skclust 2026.6.17

A comprehensive clustering toolkit with advanced tree cutting and visualization

skclust

A comprehensive clustering toolkit with hierarchical clustering, k-nearest neighbors, and consensus network analysis.

Features

• Scikit-learn compatible API for seamless integration
• Hierarchical clustering with multiple linkage methods and tree cutting strategies
• K-nearest neighbors with cosine similarity using FAISS or sklearn backends
• Consensus Leiden clustering with parallel execution and edge co-occurrence analysis
• Cluster validation metrics for continuous and binary features
• FAISS-based kNN classifiers and transformers via DESlib integration
• Rich visualizations with dendrograms and metadata tracks
• Distance matrix utilities for kNN graph construction and conversion

Installation

pip install skclust

Optional Dependencies

# For enhanced hierarchical clustering
pip install dynamicTreeCut fastcluster skbio

# For visualization
pip install matplotlib seaborn

# For Leiden clustering
pip install leidenalg igraph

# For fast k-NN with large datasets 
pip install faiss-cpu  # or faiss-gpu (Python < 3.13)

# For FAISS-based kNN classifier/transformer (via DESlib)
pip install deslib

# For ensemble network analysis
pip install ensemble-networkx

Quick Start

Hierarchical Clustering

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from sklearn.datasets import make_blobs
from skclust.hierarchical import HierarchicalClustering

# Generate sample data
X, y = make_blobs(n_samples=100, centers=4, random_state=42)
X_df = pd.DataFrame(X, columns=['feature_1', 'feature_2'])

# Perform hierarchical clustering with dynamic tree cutting
hc = HierarchicalClustering(
    method='ward',
    cut_method='dynamic',
    min_cluster_size=5,
    cluster_prefix='C'
)

# Fit and get cluster labels
labels = hc.fit_transform(X_df)
print(f"Found {hc.n_clusters_} clusters")

# Plot dendrogram with clusters
fig, axes = hc.plot(figsize=(12, 6), show_clusters=True)

Output: Cluster labels as numpy array (e.g., ['C1', 'C1', 'C2', ...]) with hc.n_clusters_ indicating the number of clusters found.

Consensus Leiden Clustering

import igraph as ig
from skclust.graph import ConsensusLeidenClustering

# Create graph
graph = ig.Graph.Famous('Zachary')
graph.vs['name'] = [f'node_{i}' for i in range(graph.vcount())]

# Run consensus clustering with 100 iterations in parallel
leiden = ConsensusLeidenClustering(
    n_iter=100,
    resolution_parameter=1.0,
    consensus_threshold=1.0,
    minimum_cluster_size=3,
    n_jobs=-1,
    random_state=42
)

labels = leiden.fit_transform(graph)
print(f"Found {leiden.n_clusters_} clusters")
print(f"Consensus edges: {leiden.consensus_graph_.ecount()}")
print(f"Modularity (filtered): {leiden.modularity_['filtered']:.3f}")

Output: Returns pandas Series with cluster labels indexed by node names. The consensus_graph_ contains only edges where nodes consistently clustered together across all iterations. Nodes in clusters smaller than minimum_cluster_size are available via discarded_nodes_.

K-Nearest Neighbors with Cosine Similarity

import numpy as np
from skclust.neighbors import KNeighborsCosineSimilarity

# L2-normalized embeddings (required for cosine similarity)
embeddings = np.random.randn(1000, 128).astype(np.float32)
embeddings = embeddings / np.linalg.norm(embeddings, axis=1, keepdims=True)

# Exact search
knn = KNeighborsCosineSimilarity(n_neighbors=10, mode='exact')
similarities, indices = knn.fit_transform(embeddings)

# Convert to igraph for network analysis
graph = knn.to_igraph(include_self=False)

Output: similarities is shape (n_samples, k) with cosine similarity values (higher = more similar). indices contains the neighbor indices for each sample.

Module Overview

skclust.hierarchical

HierarchicalClustering

Hierarchical clustering with multiple linkage methods and tree cutting strategies.

Key Parameters:

• method: Linkage method ('ward', 'complete', 'average', 'single')
• cut_method: Tree cutting strategy ('dynamic', 'height', 'maxclust')
• min_cluster_size: Minimum cluster size for dynamic cutting
• cluster_prefix: String prefix for cluster labels (e.g., "C" produces "C1", "C2")

Key Methods:

• fit(X): Fit clustering to data (accepts arrays or DataFrames)
• transform(): Return cluster labels
• add_track(name, data, track_type): Add metadata for visualization
• plot(): Generate dendrogram with optional tracks and cluster colors
• summary(): Print clustering statistics

Attributes:

• labels_: Cluster assignments for each sample
• n_clusters_: Number of clusters found
• linkage_matrix_: Scipy linkage matrix
• dendrogram_: Dendrogram data structure

skclust.graph

ConsensusLeidenClustering

Runs Leiden clustering multiple times with different random seeds, computes edge consensus ratios, and builds a consensus graph from edges meeting the threshold. Final labels come from connected components, optionally filtered by minimum cluster size.

Key Parameters:

• n_iter: Number of Leiden iterations (default: 100)
• resolution_parameter: Controls cluster size (1.0 = modularity, >1.0 = smaller clusters)
• consensus_threshold: Minimum consensus ratio for edges (default: 1.0, i.e. 100% agreement)
• minimum_cluster_size: Clusters smaller than this are removed from labels_ (default: 1)
• weight: Edge weight attribute name (default: None for unweighted)
• n_jobs: Number of parallel processes (-1 = use all CPUs)
• cluster_prefix: String prefix for cluster labels (default: "leiden_")
• verbose: Verbosity level 0-3 (0=silent, 1=progress bars, 2=stage info, 3=detailed timing)

Key Methods:

• fit(graph): Fit on igraph.Graph with named vertices
• transform(graph): Return cluster labels as pandas Series
• get_membership_matrix(): Return membership matrix as a pandas DataFrame with SparseDtype

Attributes:

• labels_: Cluster labels for nodes in qualifying clusters (pd.Series)
• n_clusters_: Number of clusters meeting minimum_cluster_size
• partitions_: Node assignments for each iteration (DataFrame)
• membership_matrix_: Sparse boolean edge co-membership matrix (scipy.sparse.csr_matrix)
• consensus_ratio_: Proportion of iterations each edge had consistent membership (pd.Series)
• consensus_edges_: Edge pairs meeting consensus_threshold (pd.Index)
• consensus_graph_: Subgraph with only consensus edges, pruned to qualifying clusters
• consensus_graph_discarded_: Consensus edges for small clusters that were filtered out
• filtered_graph_: Original edge structure induced on nodes in qualifying clusters
• modularity_: Modularity scores for initial, consensus, and filtered graphs (pd.Series)
• summary_: Comprehensive summary with graph sizes, consensus metrics, and modularity
• unstable_nodes_: Nodes with no consensus edges across iterations
• discarded_nodes_: Nodes in stable but too-small clusters

leiden_stability(consensus_ratio)

Computes comprehensive stability metrics from consensus ratio values.

cluster_membership_cooccurrence(df)

Compute edge-wise cluster co-occurrence across iterations.

Parameters:

• df: DataFrame where rows are nodes and columns are iterations

Returns: Sparse boolean matrix showing whether each node pair shared cluster membership in each iteration.

skclust.neighbors

KNeighborsCosineSimilarity

K-nearest neighbors using cosine similarity with FAISS or sklearn backend.

Key Parameters:

• n_neighbors: Number of neighbors to find
• mode: Search strategy ('exact', 'ivf', 'pq')
• backend: Library to use ('auto', 'faiss', 'sklearn')

Key Methods:

• fit(X): Fit on L2-normalized embeddings
• transform(X): Return (similarities, indices) for query vectors
• to_igraph(): Convert to directed igraph

Attributes:

• similarities_: Cosine similarities to k nearest neighbors
• indices_: Indices of k nearest neighbors

FaissKNNClassifier

Sklearn-compatible kNN classifier using FAISS via DESlib. Supports exact (brute), Voronoi (IVF), and hierarchical (HNSW) search algorithms.

Key Parameters:

• n_neighbors: Number of neighbors (default: 5)
• algorithm: Search strategy ('brute', 'voronoi', 'hierarchical')
• n_jobs: Number of parallel jobs

Key Methods:

• fit(X, y): Fit classifier
• predict(X): Predict class labels via majority vote
• kneighbors(X): Return (distances, indices) of k nearest neighbors

FaissKNNTransformer

Sklearn-compatible kNN transformer using FAISS via DESlib. Outputs a sparse distance matrix matching sklearn's KNeighborsTransformer interface.

Key Parameters:

• n_neighbors: Number of neighbors (default: 5)
• algorithm: Search strategy ('brute', 'voronoi', 'hierarchical')

Key Methods:

• fit(X): Fit transformer
• transform(X): Return sparse csr_matrix of L2 distances to k nearest neighbors

Utility Functions:

• kneighbors_graph_from_transformer(): Build kNN graph from any KNeighborsTransformer
• brute_force_kneighbors_graph_from_rectangular_distance(): Build kNN graph from distance matrix
• pairwise_distances_kneighbors(): Compute full or sparse pairwise distances
• convert_distance_matrix_to_kneighbors_matrix(): Convert dense distance matrix to sparse kNN matrix
• kneighbors_to_igraph(): Convert kNN results to igraph
• kneighbors_classification_assignment_score(): Compute assignment quality metrics (ambiguity detection) for kNN classification

skclust.metrics

Cluster validation metrics for evaluating cluster quality.

Continuous Features:

• cv_score(X, labels): Coefficient of variation within each cluster (lower = more compact)
• eta_squared_score(X, labels): Eta-squared (η²), ratio of between-cluster variance to total variance (higher = more separated)

Binary Features:

• entropy_score(X, labels): Shannon entropy within each cluster (lower = more consistent)
• cramers_v_score(X, labels): Cramér's V association between cluster membership and feature values (higher = more separated)

Advanced Usage

Adding Metadata Tracks to Dendrograms

# Add continuous metadata
sample_scores = pd.Series(np.random.randn(100), index=X_df.index)
hc.add_track('Quality Score', sample_scores, track_type='continuous')

# Add categorical metadata
sample_groups = pd.Series(['A', 'B', 'C'] * 34, index=X_df.index[:100])
hc.add_track('Group', sample_groups, track_type='categorical')

# Plot with all tracks
fig, axes = hc.plot(show_tracks=True, figsize=(12, 10))

Output: Multi-panel plot with dendrogram on top, followed by cluster assignments and metadata tracks below, all aligned to the same sample order.

Custom Tree Cutting

# Cut by height threshold
hc_height = HierarchicalClustering(
    method='ward',
    cut_method='height',
    cut_threshold=50.0
)
labels = hc_height.fit_transform(X_df)

# Force specific number of clusters
hc_maxclust = HierarchicalClustering(
    method='complete',
    cut_method='maxclust',
    cut_threshold=5
)
labels = hc_maxclust.fit_transform(X_df)

Output: cut_method='height' cuts tree at specified distance threshold. cut_method='maxclust' produces exactly the specified number of clusters.

Using Distance Matrices

from scipy.spatial.distance import pdist, squareform

# Compute custom distance matrix
distances = pdist(X_df, metric='cosine')
distance_matrix = pd.DataFrame(
    squareform(distances),
    index=X_df.index,
    columns=X_df.index
)

# Cluster using precomputed distances
hc = HierarchicalClustering(method='average')
labels = hc.fit_transform(distance_matrix)

Output: Works identically to feature-based clustering but uses pre-computed distances. Useful for custom metrics.

Approximate k-NN with FAISS

# For large datasets, use approximate search
knn_ivf = KNeighborsCosineSimilarity(
    n_neighbors=50,
    mode='ivf',
    n_voronoi_cells='auto',
    n_probes=4
)
similarities, indices = knn_ivf.fit_transform(embeddings)

# Product quantization for memory efficiency
knn_pq = KNeighborsCosineSimilarity(
    n_neighbors=50,
    mode='pq',
    n_subvectors=16,
    n_bits=8
)
similarities, indices = knn_pq.fit_transform(embeddings)

Output: Faster but approximate nearest neighbor search. IVF uses inverted file index, PQ uses compressed representations. Trade accuracy for speed on large datasets.

Author

Josh L. Espinoza

License

Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Original Implementation

The hierarchical clustering implementation is based on the Soothsayer framework:

Espinoza JL, Dupont CL, O'Rourke A, Beyhan S, Morales P, et al. (2021) Predicting antimicrobial mechanism-of-action from transcriptomes: A generalizable explainable artificial intelligence approach. PLOS Computational Biology 17(3): e1008857. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008857

Citation

If you use this package in your research, please cite:

@article{espinoza2021predicting,
  title={Predicting antimicrobial mechanism-of-action from transcriptomes: A generalizable explainable artificial intelligence approach},
  author={Espinoza, Josh L and Dupont, Chris L and O'Rourke, Aubrie and Beyhan, Seherzada and Morales, Paula and others},
  journal={PLOS Computational Biology},
  volume={17},
  number={3},
  pages={e1008857},
  year={2021},
  publisher={Public Library of Science San Francisco, CA USA},
  doi={10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008857},
  url={https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008857}
}