:
    print(sorted(batch))  # ['id', 'prompt']: the embedding is never read
```

Each batch is a dict of the selected columns, the default `Permutation` format
described above.

## Using multiple DataLoader workers {#using-multiple-dataloader-workers}

Set `num_workers > 0` to read from LanceDB in multiple PyTorch worker processes. `Permutation` objects and tables in LanceDB Enterprise are picklable, so each worker reopens the table after it starts. A local table is not, so wrap it in a `Permutation`, as below, to read it from several workers.

Prefer the `forkserver` start method when using multiple workers. LanceDB uses internal threads, so the default `fork` method is unsafe; `forkserver` avoids that while being cheaper to start than `spawn`, and became the default on Linux and other supported POSIX platforms in Python
3.14. macOS and Windows default to `spawn`. See
[Python's start-method documentation](https://docs.python.org/3/library/multiprocessing.html#contexts-and-start-methods). See [the performance guide](/search#performance) for more multiprocessing guidance.

<Note>
`forkserver` is only available on POSIX systems (Linux and macOS). On Windows, use `spawn`, the only available start method.
</Note>

```py Python icon=Python 
import torch
from lancedb.permutation import Permutation

permutation = Permutation.identity(table)
dataloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(
    permutation,
    batch_size=1024,
    shuffle=True,
    num_workers=4,
    multiprocessing_context="forkserver",
    persistent_workers=True,
)
```

### Remote tables in DataLoader workers {#remote-tables-in-dataloader-workers}

Remote LanceDB Enterprise tables (`db://...`) work the same way: workers reopen the table from the pickled connection state. Replace the URI, API key, region and endpoint below with your deployment details. In application code, load credentials from environment variables or a secrets manager.

```py Python icon=Python 
import lancedb
import torch
from lancedb.util import tbl_to_tensor

db = lancedb.connect(
    "db://my-database",
    api_key="your-api-key",
    region="us-east-1",
    host_override="https://your-endpoint",
)
table = db.open_table("my_table")

dataloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(
    table,
    batch_size=512,
    num_workers=4,
    multiprocessing_context="forkserver",
    collate_fn=tbl_to_tensor,
)
```

<Note>
This sends the connection state, including the API key, to each worker. Use a connection factory if credentials should be loaded inside the worker or your `client_config` contains a non-serializable `header_provider`.
</Note>

### Providing a custom connection factory {#providing-a-custom-connection-factory}

`Permutation.with_connection_factory` lets each worker reopen the base table with custom logic. The factory takes the table name, returns a LanceDB table, and must be picklable.

This example loads the API key inside each worker. Set it in the shell before
starting the Python program, then replace the database URI, region and endpoint
in the factory with your deployment details:

```shell
export LANCEDB_API_KEY="your-api-key"
```

```py Python icon=Python 
import os
import lancedb
import torch
from lancedb.permutation import Permutation

def open_table(name: str):
    db = lancedb.connect(
        "db://my-database",
        api_key=os.environ["LANCEDB_API_KEY"],
        region="us-east-1",
        host_override="https://your-endpoint",
    )
    return db.open_table(name)

table = open_table("my_table")
permutation = (
    Permutation.identity(table)
    .with_connection_factory(open_table)
)
dataloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(
    permutation,
    batch_size=512,
    num_workers=4,
    multiprocessing_context="forkserver",
)
```