FiftyOne Dataset Curation

End-to-end curation pipeline for any FiftyOne dataset: images, video, point clouds, grouped multimodal. Run all phases sequentially or jump directly to any single phase.

Key Directives

ALWAYS follow these rules — no exceptions:

1. Check for a loaded dataset first

list_datasets()

If none exists, offer to delegate to fiftyone-dataset-import skill.

2. Set context before any operation

set_context(dataset_name="<name>")

3. Launch App before any brain operator

launch_app()

Wait 5–10 seconds for initialization before executing delegated operators.

4. Discover schema before referencing any field

dataset_summary()
get_field_schema(flat=True)

Never hardcode field names. Adapt all field references from schema discovery results.

5. Discover operators dynamically

list_operators(builtin_only=False)
get_operator_schema(operator_uri="<uri>")

Always call list_operators() before any execute_operator(). Confirm the operator exists.

6. Confirm before mutating

Before tagging, adding fields, or deleting — present findings to the user and ask for confirmation.

7. Keep App open for interactive review

Do NOT call close_app() automatically. Leave the App running so the user can explore results.

8. Check delegated service before brain operations

Before running any brain operator with delegate=True, verify the delegated service is running:

fiftyone delegated list

If no services are running:

fiftyone delegated launch &

Wait ~5 seconds for initialization. Without this service, delegated operators will queue but never execute.

9. Always discover plugin names dynamically

Never assume a plugin's exact name or operator URI from documentation. Always verify:

list_plugins()

Use the exact plugin name from the output. Then:

list_operators(builtin_only=False)

Use the exact operator URI from the output. Documentation names may differ from installed names.

10. Generate interactive insights after each phase

After computing any metric (uniqueness, quality, similarity, etc.):

1. Calculate counts of flagged/notable samples
2. Create named saved views for the findings
3. Load the view in the App automatically
4. Present a narrative insight to the user
5. Offer to continue to the next phase

See Insight Generation Pattern at the bottom of this file.

Phase -1 — Curation Plan

Before doing anything else, present a complete curation plan to the user. This sets expectations and allows them to choose which phases to run.

list_datasets()
dataset_summary()
get_field_schema(flat=True)

Present the plan:

## Curation Plan for <dataset_name>

Dataset: <name> | <N> samples | <media_type>
Label fields: <list from schema>
Existing brain runs: <list or "none">

### Phases I will run:
  Phase 1 — Dataset Inspection        (schema, tags, class distribution)
  Phase 2 — Data Quality Audit        (metadata, resolution, file size, image quality via jacobmarks/image_issues plugin)
  Phase 3 — Near-Duplicate Detection  (via fiftyone-find-duplicates skill)
  Phase 4 — Class Distribution        (imbalance, coverage gaps)
  Phase 5 — Embedding Exploration     (CLIP UMAP, gap detection)
  Phase 6 — Annotation Audit          (mistakenness — requires predictions field)
  Phase 7 — Curated Subset & Splits   (clean view, train/val/test)
  Phase 8 — Data Q&A                  (on-demand questions)

### Phases I will SKIP (and why):
  Phase 6 — No predictions field found. Run fiftyone-dataset-inference first.

### What you'll get:
  - Named saved views for each key finding (loadable in App)
  - Interactive insights at each step
  - A clean_<dataset_name> view with quality filters applied

Ready to start? (yes / skip to phase X / select specific phases)

Wait for user confirmation before proceeding. If they want to skip phases or run only specific ones, adapt accordingly.

Phase 0 — Dataset Loading (Optional)

Run this phase only if no dataset is loaded yet.

list_datasets()

• If a dataset exists → set_context(dataset_name="<name>") and proceed to Phase 1.
• If no dataset exists → delegate to fiftyone-dataset-import skill.

After loading:

dataset_summary()

Confirm with user:

• Media type (image, video, point-cloud, group)
• Sample count
• Whether persistent=True is set

Phase 1 — Dataset Inspection

MCP tools: dataset_summary, get_field_schema, count_values, distinct

Steps

dataset_summary()
get_field_schema(flat=True)
count_values("tags")

From the schema, identify label fields (Detections, Classifications, Keypoints, Segmentation, Polylines, etc.) and run:

distinct("<label_field>.label")

Adapt the field path from the schema — never assume a field name.

Report to user

Present a summary with:

• Media type and sample count
• All field names and their types
• Existing tags and counts
• Unique class names per label field
• Any existing brain runs (embeddings, similarity indexes, mistakenness scores)
• Missing or empty fields (flag these)
• Label type awareness: Note whether label fields are Classifications vs. Detections — this affects which export formats are valid later

Export format note

After identifying label types, inform the user:

Label type: Classification → supports Image Classification Directory Tree export
Label type: Detection → supports COCO, YOLO, VOC export
For COCO export with Classification labels → must run inference first (fiftyone-dataset-inference) to generate Detection labels

Grouped dataset detection

If dataset_summary() reports media_type == "group":

1. List available group slices from the schema
2. Recommend operating on individual sensor slices for all curation phases:
   pythonCopy

   # Python SDK equivalent (use for user guidance)
   rgb_view = dataset.select_group_slices(["rgb_center"])
   dataset.save_view("rgb_view", rgb_view)
   

3. Apply all subsequent brain operations to the slice view, not the full grouped dataset
4. Use sensor-prefixed brain keys (e.g., rgb_clip_umap, ir_clip_umap)

Existing brain runs

If brain runs are reported in dataset_summary():

• List them and their types (similarity, visualization, mistakenness, uniqueness, etc.)
• Offer to reuse existing runs instead of recomputing
• Ask user which phases to run and whether to skip phases with existing results

Phase 2 — Data Quality Audit

See QUALITY-CHECKS.md for the full deep-dive workflow.

MCP tools: execute_operator, bounds, histogram_values, mean, std, count_values, set_view, list_plugins, download_plugin, enable_plugin

Minimum steps

Step 1: Compute metadata

list_operators(builtin_only=False)
get_operator_schema(operator_uri="@voxel51/utils/compute_metadata")
execute_operator(operator_uri="@voxel51/utils/compute_metadata", params={})

Step 2: Check for corruption (null metadata)

set_view(filters={"metadata": null})

If samples appear → report count; offer to tag them as "corrupted" after confirmation.

Step 3: Resolution analysis

bounds("metadata.width")
bounds("metadata.height")
histogram_values("metadata.width", bins=20)
histogram_values("metadata.height", bins=20)

Step 4: File size analysis

bounds("metadata.size_bytes")
mean("metadata.size_bytes")
std("metadata.size_bytes")

Step 5: Aspect ratio Report wide/tall outliers using ViewField pattern (see QUALITY-CHECKS.md).

Step 6: Image quality via jacobmarks plugin (REQUIRED for image datasets)

This is the primary method for detecting blur, brightness issues, contrast, saturation, and aspect ratio anomalies. Do NOT use custom cv2 code. Follow the discovery workflow:

list_plugins()

Find the entry matching "image_issues" or "image-quality". Note the exact plugin name from the output — do not assume it matches the documentation name.

If not installed:

download_plugin(plugin_name="jacobmarks/image-quality-issues")

Then run list_plugins() again to confirm the installed name.

Enable if disabled:

enable_plugin(plugin_name="<exact_name_from_list_plugins>")

Discover operator URIs:

list_operators(builtin_only=False)

Find operators matching find_issues, compute_blurriness, compute_brightness, etc. Use exact URIs.

Run each issue check (delegated, one at a time). Use the exact operator URI from list_operators():

execute_operator(
    operator_uri="<uri_from_list_operators>",   # e.g. @jacobmarks/image_issues/find_issues
    params={"issue_mode": "SINGLE", "issue": "blurry"},
    delegate=True
)

Wait for completion via list_delegated_operations() before running the next issue check. Repeat for: low_contrast, low_saturation, weird_aspect_ratio, dark, bright (see note on bright in QUALITY-CHECKS.md).

After all checks complete:

get_field_schema(flat=True)

Identify the boolean flag fields added (e.g., blurry, low_contrast, low_saturation, weird_aspect_ratio).

Generate interactive insights — see Insight Generation Pattern below.

Phase 3 — Near-Duplicate Detection

Delegate to fiftyone-find-duplicates skill.

Tell the user:

"For near-duplicate detection, I'll use the fiftyone-find-duplicates skill."

Recommended settings to suggest:

• Model: mobilenet-v2-imagenet-torch (fast) or clip-vit-base32-torch (semantic)
• Brain key: img_sim
• Default threshold: 0.3

After duplicates are identified and optionally removed, return here for Phase 4.

Phase 4 — Class Distribution & Imbalance Analysis

MCP tools: count_values, histogram_values, distinct, bounds, mean, std

For each label field discovered in Phase 1:

Classification datasets

count_values("<label_field>.label")

Detection datasets

count_values("<detections_field>.detections.label")
histogram_values("<detections_field>.detections.confidence", bins=20)
bounds("<detections_field>.detections.bounding_box")
mean("<detections_field>.detections.confidence")

Analysis to surface

• Class imbalance: Classes with < 5% of total samples are underrepresented — flag them
• Confidence spread: Bimodal distribution suggests uncertain predictions
• BBox size range: Very small bboxes (< 1% of image area) may be low-quality annotations
• Metadata distributions: If metadata fields exist (time of day, weather, sensor type, etc.), run count_values on them to surface coverage gaps:
  Copy

  count_values("<metadata_field>")
  

  Adapt field paths from schema — do not assume any specific metadata fields exist.

Coverage gaps

Report under-represented attribute combinations. Example guidance:

• Few night-scene samples → recommend semantic search augmentation (Phase 5)
• Rare class < 20 samples → flag for annotation priority

Phase 5 — Embedding Exploration & Gap Detection

Delegate to fiftyone-embeddings-visualization skill.

Tell the user:

"For embedding visualization and gap detection, I'll use the fiftyone-embeddings-visualization skill."

Critical parameter: num_dims

When calling compute_visualization, always include num_dims:

execute_operator(
    operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/compute_visualization",
    params={
        "brain_key": "<key>",
        "model": "clip-vit-base32-torch",
        "method": "umap",
        "num_dims": 2        # REQUIRED — operator fails without this
    },
    delegate=True
)

UMAP dependency

umap-learn must be installed in the same Python environment as FiftyOne. If it fails:

# Find which python FiftyOne uses
python3 -c "import fiftyone; print(fiftyone.__file__)"

# Install to the correct environment
/path/to/correct/python -m pip install umap-learn

Recommended models

• CLIP (clip-vit-base32-torch): Semantic similarity, supports text search → best for gap detection
• DINOv2 (dinov2-vits14-torch): Visual similarity → best for cluster exploration

Patch-level embeddings (detection datasets)

For detection datasets, suggest patch-level embeddings after schema confirms a detections field:

get_operator_schema(operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/compute_visualization")
execute_operator(
    operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/compute_visualization",
    params={
        "patches_field": "<detections_field>",   # from schema discovery
        "model": "clip-vit-base32-torch",
        "method": "umap",
        "num_dims": 2,
        "brain_key": "<detections_field>_clip_umap"
    },
    delegate=True
)

Uniqueness computation

After UMAP/similarity completes, compute uniqueness to find redundant samples:

execute_operator(
    operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/compute_uniqueness",
    params={},
    delegate=True
)

After completion, generate interactive insights:

bounds("uniqueness")
histogram_values("uniqueness", bins=20)

Build named views:

# Python SDK guidance — present these commands to user
# Most redundant: bottom uniqueness scores
dataset.save_view("redundant_samples", dataset.sort_by("uniqueness").limit(N))
# Most diverse: top uniqueness scores
dataset.save_view("most_unique", dataset.sort_by("uniqueness", reverse=True).limit(M))

Then load the insight view:

execute_operator("@voxel51/operators/load_saved_view", params={"name": "most_unique"})

Semantic text search for subset discovery

After CLIP similarity index exists:

execute_operator(
    operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/sort_by_similarity",
    params={"query": "foggy day", "k": 50, "brain_key": "<sim_key>"}
)
tag_samples(["foggy"])

Use text queries that match domain gaps found in Phase 4.

Phase 6 — Annotation Audit

See ANNOTATION-AUDIT.md for the full deep-dive workflow.

MCP tools: execute_operator, get_field_schema, set_view, tag_samples

Prerequisite check

Check if a predictions field exists:

get_field_schema(flat=True)

If no predictions field:

"Annotation audit (mistakenness) requires a predictions field. Delegate to fiftyone-dataset-inference skill first, then return here."

Note: If the dataset has Classification labels and you want COCO-compatible predictions, use yolov8n-coco-torch from the Zoo — it generates actual Detection bounding boxes.

Steps

Step 1: Compute mistakenness

list_operators(builtin_only=False)
get_operator_schema(operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/compute_mistakenness")
execute_operator(
    operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/compute_mistakenness",
    params={
        "pred_field": "<predictions_field>",    # from schema
        "label_field": "<ground_truth_field>",  # from schema
        "mistakenness_field": "mistakenness"
    }
)

Step 2: Review high-mistakenness samples

set_view(sort_by="mistakenness", reverse=True, limit=50)

Direct user to the FiftyOne App (use get_session_info() to get the URL) for visual review.

Step 3: Tag suspicious samples (after user confirmation)

tag_samples(["annotation_review"])

Step 4: Check possible missing annotations

set_view(filters={"possible_missing": {"$gt": 0}})

Full annotation audit workflow in ANNOTATION-AUDIT.md.

Phase 7 — Curated Subset Creation & Splits

See SUBSET-CREATION.md for the full deep-dive workflow.

MCP tools: execute_operator, tag_samples, untag_samples, set_view

Building the clean view

After quality checks and duplicate detection, construct a clean view by combining all quality filters. Use get_field_schema(flat=True) to discover which boolean flag fields were added by the quality plugin — never hardcode field names.

Example (adapt field names from schema):

# Python SDK guidance — adapt field names from your schema
from fiftyone import ViewField as F

# Discover which quality flag fields exist via get_field_schema()
# then build the filter expression from those fields only
quality_filters = (F("blurry") == False) & (F("low_contrast") == False)

# Add uniqueness filter if computed
if "uniqueness" in field_schema:
    quality_filters = quality_filters & (F("uniqueness") >= 0.3)  # tune threshold

clean_view = dataset.match(quality_filters)
dataset.save_view("clean_<dataset_name>", clean_view)

Then load in App:

execute_operator("@voxel51/operators/load_saved_view", params={"name": "clean_<dataset_name>"})

Report to user:

• Total samples before cleaning
• Samples removed per quality filter
• Final clean sample count and percentage

Option A: Uniqueness-based diverse subset

list_operators(builtin_only=False)
get_operator_schema(operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/compute_uniqueness")
execute_operator(operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/compute_uniqueness", params={})
set_view(sort_by="uniqueness", reverse=True, limit=<N>)
tag_samples(["diverse"])

Option B: Representativeness-based coreset

list_operators(builtin_only=False)
get_operator_schema(operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/compute_representativeness")
execute_operator(operator_uri="@voxel51/brain/compute_representativeness", params={})
set_view(sort_by="representativeness", reverse=True, limit=<N>)
tag_samples(["coreset"])

Option C: Train/val/test splits

# Clear any existing split tags first
untag_samples(["train", "val", "test"])

# Python SDK guidance for user:
# import fiftyone.utils.random as four
# four.random_split(dataset, {"train": 0.70, "val": 0.15, "test": 0.15})

Saving and cloning

# Python SDK guidance:
# dataset.save_view("curated_subset", view)
# view.clone(name="<dataset_name>_curated", persistent=True)

Full subset workflows in SUBSET-CREATION.md.

Phase 8 — Data Q&A Interface

Answer natural language questions about the dataset using aggregation MCP tools.

MCP tools: count_values, bounds, mean, std, distinct, histogram_values, dataset_summary, count_sample_tags

Question → Tool mapping

Always adapt field paths from schema discovery — never assume field names exist.

Insight Generation Pattern

After any significant computation, generate and share interactive insights. This pattern applies after every phase.

Template

1. Compute aggregations on the results:

   Copy

   bounds("<score_field>")
   histogram_values("<score_field>", bins=20)
   mean("<score_field>")
   

2. Calculate counts for notable subsets:

   Copy

   # Use set_view to count samples above/below thresholds
   set_view(filters={"<flag_field>": True})
   # Note the count from the response
   

3. Create named saved views via Python SDK (present as guidance to user):

   pythonCopy

   # Present as Python SDK guidance
   dataset.save_view("insight_<name>", <view_expression>)
   

4. Load the view in App using the load_saved_view operator:

   Copy

   execute_operator("@voxel51/operators/load_saved_view", params={"name": "insight_<name>"})
   

5. Present narrative insight with counts and percentages:

   Copy

   ## Insight: <Phase Name>
   
   Found <N> samples (<X%>) flagged as <issue>.
   
   Saved view "<insight_name>" is now loaded in the App.
   → Visit the FiftyOne App (use get_session_info() to get the URL) to inspect these samples.
   
   Would you like to:
   - Tag these samples as "<tag>"
   - Move to the next phase
   - Dig deeper into this finding
   

Example: After uniqueness computation

## Insight: Dataset Redundancy

Uniqueness range: <min> → <max> (mean: <mean>)

Bottom 10% by uniqueness (<N> samples) = highly redundant images — visually similar to many others.
View "redundant_samples" is now loaded in the App.

Top 20% by uniqueness (<M> samples) = maximally diverse images — best candidates for a training subset.
View "most_unique" is now loaded in the App.

Next up: Image quality checks (Phase 2). Continue?

Delegation Map

Production Patterns (Multimodal / Grouped Datasets)

Grouped dataset curation

# Select sensor slice before brain ops (Python SDK guidance)
rgb_view = dataset.select_group_slices(["rgb_center"])
dataset.save_view("rgb_view", rgb_view)

# Run brain ops on slice with sensor-prefixed keys
# fob.compute_similarity(rgb_view, model="clip-vit-base32-torch", brain_key="rgb_img_sim")

Check if similarity index supports text search

# Python SDK guidance
info = dataset.get_brain_info("rgb_img_sim")
supports_text = info.config.supports_prompts  # True for CLIP-based

Always save after field mutations

# Python SDK guidance
view.apply_model(model, "predictions")
view.save()  # critical — never skip

Thumbnail generation for large datasets (> 10k samples)

# Python SDK guidance — improves App performance
# foui.transform_images(view, size=(-1, 128), output_field="thumbnail_path", output_dir=...)
# dataset.app_config.media_fields = ["filepath", "thumbnail_path"]
# dataset.app_config.grid_media_field = "thumbnail_path"
# dataset.save()

ViewField patterns for quality filters

from fiftyone import ViewField as F

# Resolution
F("metadata.width") > min_width
F("metadata.height") > min_height

# Color channels
F("metadata.num_channels") == 3

# Aspect ratio filters
long_filter = F("metadata.width") > 2 * F("metadata.height")
tall_filter  = F("metadata.height") > 2 * F("metadata.width")
normal_aspect = (~long_filter) & (~tall_filter)

# BBox area (relative)
rel_bbox_area = F("bounding_box")[2] * F("bounding_box")[3]

# Annotation quality (after mistakenness computation)
F("mistakenness") > 0.95
F("possible_missing") > 0
F("max_iou") > 0.75

Reference Files

• QUALITY-CHECKS.md — Image quality filtering: metadata, blur, brightness, resolution, aspect ratio, CLIPScore
• ANNOTATION-AUDIT.md — Annotation error detection: mistakenness, hardness, IoU dedup, side-by-side review
• SUBSET-CREATION.md — Subset and split workflows: coreset, uniqueness, random split, saved views, cloning