configuration

slangmod can be configured via its command-line interface (CLI) and/or via a config file in TOML format. All configuration options can be set by either or both of these mechanisms. In case of discrepancy, the CLI takes precedence over the config file.

In order to list all the options that you can possible set, simply type

slangmod -h

or

slangmod --help

As you can see, there’s a lot to configure. Some options you will set once and rarely, if ever, touch again, while you will more frequently adjust others. I recommend putting the former into a config file, starting with the very basics. As you move through the steps to your final model, more and more options will remain static and can be added.

Specifically, you could set:

work_dir = “.”

The path to a working directory, where slangmod will save all it needs. While, in principle, this path can be relative (defaulting, in fact, to the directory where you invoke slangmod), I recommend setting an absolute path here.

log_level = 10

The level at which progress is logged to the console. The default is 10 (meaning DEBUG, i.e., everything is logged) and I recommend leaving it at that. If, however, you want to have fewer messages on the console, you can set it to 20 (INFO). Setting it to 30 (WARNING) or higher will suppress all log messages.

progress = True

Some actions (like training a tokenizer or a model) give visual feedback in the form of a progress bar in the console by default, i.e., when this is set to True. Set to False if you don’t want that.

With these setting, your initial config file could look something like this:

slangmod.toml

work_dir = "/absolute/path/to/your/working/directory"
log_level = 10
progress = true

By default, slangmod looks for a config file named “slangmod.toml” in the directory where you invoked it. To convince yourself that this works, change into the folder with your config file and type,

slangmod dry-run

which does nothing other than printing the configuration that slangmod would run with. Look for the options you set in the file.

Warning

If the default config file slangmod.toml is not found in the directory you invoke slangmod in, only a warning is printed and the program proceeds with default settings.

You can, of course, name the config file whatever you want and place it wherever you want. In that case, however, you have to explicitly point slangmod to that file, like so:

slangmod dry-run --toml path/to/your-config-file.toml

In that case, slangmod will error out if the specified file is not found. Either way, to convince yourself that the CLI takes precedence over the config file, run

slangmod dry-run --toml path/to/your-config-file.toml --log-level 40

and check that the log-level has indeed changed.

And that’s it for now. All other commands and configuration options (and how to set them) are explained in detail in the CLI reference.

Note

In the examples above, we used “long-format” command-line options. With the exception of -h for --help, this is, in fact, the only format accepted by slangmod.