equinox 0.1.1

PyTorch-like neural networks in JAX

Equinox

Callable PyTrees and filtered JIT/grad transformations
=> neural networks in JAX

Equinox brings more power to your model building in JAX.
Represent parameterised functions as data and use filtered transformations for powerful fine-grained control of the model-building process. Equinox demonstrates how to use a PyTorch-like class-based API without compromising on JAX-like functional programming.

Equinox is half tech-demo, half neural network library, and comes with no behind-the-scenes magic, guaranteed.

The elegance of Equinox is its selling point in a world that already has Haiku, Flax and so on.

Quick start

Installation

pip install equinox

Requires Python 3.7+ and JAX 0.2.18+.

Parameterised functions as data

Equinox represents parameterised functions as PyTrees. (For example a neural network is a function parameterised by its weights, biases, etc.) Now you can JIT/grad/etc. a higher-order function (like a loss function) with respect to a parameterised function as its input (like a model).

Previous libraries have introduced a lot of extra complexity to make this work. e.g. custom notions of parameter groups, class-to-functional transformations, or specially-wrapped library.jit or library.grad to be compatible with JAX's JIT/grad/etc.

In contrast, Equinox makes it elegant:

import equinox as eqx
import jax
import jax.nn as jnn
import jax.numpy as jnp
import jax.random as jrandom

class MyModule(eqx.Module):
    # Specify the module's attributes;
    layers: list
    bias: jnp.ndarray

    # And how to initialise them;
    def __init__(self, key):
        key1, key2 = jrandom.split(key)
        self.layers = [eqx.nn.Linear(2, 8, key=key1),
                       eqx.nn.Linear(8, 2, key=key2)]
        self.bias = jnp.ones(2)

    # And the forward pass of the model.
    def __call__(self, x):
        for layer in self.layers[:-1]:
            x = jnn.relu(layer(x))
        return self.layers[-1](x) + self.bias

@jax.jit
@jax.grad
def loss(model, x, y):
    pred_y = jax.vmap(model)(x)
    return jnp.mean((y - pred_y) ** 2)

x_key, y_key, model_key = jrandom.split(jrandom.PRNGKey(0), 3)
x, y = jrandom.normal(x_key, (100, 2)), jrandom.normal(y_key, (100, 2))
model = MyModule(model_key)
grads = loss(model, x, y)

And there's no magic there! All eqx.Module really does is register your class with JAX as a PyTree node. (In fact the source code for eqx.Module is only about 100 lines long.)

Filtering

In the previous example, all of the model attributes were Modules and JAX arrays.

Arbitrary Python objects are fine too! We just need to handle them appropriately around jax.jit and jax.grad.

import equinox as eqx
import functools as ft
import jax
import jax.nn as jnn
import jax.numpy as jnp
import jax.random as jrandom

class AnotherModule(eqx.Module):
    layers: list

    def __init__(self, key):
        key1, key2 = jrandom.split(key)
        # Model now has `jnn.relu` -- a Python function -- as part of its PyTree.
        self.layers = [eqx.nn.Linear(2, 8, key=key1),
                       jnn.relu,
                       eqx.nn.Linear(8, 2, key=key2)]

    def __call__(self, x):
        for layer in self.layers:
            x = layer(x)
        return x

x_key, y_key, model_key = jrandom.split(jrandom.PRNGKey(0), 3)
x, y = jrandom.normal(x_key, (100, 2)), jrandom.normal(y_key, (100, 2))
model = AnotherModule(model_key)

# Option 1: explicitly filter out anything that isn't JIT/grad-able.

@ft.partial(jax.jit, static_argnums=1)
@jax.grad
def loss(params, static, x, y):
    model = eqx.combine(params, static)
    pred_y = jax.vmap(model)(x)
    return jnp.mean((y - pred_y) ** 2)

params, static = eqx.partition(model, eqx.is_array)
loss(params, static, x, y)

# Option 2: use filtered transformations, which automates the above process for you.
# (Can be handy if you want to JIT/grad with respect to different things!)

@eqx.filter_jit
@eqx.filter_grad
def loss(model, x, y):
    pred_y = jax.vmap(model)(x)
    return jnp.mean((y - pred_y) ** 2)

loss(model, x, y)

Here, params and static are actually both instances of AnotherModule. params keeps just the attributes that are JAX arrays, and static keeps everything else. Then combine just merges the two PyTrees back together afterwards.

Integrates smoothly with JAX

And that's it! That's pretty much all of Equinox.

Equinox introduces a powerful yet straightforward way to build neural networks, without introducing lots of new notions or tieing you into a framework.

Equinox is all just regular JAX -- PyTrees and transformations. Together, these two pieces allow us to specify complex models in JAX-friendly ways.

Examples

• build_model.py builds an MLP from scratch, demonstrating the easy parameterised-functions-as-data approach that Equinox introduces. We'll then pass it into higher-order functions like JIT and grad. Overall we produce models using a familiar class-based syntax, that are also functional and integrate directly with JAX's JIT/autograd.

• filtered_transformations.py introduces equinox.filter_jit and equinox.filter_grad. These will be used to select the parameters of an MLP and train them.

• frozen_layer.py demonstrates how this approach really shines: some of the parameters will be trained, some of them will be frozen, but all of them will be efficiently JIT-traced.

• train_rnn.py trains an RNN on a toy clockwise/anticlockwise spiral classification problem.

• modules_to_initapply.py demonstrates how to use Equinox in an init/apply-style way, which some JAX libraries have been built around. (e.g. Stax)

API

Full API list

# Module                         # Neural networks
equinox.Module                   equinox.nn.Linear
                                 equinox.nn.Identity
# Filtering/combining            equinox.nn.Dropout
equinox.filter                   equinox.nn.GRUCell
equinox.partition                equinox.nn.LSTMCell
equinox.combine                  equinox.nn.Sequential
                                 equinox.nn.MLP
# Filtered transformations       
equinox.filter_jit               # Utilities
equinox.filter_grad              equinox.apply_updates
equinox.filter_value_and_grad    equinox.static_field
                                 equinox.tree_at
# Filters                        equinox.tree_equal
equinox.is_array                 
equinox.is_array_like            
equinox.is_inexact_array         
equinox.is_inexact_array_like    

Module

equinox.Module

Base class; create your model by inheriting from this.

Specify all its attributes at the class level (identical to dataclasses). This defines its children in the PyTree.

class MyModule(equinox.Module):
    weight: typing.Any
    bias: typing.Any
    submodule: Module

In this case a default __init__ method is provided, which just fills in these attributes with the argments passed: MyModule(weight, bias, submodule). Alternatively you can provide an __init__ method yourself. (For example to specify dimension sizes instead of raw weights.) By the end of __init__, every attribute must have been assigned.

class AnotherModule(equinox.Module):
    weight: Any

    def __init__(self, input_size, output_size, key):
        self.weight = jax.random.normal(key, (output_size, input_size))

After initialisation then attributes cannot be modified: models are immutable as per functional programming. (Parameter updates are made by creating a new model, not by mutating parameters in-place; see for example train_rnn.py.)

It is typical to also create some methods on the class. As self will be an input parameter -- treated as a PyTree -- then these methods will get access to the attributes of the instance. Defining __call__ gives an easy way to define a forward pass for a model (although any method can be used, and no methods are special-cased):

class LinearWithoutBias(equinox.Module):
    weight: Any

    def __call__(self, x):
        return self.weight @ x

If defining a method meth, then take care not to write instance = MyModule(...); jax.jit(instance.meth)(...). (Or similarly with jax.grad, equinox.filter_jit etc.) This is because instance.meth is not a pure function as it already has the self parameter passed implicitly. Instead do

@jax.jit
def func(instance, args):
    instance.meth(args)
    # Also use this pattern with instance(args) if you defined `__call__` instead of `meth`.

Filtering/combining

Filtering can be used to organise the contents of PyTrees.

equinox.filter(pytree, filter_spec, inverse=False, replace=None)

Filters out the leaves of a PyTree not satisfying a condition. Those not satisfying the condition are replaced with replace.

• pytree is any PyTree
• filter_spec is a PyTree whose structure should be a prefix of the structure of pytree. Each of its leaves should either be:
  • True, in which case the leaf or subtree is kept;
  • False, in which case the leaf or subtree is replaced with replace;
  • a callable Leaf -> bool, in which case this is evaluted on the leaf or mapped over the subtree, and the leaf kept or replaced as appropriate.
• inverse switches the truthy/falsey behaviour: falsey results are kept and truthy results are replaced.
• replace is what to replace any falsey leaves with. Defaults to None.

Returns a PyTree of the same structure as pytree.

An important special case is something like equinox.filter(pytree, equinox.is_array). Then equinox.is_array is evaluted on all of pytree's leaves, and each leaf then kept or replaced.

See also equinox.combine to reconstitute the PyTree again.

equinox.partition(pytree, filter_spec, replace=None)

Equivalent to filter(...), filter(..., inverse=True), but slightly more efficient.

equinox.combine(*pytrees)

Every element of pytrees must be a PyTree of the same structure. The return value is also a PyTree of the same structure. Each leaf will be the first non-None leaf found in the corresponding leaves of pytrees, as they are iterated over. The intention is that this be used to undo a call to equinox.filter or equinox.partition.

Filtered transformations

It's very common to need to filter just to handle JAX transformations. Equinox provides the following convenience wrappers.
They're not designed to handle every edge case -- they're just a way to streamline the common cases. Use separate equinox.filter+jax.jit etc. if you need finer control.

equinox.filter_jit(fun, *, filter_spec=is_array, **kwargs)

Wraps jax.jit.

• fun is a pure function to JIT compile.
• filter_spec is a PyTree whose structure should be a prefix of the structure of the inputs to fun. Each of its leaves should either be True, False, or a callable Leaf -> bool. It behaves exactly as the filter_spec argument to equinox.filter. Truthy values will be traced; falsey values will be held static. Specifically, if calling fun(*args, **kwargs), then filter_spec must have a structure which is a prefix for (args, kwargs).
• **kwargs are any other arguments to jax.jit.

An important special case is to pass a function as filter_spec, which will be applied to every leaf of every input. For example, equinox.filter_jit(fun, equinox.is_array).

See also equinox.is_array, which is the default choice of filter_spec. This will trace every JAX array, and make every other argument static.

equinox.filter_grad(fun, *, filter_spec=is_inexact_array, **kwargs)

Wraps jax.grad.

• fun is a pure function to differentiate.
• filter_spec is a PyTree whose structure should be a prefix of the structure of the first input to fun. Each of its leaves should either be True, False, or a callable Leaf -> bool. It behaves exactly as the filter_spec argument to equinox.filter. Truthy values will be differentiated; falsey values will not. Specifically, if calling fun(x, *args, **kwargs), then filter_spec must have a structure which is a prefix for the structure of x.
• **kwargs are any other arguments to jax.grad.

An important special case is to pass a function as filter_spec, which will be applied to every leaf of the first input. For example, equinox.filter_grad(fun, equinox.is_inexact_array).

See also equinox.is_inexact_array, which is the default choice of filter_spec. This will differentiate all floating-point JAX arrays.

Note that as the returned gradients must have the same structure as the inputs, then all nondifferentiable components of the input PyTree will have gradient None. See equinox.apply_updates for a convenience to only apply non-None updates.

equinox.filter_value_and_grad(fun, *, filter_spec=is_inexact_array, **kwargs)

Wraps jax.value_and_grad. Arguments are as equinox.filter_grad.

Filters

Any function Any -> bool can be used as a filter. We provide some convenient common choices.

equinox.is_array(element)

Returns True if element is a JAX array (not but a NumPy array).

equinox.is_array_like(element)

Returns True if element is a JAX array, NumPy array, or a Python float/int/bool/complex.

equinox.is_inexact_array(element)

Returns True if element is a floating point JAX array (but not a NumPy array).

equinox.is_inexact_array_like(element)

Returns True if element is a floating point JAX array, floating point NumPy array, or a Python float or complex.

Utilities

equinox.apply_updates(model, updates)

Performs a training update to a model.

• model must be a PyTree;
• updates must be a PyTree with the same structure.

It essentially performs jax.tree_map(lambda m, u: m + u, model, updates) (or optax.apply_upates(model, updates)). However anywhere updates is None then no update is made at all, so as to handle nondifferentiable parts of model.

The returned value is the updated model. (model is not mutated in place, as is usual in JAX and functional programming.)

To produce updates, it is typical to take the gradients from the loss function, and then adjust them according to any standard optimiser; for example Optax provides optax.sgd or optax.adam.

equinox.static_field(**kwargs)

This is a relatively advanced feature. Use it to mark one of the fields of a Module as being "static": that is, never differentiated, and always a static_argnum to JIT. Best used only if you control whatever will be assigned to that field. For example equinox.nn.MLP does not use this for its activation function, as in principle a learnt activation function could be passed.

Example:

class MyModule(equinox.Module):
    value: list = equinox.static_field()

If any **kwargs are passed, then they will be forwarded on to dataclasses.field. (Recall that Equinox uses dataclasses as its modules, so general dataclasses behaviour should work as normal.)

equinox.tree_at(where, pytree, replace=_sentinel, replace_fn=_sentinel)

Modifies an existing tree, and returns the modified tree. (Like .at for "in place modifications" of JAX arrays.)

• where is a callable PyTree -> Leaf or PyTree -> Tuple[Leaf, ...]. It should consume a PyTree of the same shape as pytree, and return the leaf or leaves that should be replaced. For example where=lambda mlp: mlp.layers[-1].linear.weight.
• pytree is the existing PyTree to modify.
• replace should either be a single element, or a tuple of the same length as returned by where. This specifies the replacements to make at the locations specified by where. Mutually exclusive with replace_fn.
• replace_fn should be a function Leaf -> Any. It will be called on every leaf replaced using where. The return value from replace_fn will be used in its place. Mutually exclusive with replace.

For example this can be used to help specify the weights of a model to train or not train:

trainable = jax.tree_map(lambda _: False, model)
trainable = equinox.tree_at(lambda mlp: mlp.layers[-1].linear.weight, model, replace=True)
equinox.filter_grad(..., filter_spec=trainable)

equinox.tree_equal(*pytrees)

Returns True if all PyTrees in the list are equal. All arrays must have the same shape, dtype, and values. JAX arrays and NumPy arrays are not considered equal.

Neural network library

Equinox includes a small neural network library, mostly as a tech demo for how the rest of the library can be used. Its API is broadly modelled after PyTorch.

equinox.nn.Linear(in_features, out_features, use_bias=True, *, key)(input)
equinox.nn.Identity(*args, **kwargs)(input)  # args and kwargs are ignored
equinox.nn.Dropout(p=0.5, deterministic=False)(input, *, key=None, deterministic=None)
equinox.nn.GRUCell(input_size, hidden_size, use_bias=True, *, key)(input, hidden)
equinox.nn.LSTMCell(input_size, hidden_size, use_bias=True, *, key)(input, hidden)
equinox.nn.Sequential(layers)(input, *, key=None)
equinox.nn.MLP(in_size, out_size, width_size, depth,
               activation=jax.nn.relu, final_activation=lambda x: x, *, key)(input)

These all behave in the way you expect. The key arguments are used to generate the random initial weights, or to generate randomness on the forward pass of stochastic layers like Dropout.

The Dropout(deterministic=...)(deterministic=...) options determines whether to have the layer act as the identity function, as is commonly done with dropout during inference time. The call-time deterministic takes precendence if it passed; otherwise the init-time deterministic is used. (Note that because models are PyTrees, you can modify the init-time deterministic flag using equinox.tree_at. This is perfectly fine, and might be handy if it's easier than using the call-time flag.)

The MLP(final_activation=...) option determines any final activation function to apply after the last layer. (In some cases it is desirable for this to be different to the activation used in the main part of the network.)