modeltest

If you test your code, why not your model?

modeltest is a unit-testing framework for machine learning models. It lets you define contracts for model quality, robustness, fairness, and data invariants, and run them automatically in your CI/CD pipeline — just like pytest for code.

Quick start

from modeltest import ModelSuite
from modeltest.scenarios import MinimumAccuracyTest, GroupPerformanceTest

suite = ModelSuite(name="Fraud Detection")
suite.add_test(MinimumAccuracyTest(threshold=0.85))
suite.add_test(GroupPerformanceTest(metric="accuracy", threshold=0.8, group_col="gender"))

result = suite.run(model, X_val, y_val, model_name="fraud_rf")
print(result.report(style="table"))

CLI

After training, validate a model contract from the command line:

# Declarative suite (recommended)
modeltest validate \
  --suite suite.yaml \
  --model model.pkl \
  --data validation.csv \
  --target target \
  --train-data train.csv \
  --output report.xml

# Python suite (suite.py exposing `suite`)
modeltest validate --suite suite.py --model model.pkl --data validation.csv --target target

Extras:

• --output report.xml writes JUnit XML for CI reporters.
• --train-data enables the drift tests (they compare train vs. validation distributions).
• Exit code is 1 if any test fails, 0 otherwise.

Prediction caching

Within a single suite.run(...), predictions are computed once and reused across every test. TestContext.predict() caches by a content hash of the input, so tests predicting on the same data (MinimumAccuracyTest, GroupPerformanceTest, the fairness tests, ...) each reuse the result instead of re-running the model. Perturbed inputs (e.g. the robustness test's noisy copy) get their own cache entry, so caching never compromises correctness.

Disable it if you need a fresh prediction every call:

ctx = TestContext(model=model, X_val=X_val, y_val=y_val, cache_predictions=False)

YAML suites

Define your contract declaratively — no code needed:

suite:
  name: "Credit Scoring Model"
  tests:
    - type: minimum_accuracy
      params: {threshold: 0.85}
    - type: group_performance
      params: {metric: accuracy, threshold: 0.8, group_col: "gender"}
    - type: robustness
      params: {noise_std: 0.01, max_drop: 0.03}
    - type: data_drift
      params: {features: [age, income], max_psi: 0.15}
    - type: equal_opportunity
      params: {protected: "gender", max_diff: 0.1}
    - type: statistical_parity
      params: {protected: "gender", max_diff: 0.1, min_ratio: 0.8}
    - type: data_invariant
      params: {expected_columns: [age, income], max_null_ratio: 0.02}

Multi-framework support

TestContext talks to models through a small adapter interface (modeltest.wrappers). Out of the box it normalizes:

• scikit-learn estimators (predict, and predict_proba when available)
• PyTorch nn.Module (predict = argmax over logits, predict_proba = softmax)
• Keras / TensorFlow models (binary threshold or multiclass argmax)

Pass any of these straight to suite.run(model, ...); the right adapter is picked automatically. Custom framework? Implement a ModelWrapper subclass and pass an instance as the model.

scikit-learn Pipelines (feature engineering + model) work out of the box: the suite predicts through the whole pipeline, model_features filters validation data to the pipeline's raw input columns, and the SHAP-based explainability tests explain the final estimator against the engineered features (e.g. num__age, cat__cat_a).

Built-in test types

Explainability tests use SHAP. Install with pip install modeltest[explain] (or modeltest's explain extra). You can also pass your own explainer callable to any explainability test.

Custom tests

Any class subclassing ModelTest can be referenced from a YAML suite directly, by dotted import path — no registration required:

suite:
  name: "Income Model"
  tests:
    - type: minimum_accuracy
      params: {threshold: 0.85}
    - type: myproject.custom_tests:ZeroPredictionShareTest
      params: {min_positive_share: 0.01}

Both module.path:Class and module.path.Class work. The module is looked up on the import path (your current working directory is added automatically). Programmatic registration is also available for short, friendlier names:

from modeltest import register
register("zero_share", ZeroPredictionShareTest)
# ...now use `type: zero_share` in YAML

MLflow integration

Log a finished validation run into MLflow as an experiment run — one param per test, one metric per numeric value, and the full JSON report saved as an artifact.

pip install modeltest[mlflow]

import mlflow
from modeltest import ModelSuite
from modeltest.integrations.mlflow import log_suite_result
from modeltest.scenarios import MinimumAccuracyTest

suite = ModelSuite(name="fraud-v2")
suite.add_test(MinimumAccuracyTest(threshold=0.85))
result = suite.run(model, X_val, y_val)

with mlflow.start_run():
    log_suite_result(result)

log_suite_result also supports a run_id parameter for logging into a specific (possibly already-finished) run, plus optional param_prefix / metric_prefix to namespace the logged names.

Development

Install dev tools and run the quality gates:

make install          # pip install -e ".[dev]"
make lint             # ruff check
make format           # ruff format
make test             # pytest (with 80% coverage gate)
make precommit        # install git pre-commit hooks (lint+format)

Continuous integration mirrors these gates: lint, dist-check (build + twine check), test-library (with coverage) and validate-model all run on every push / PR (.github/workflows/validate.yml).

CI/CD

A ready-to-use GitHub Actions workflow runs the library's own tests and validates your model contract on every push / PR. It publishes both reports (as JUnit) and fails the pipeline if the model doesn't meet its contract.

The model job trains a sample model and validates it:

modeltest validate --suite examples/suite.yaml --model examples/model.pkl \
  --data examples/validation.csv --target target --train-data examples/train.csv

To point it at your real artifacts, update the validate-model job's run step paths.