paramflow 0.6.1

A lightweight library for hyperparameter and configuration management

paramflow

ParamFlow is a lightweight library for layered configuration management, tailored for machine learning projects and any application that needs to merge parameters from multiple sources. It merges files, environment variables, and CLI arguments in a defined order, activates named profiles, and returns a read-only, attribute-accessible dictionary.

Requires Python 3.11+

Design philosophy

ParamFlow is intentionally minimalist. You define parameters once in a config file — no schemas, no type annotations, no boilerplate. Types are inferred from the values in the config file and automatically applied when overriding via environment variables or CLI arguments. The goal is to keep configuration code as small as possible: one pf.load() call is all you need.

Features

• Layered configuration: Merge parameters from files, environment variables, and CLI arguments in a defined order.
• Profile support: Manage multiple named parameter sets; activate one at runtime.
• Immutable result: Parameters are returned as a frozen, attribute-accessible dictionary.
• Schema-free type inference: Types come from the config file values — no annotations required.
• Auto-generated CLI parser: Every parameter becomes a --flag automatically, with types and defaults inferred from the config.
• Layered meta-parameters: paramflow configures itself (sources, profile, prefixes) using the same layered approach.
• Nested configuration: Deep-merges nested dicts and same-length lists across layers.

Installation

pip install paramflow

With .env file support:

pip install "paramflow[dotenv]"

Supported formats

Format	Extension	Notes
TOML	.toml	Recommended; native types
YAML	.yaml	Requires pyyaml
JSON	.json
INI	.ini	All values are strings; rely on type conversion
dotenv	.env	Requires paramflow[dotenv]; filtered by prefix

Basic usage

params.toml

[default]
learning_rate = 0.001
batch_size = 64
debug = true

app.py

import paramflow as pf

params = pf.load('params.toml')
print(params.learning_rate)  # 0.001
print(params.batch_size)     # 64

Run with --help to see all parameters and meta-parameters:

python app.py --help

Parameter layering

Parameters are merged in the order sources are listed. Later sources override earlier ones. By default, env and args are appended automatically:

params.toml  →  env vars  →  CLI args

You can pass multiple files — each layer overrides keys from the previous:

params = pf.load('base.toml', 'overrides.toml')

To control the order explicitly, pass all sources as positional arguments ('env' and 'args' are reserved names for environment variables and CLI arguments respectively):

params = pf.load('params.toml', 'env', 'overrides.env', 'args')

To disable auto-appending of env or args sources, pass None:

params = pf.load('params.toml', env_prefix=None, args_prefix=None)

Inline dicts as sources

Plain dicts can be mixed into the source list:

params = pf.load('params.toml', {'debug': False, 'extra_key': 'value'})

Type inference

No type declarations are needed anywhere. The type of each value in the config file is used as the target type when merging from env vars or CLI args. For example, if batch_size = 32 is in the config, then --batch_size 64 from the CLI is automatically converted to int. Booleans, floats, dicts, and lists all work the same way.

Key filtering for env vars and CLI args

Env vars and CLI args only override keys that already exist in the preceding layers. A P_NEW_KEY with no matching key in the config file is silently ignored. This keeps the config file the authoritative schema.

Profiles

Profiles let you define named parameter sets that layer on top of [default].

params.toml

[default]
learning_rate = 0.001
batch_size = 32
debug = true

[prod]
debug = false
batch_size = 128

Activate a profile via CLI:

python app.py --profile prod

Or via environment variable:

P_PROFILE=prod python app.py

Or directly in code:

params = pf.load('params.toml', profile='prod')

Overriding parameters at runtime

Any parameter can be overridden on the command line:

python app.py --profile prod --learning_rate 0.0001 --batch_size 64

Or via environment variable (default prefix P_, uppercased):

P_LEARNING_RATE=0.0001 python app.py

Meta-parameter layering

Meta-parameters control how pf.load reads its own configuration (which sources to load, which profile to activate, what prefixes to use). They follow the same layering order:

1. pf.load(...) keyword arguments
2. Environment variables (default prefix: P_)
3. CLI arguments

This means you can pass a config file path entirely from the command line without hardcoding it:

python app.py --sources params.toml

Or point to a different config via env:

P_SOURCES=prod_params.toml python app.py

Metadata keys

Every result includes two metadata keys:

• __source__: list of all sources that contributed parameters, in merge order
• __profile__: list of activated profiles, e.g. ['default', 'prod']

params = pf.load('params.toml')
print(params.__source__)   # ['params.toml', 'env', 'args']
print(params.__profile__)  # ['default']

Freezing and unfreezing

pf.load returns a ParamsDict — an immutable, attribute-accessible dict. You can freeze/unfreeze manually when needed (e.g. for serialization):

plain = pf.unfreeze(params)   # convert to plain dict/list tree
frozen = pf.freeze(plain)     # convert back to ParamsDict/ParamsList

Accessing a missing key raises AttributeError with the parameter name:

params.nonexistent  # AttributeError: 'ParamsDict' has no param 'nonexistent'

Example: ML hyperparameter profiles

params.toml

[default]
learning_rate = 0.00025
batch_size = 32
optimizer = 'torch.optim.RMSprop'
random_seed = 13

[adam]
learning_rate = 1e-4
optimizer = 'torch.optim.Adam'

python train.py --profile adam --learning_rate 0.0002

Example: environment-based deployment config

params.yaml

default:
  debug: true
  database_url: "mysql://localhost:3306/myapp"

dev:
  database_url: "mysql://dev:3306/myapp"

prod:
  debug: false
  database_url: "mysql://prod:3306/myapp"

export P_PROFILE=prod
python app.py