privateer-elements-sdk 2026.1.15

A software development kit for developing projects on Elements

Elements SDK

Description

The Elements Platform is a collection of tools to analyze sensor data over space and time. The Elements SDK (software development kit) is a Python package that simplifies users' interaction with the Elements Platform API.

Installation

Readme: Installation

Usage

The Elements SDK is designed to simplify access to all the elements-api calls that are available. Ensure that you have the correct elements-api package installed.

Each API uses a client object which requires the following env variables to be set:

ELEMENTS_HOST=https://terrascope-app.orbitalinsight.com/
ELEMENTS_TOKEN=<Elements API Token>
ELEMENTS_TIMEOUT=<Int timeout in seconds> defaults to 60 seconds

You will always want to ensure that you have the correct elements-sdk version installed. The latest can be found here: https://pypi.org/project/elements-sdk/

To manually build a local version of the elements-sdk (for example, if you are making changes and want to test):

1. Update the version specified in the pyproject.toml file, e.g. version = "1.0.6.1" (must be pep440)
2. Execute from the top-level elements_sdk folder: python3 -m build. If you don't have the build package run pip3 install build
3. cd dist/
4. pip3 install elements_sdk-1.0.6-test-py3-none-any.whl (this file name may be different based on the version specified)

CLI Usage

Installation

1. Pip install elements-sdk

$ pip install elements-sdk

If you're a developer working on the CLI itself, you may want to add [extras] in the installation. This will include aditional packages which are used for building and testing the command line tool:

$ pip install 'elements-sdk[extras]'

2. Set some environment variables (here stashed in a 'source.sh' file).

$ cat source.sh
export ELEMENTS_HOST=api-papi.qa3.orbitalinsight.io
export ELEMENTS_AUTHOR=[e-mail]
export ELEMENTS_ADMIN_TOKEN=<YOUR ADMIN TOKEN>
export ELEMENTS_TOKEN=<YOUR USER TOKEN>

$ source source.sh

Basic usage

The executible is installed as the ts command. There is a old unix 'ts' command, but it's rarely used by most developers and hopefully this choice does not create any serious problems with naming conflicts.

The 'ts' command mirrors the overall structure of Elements itself. The command tree is heirarchical, with groupings of commands. The --help command shows the layout:

$ ts --help
Usage: ts [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Command Super-Groups:
  algorithm  'algorithm' super-group
  analysis   'analysis' super-group
  data       'data' super group

Command Groups:
  aoi            'aoi' command group
  credit         'credit' command group
  environment    'environment' command group
  imagery        'imagery' command group
  manifest       'manifest' command group
  permission     'permission' command group
  tasks          'tasks' command group
  toi            'toi' command group
  visualization  'visualization' command group

Any command can be used with a abbreviated for, as long as it's unique. So, ts algo is fine to avoid typing ts algorithm, but ts a cannot be disambiguated from ts analysis or ts aoi commands.

Help is also available for each specific command, e.g. for the algorithm command:

$ ts algo --help
Usage: ts.py algo [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  'algorithm' super-group

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Command Groups:
  computation  Algorithm 'computation' command group
  config       Algorithm 'config' command group
  version      Algorithm 'version' command group

Commands:
  create    Create an algorithm object (no manifest)
  get       Get algorithm info
  register  Create an algorithm, and register it.
  update    Update an existing algorithm with manifest or pricing.

Each specific subcommand also has help, e.g. the ts algo get subcommand:

$ ts alg get --help
Usage: ts.py algo get [OPTIONS]

  Get algorithm info

Options:
  -ia, --algorithm_id TEXT
  -n, --algorithm_name TEXT
  -t, --truncate INTEGER     Truncate columns to this many characters.  Use 0
                             for no truncation.  (36 is the length of a full
                             UUID).
  -v, --verbose
  --help                     Show this message and exit.

Full Command Listing

Here is the overall command tree, with comments when it's not self-evident/obvious:

ts
`- algorithm           # commands related to TS algorithms
  |--> create          #
  |--> get             #
  |--> register        # create an algorithm, algorithm_version, and (optionally) algorithm_config
  |--> update          # update an existing algorithm by creating a new algo version and (optionally) algo config
  `- computation       # commands related to TS algorithm computations
     |--> create       #
     |--> download     #
     |--> get          #
     `--> run          #
  `- config            # commands related to TS algorithm configs
     |--> create       #
     |--> deactivate   # deactivate (but not delete) a config
     `--> get          #
  `- version           # commands related to TS algorithm versions
     |--> create       #
     |--> deactivate   #
     `--> get          # get algorithm version info (including the manifest)
`- analysis            # commands related to TS analyses
  |--> create          #
  |--> display         # A sort of 'get'++ command that lists each analysis, +versions, +configs and any computations
  |--> get             #
  |--> register        # create an analysis, analysis_version, and (optionally) an analysis_config
  |--> update          # update an existing analysis by creating a new analysis_version, and config
  `- computation       # commands related to TS analysis computations
     |--> create       #
     |--> download     #
     |--> get          #
     `--> run          #
  `- config            # commands related to TS analysis configs
     |--> create       #
     |--> deactivate   #
     `--> get          #
   ` version           # commands related to TS analysis versions
     |--> create       #
     `--> get          # get analysis version info (including the analysis manifest)
`- data                # commands related to TS data types and sources
  `- source            # TS data sources
     | --> get         #
     ` --> list        # list all available data sources
  `- type              # TS data types
     | --> get         #
     ` --> list        # list all available data types
`- aoi                 #
  |--> create          #
  |--> delete          #
  |--> get             #
  |--> list            #
  `--> update          #
`- tasks               # IMPORTANT - tasks commands live here
  |- initialize        # register an algo + analysis ... soup to nuts.
   ` update            # update an algo + analysis ... end to end.
`- environment         #
  `--> check           # verify the environment
`- imagery             #
  `--> search          # search the scenes (ingested) or catalog (orderable) for available images of an AOI/TOI
`- permission          #
  |--> get             # list users with READ permission on analysis
  `--> set             # set READ permission for an algorithm analysis with another user (i.e. share it)
`- credit              #
  |--> get             # get credit price for analysis (not yet working)
  `--> set             # set the credit pricing for an analysis
`- toi                 #
  |--> create          #
  |--> delete          #
  `--> get             #
`- visualization       #
  |--> create          #
  `--> get             #

General Command Patterns

The commands generally try to use the same options for the same types of inputs. For example, IDs like algorithm_id or analysis_config_id, will start with 'i' and then a character to denote type of ID ... e.g. -ia <algorithm_id>, or -iv <algorithm_version_id>. For things associated with algorithms, the second character will be lower case, and for things associated with analysis, the second character will be upper case.

Here are the main ones that usually follow the rules:

-i   - IDs

-ia  - algorithm_id
-iv  - algorithm_version_id
-ic  - algorithm_config_id
-ip  - algorithm_computation_id

-iA  - anlaysis_id
-iV  - analysis_version_id
-iC  - analysis_config_id
-iP  - analysis_computation_id

-n   - names

-na  - algorithm_name
-nc  - algorithm_config_name
-nA  - analysis_name
-nC  - analysis_config_name

The Most Frequently Used Commands

The ts CLI allows you to perform pretty surgical operations in Elements, and most of the commands do very specialized things which you won't usually need. For common tasks, there are tasks commands to carry out things that would normally take many commands. For example, in order to register a new algorithm and create an analysis to run it through the Elements UI, you normally use the following commands (specific options are not shown here):

$ ts algo create
$ ts algo version create
$ ts algo config create
$ ts analysis create
$ ts analysis version create
$ ts analysis config create

All of these commands are bundled together in the ts tasks init command. If you require surgical control of algorithm registration, you have it. But generally, the tasks commands will probably suit most needs.

Get algorithm info

$ ts alg get -na hlnorm
                 name                          algorithm_id                    author
0  hlnorm_foottraffic  deadbeef-5c5a-48d9-b65a-3748ebf9bb8e  [e-mail]

Look up Data Source and Data Type

This is useful when preparing a manifest to register an algorithm. Data sources and types must be among those supported by elements. To get a listing of the current set, do this:

$ ts data source list

$ ts data type list

Create a New Algorithm + Analysis

To put in a new algorithm and analysis, you have to create a manifest, and then you can submit it with:

$ ts tasks init -m <manifest_yaml> -nC <analysis_config_name (appears in UI)>

That will create the algorithm, algorithm_version, algorithm_config, analysis, analysis_version, and analysis_config.

Update an Algorithm + Analysis

$ ts tasks update -m <manifest_yaml> -nC <analysis_config_name> -ia <algo_id> -iA <analysis_id> -V <new version>

Share an analysis with another user

$ ts perm set -iC <analysis_config_id> -u <username1> <username2> ...

Finding IDs

Elements uses UUIDs to identify pretty much everything, and you often need to get these in order to carry out certain operations. Here are some of the most useful:

Dump IDs for an Analysis

This is a heirarchical dump of any analyses matching <search_string>, and their analysis_versions, analysis_configs, and any computations (there are options to filter the computations by date if there are too many).

$ ts analysis display -nA <analysis_name_search_string>

Look up algorithm_id for an Analysis

Do find out info about an algorithm node in an analysis, query the analysis version with -C all (get all available columns), and -T (transpose ... so the output is readable). The algorithm info is buried in the printout.

ts ana version get -iV <analysis_version_id> -C all -T

Testing an Algorithm

Checking for available imagery

In the examples:

• -S <shapefile> contains the AOI you wish to find imagery for
• -ia <aoi_id> refers to the id of an AOI in the provided shapefile (aois.geojson here).
• -d specifies the data source,
• -p specifies the 'processing spec' (not queryable through the API, you just have to know it).
• -ts <start_time>
• -te <end_time>
• -s <search_service> can be either 'SCENE' (already ingested images) or 'CATALOG' (available to order)

$ ts image search -S aois.geojson -ia <aoi_id> -ts 2023-01-08 -te 2023-01-31 -d planet_PSSceneSD -p PL-PSSceneSR -s CATALOG

Create and Run an algorithm computation

(-f 3 means 'daily')

$ ts comp create -iC <algo_config_id> -s 2022-01-01 -e 2022-01-07 -a ./myaois.geojson -f 3

The above example to create a computation will print out a computation_id. Use it to run:

$ ts comp run -ip <comp_id>

Get info about the computation

$ ts comp get -ip <computation_id>

ecb494a3-e0e1-4c7b-804b-af45067816ba
id                   ecb494a3-e0e1-4c7b-804b-af45067816ba
aoi_collection_id    58111acf-50d8-4079-a562-6a98badd75da
algo_config_id       6b995056-dd72-494f-b7ce-abf27422d6f1
toi_id               aafe2b93-8f80-4cf8-994b-97ab43d346ec
submitted_on         2023-03-24T03:52:01.245849Z
state                COMPLETE
last_execution       2023-03-24T03:59:02.243957Z
progress.succeeded   100.0

Download computation results

$ ts algo comp download -ip <computation_id> -o test_result.zip

New Module Functions

• The async functions that make the calls to the SDK live in elements/cli/lib/workflow.py
• Most are short and sweet. Feel free to add what you need.

Authors and acknowledgment

Orbital Insight

License

LICENSE