topicnova (import: topicnova)

topicnova is the PyPI distribution name. Python imports remain topicnova.

topicnova provides:

• Classical models: LDA, BERTopic
• Neural models: configurable VAE and SCHOLAR variants
• Data utilities: dataset loading, tokenization, dataloaders
• Evaluation utilities: coherence and topic diversity

Install

From PyPI (after publish)

pip install topicnova

Local development with uv

uv sync --group dev
uv run python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm

Local-only mode (no wandb)

Set wandb=False (default). In this mode:

• no wandb session is initialized
• no network logging is attempted
• all artifacts stay under your local exp_path

Quickstart

from topicnova.run import run

model, summary = run(
    wandb=False,
    project_name="topic-models",
    wandb_path="./runs",
    dataset_name="20ng",
    data_path="./datasets",
    remove_labels=False,
    tpl=1,
    min_df=30,
    max_df=0.85,
    exp_path="./runs/exp1",
    device="cpu",
    model_name="lda",
    num_topics=20,
    sentence_transformer_name="all-MiniLM-L6-v2",
    doc_emb_dim=384,
    eps=1e-8,
    beta=2.0,
    alpha=0.01,
    batch_size=64,
    lr=1e-3,
    epochs=10,
    random_state=0,
    saved_data=None,
)
print(summary)

Auto mode (minimal input)

You can now call run() with only dataset information. The library will:

• infer preprocessing thresholds (min_df, max_df) from dataset stats
• default to VAE-ECRTM (vae-...-ecrtm-lin-dir_rsvi-etm) and include labels/authors conditioning when metadata is available
• choose defaults for num_topics, epochs, batch_size, lr
• select best device automatically (cuda:0 > mps > cpu) when device is omitted or set to "auto"

from topicnova.run import run

model, summary = run(
    dataset_name="20ng",
    data_path="./datasets",
    exp_path="./runs/auto_20ng",
)

Config-based runs

uv run python experiments/run_from_template.py config/template.yaml

Important config keys:

• dataset_name: e.g. 20ng, ag_news, dbpedia, self, arxiv_cs
• data_path: directory where cached/loaded datasets are stored
• model_name: model selector (examples below)
• num_topics: set to null to infer from labels where applicable
• Performance:
  • amp, compile_model, compile_mode
  • num_workers, pin_memory, persistent_workers, prefetch_factor
  • matmul_precision, cudnn_benchmark
  • early_stopping, early_stopping_patience, early_stopping_min_delta

Hyperparameter tuning (random search)

uv run python experiments/tune_random_search.py config/template.yaml --trials 12 --metric auto

Outputs:

• per-trial logs in <exp_path>/trial_*
• consolidated results in <exp_path>/tuning_results.json

Interactive topic visualization

Option A: generate during training

Set visualize: true in config (or pass visualize=True to run). This writes:

• <exp_path>/topics_interactive.html

If model outputs include authors/labels, the graph links:

• topic -> words
• topic -> authors (author-aware models)
• topic -> labels (SCHOLAR)
• label -> authors (when both are available)

Clicking a topic node opens a details panel with:

• top words
• linked label/authors
• per-topic quantitative metrics (c_v, c_npmi) when available

Option B: load an existing experiment

from topicnova import visualize_experiment

fig = visualize_experiment("./runs/exp1", notebook=True)

Supported model names

• LDA: lda
• BERTopic: bertopic
• VAE family: vae-<flags>-<encoder>-<sampler>-<decoder>
• SCHOLAR family: scholar-<flags>-lin-<sampler>-<decoder>

Common tokens:

• Flags: labels, authors, ecrtm (optional)
• Encoder: lin, context, llm (VAE); lin (SCHOLAR)
• Sampler: dir_pathwise, dir_rsvi
• Decoder: lin, etm

Examples:

• vae-lin-dir_pathwise-etm
• vae-context-dir_rsvi-lin
• scholar-labels-lin-dir_rsvi-lin

Custom datasets (dataset_name: self)

Place files in data_path:

• train.csv
• val.csv
• test.csv

Required columns:

• text
• label (optional, list-like string)

Optional:

• author

Development

uv sync --group dev
uv run pytest -q
uv run ruff check .

Build and publish

uv sync --group dev
uv run python -m build
uv run twine check dist/*
uv run twine upload dist/*

Recommended first release command sequence:

uv sync --group dev
uv run pytest -q
rm -rf dist
uv run python -m build
uv run twine check dist/*
uv run twine upload dist/topicnova-*.whl dist/topicnova-*.tar.gz

Note: as of February 9, 2026, tomo on PyPI exists, which is why this project publishes as topicnova.

See RELEASING.md for a release checklist.