How to specify an analysis with YAML

Analyses in immuneML are specified through a YAML specification file. This is a text file with nested keys and values. Since immuneML can be used for a variety of different tasks, different parameters need to be set depending on the use case. The keys are essentially the input parameters to immuneML, except the values to these parameters can consist of more key-value pairs. Throughout the documentation, the names of keys (which have a specific meaning) will be formatted like this.

The immuneML YAML specification reflects two main sets of keys:

  • Under definitions the different analysis components are defined, such as a specific ML method, or the import parameters for a dataset.

  • The instructions describe what kind of workflow is executed using the components defined under definitions. For example, whether to train ML models, or simulate a dataset for benchmarking.

This page gives a general overview of the YAML specification structure, and the keys that should be present. For an exhaustive list of all the options that can be specified, see YAML specification.

Structure of the analysis specification

The following figure outlines the general structure of the YAML specification file. Note that depending on the specific analysis, the components and parameters that need to be specified may not be the same. On the highest level, the analysis specification always consists of definitions and instructions.

structure of the YAML specification

Specifying Definitions

Under definitions, the following analysis components may be defined:

  • datasets: specifying where data is located, what format the data is in, and how it should be imported (see How to import data into immuneML for more details),

  • preprocessing_sequences: defining one or more preprocessing steps to be taken on the dataset (this is optional),

  • encodings: different data representations,

  • ml_methods: different machine learning methods (e.g., SVM or KNN),

  • reports: specific plots or statistics to apply to the raw or encoded data, ML methods or results.

Simulation-specific components (only relevant when running the LigoSim instruction<Dataset simulation with LIgO) are:

  • motifs: parts of the simulation definition defined by a seed and a way to create specific motif instances from the seed,

  • signals: parts of the simulation which can include multiple motifs and correspond to a single label for subsequent classification tasks,

  • simulations: define how to combine different signals and how to implant them in the dataset.

Under definitions, each analysis sub-component is defined using a user-defined key. Throughout the documentation, we use the prefix ‘my_’ to identify these keys, but any kind of name may be used here. These keys are unique names that identify the settings for a component, and they are later referenced in the instructions.

An example of a full definitions section which may be used for a machine learning task is given below. Note that in order to run this yaml file, instructions still need to be added

definitions.yaml
definitions:
  datasets: # every instruction uses a dataset
    my_dataset:
      format: AIRR
      params:
        path: path/to/data/
        metadata_file: path/to/metadata.csv
  preprocessing_sequences:
    my_preprocessing:
      - my_beta_chain_filter:
          ChainRepertoireFilter:
            keep_chain: TRB
  ml_methods:
    my_log_reg: LogisticRegression
    my_svm: SVM
  encodings:
    my_kmer_freq_encoding_1: KmerFrequency # KmerFrequency with default parameters
    my_kmer_freq_encoding_2: # KmerFrequency with user-defined parameters
      KmerFrequency:
        k: 5
  reports:
    my_seq_length_distribution: SequenceLengthDistribution
instructions:
  # to be added...

The definitions section used for Simulation contains different components (motifs, signals, simulations). These are discussed in more detail in the following tutorial: Dataset simulation with LIgO.

Specifying Instructions

Similarly to analysis components, instructions are defined under a user-defined key. Under this key, you should define the instruction type, which defines the type of analysis that will be done. All other settings are instruction-specific.

The following instruction types may be used:

The components defined under definitions can be referenced inside the instruction, but any result from the instructions is not available to other instructions. If the output of one instruction needs to be used in another other instruction, two separate immuneML runs need to be made (e.g, running immuneML once with the Simulation instruction to generate a dataset, and subsequently using that dataset as an input to a second immuneML run to train a ML model).

An example of the YAML specification for the TrainMLModel instruction is shown below. See the tutorial How to train and assess a receptor or repertoire-level ML classifier for more explanation behind all settings.

instructions.yaml
definitions:
  # to be added...
instructions:
  my_instruction: # user-defined instruction key
    type: TrainMLModel
    dataset: my_dataset # reference dataset from definitions
    labels: [disease]
    settings: # settings are made up of preprocessing (optional), ml_method and encoding
    - encoding: my_kmer_freq_encoding_1
      ml_method: my_log_reg
    - preprocessing: my_preprocessing
      encoding: my_kmer_freq_encoding_2
      ml_method: my_svm
    assessment:
      split_strategy: random
      split_count: 1
      training_percentage: 70
      reports:
        data_splits: [my_seq_length_distribution]
    selection:
      split_strategy: k_fold
      split_count: 5
    strategy: GridSearch
    metrics: [accuracy]
    optimization_metric: accuracy
    reports: null # no reports
    refit_optimal_model: False
    number_of_processes: 4

Specifying output

Optionally, the key output may be specified on the base level (next to definitions and instructions). However, the only supported output format is currently HTML. The output section may be omitted from the YAML, but if included, it should look like this:

output:
  format: HTML

Putting all parts together

Not every analysis component can be combined with every component. Some analysis components are specific to a particular dataset type (receptor, sequence or repertoire dataset), and some components need to be used in a specific combination (such as encoder-ML method compatibility). The diagrams below show for each dataset type how the components can be combined.

Analysis paths repertoires Analysis paths receptors Analysis paths sequences

An example of a complete YAML specification for training an ML model through nested cross-validation is given here:

complete_definitions_instructions.yaml
definitions:
  datasets:
    d1:
      format: AIRR
      params:
        metadata_file: path/to/metadata.csv
        path: path/to/data/
  preprocessing_sequences:
    my_preprocessing:
      - my_beta_chain_filter:
          ChainRepertoireFilter:
            keep_chain: TRB
  ml_methods:
    my_log_reg: LogisticRegression
    my_svm: SVM
  encodings:
    my_kmer_freq_encoding_1: KmerFrequency # KmerFrequency with default parameters
    my_kmer_freq_encoding_2: # KmerFrequency with user-defined parameters
      KmerFrequency:
        k: 5
  reports:
    my_seq_length_distribution: SequenceLengthDistribution
instructions:
  my_instruction: # user-defined instruction key
    type: TrainMLModel
    dataset: my_dataset # reference dataset from definitions
    labels: [disease]
    settings: # settings are made up of preprocessing (optional), ml_method and encoding
    - encoding: my_kmer_freq_encoding_1
      ml_method: my_log_reg
    - preprocessing: my_preprocessing
      encoding: my_kmer_freq_encoding_2
      ml_method: my_svm
    assessment:
      split_strategy: random
      split_count: 1
      training_percentage: 70
      reports:
        data_splits: [my_seq_length_distribution]
    selection:
      split_strategy: k_fold
      split_count: 5
    strategy: GridSearch
    metrics: [accuracy]
    optimization_metric: accuracy
    reports: null # no reports
    refit_optimal_model: False
    number_of_processes: 4
output:
  format: HTML

Running the specified analysis

To run an instruction via command line with the given YAML specification file:

immune-ml path/to/specification.yaml result/folder/path/

Alternatively, create an ImmuneMLApp object in a Python script and pass it the path parameter to the constructor before calling its run() method as follows:

from source.app.ImmuneMLApp import ImmuneMLApp

app = ImmuneMLApp(specification_path="path/to/specification.yaml", result_path="result/folder/path/")
app.run()