pixeltable

Declarative Data Infrastructure for Multimodal AI Apps

Pixeltable is the only Python library providing incremental storage, transformation, indexing, and orchestration of multimodal data.

Installation | Quick Start | Documentation | API Reference | Examples | Discord Community

💾 Installation

pip install pixeltable

Pixeltable unifies multimodal data storage, retrieval and orchestration. It stores metadata and computed results persistently, typically in a .pixeltable directory in your workspace. See configuration options for your setup. All media (videos, images, audio) resides in ext. files, and Pixeltable stores references to those. Files can be local/remote (e.g. S3). For the latter, Pixeltable caches the files locally on access.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b50fd6df-5169-4881-9dbe-1b6e5d06cede

Quick Start

With Pixeltable, you define your entire data processing and AI workflow declaratively using computed columns on tables.

# Installation
pip install -qU torch transformers openai pixeltable

# Basic setup
import pixeltable as pxt

# Table with multimodal column types (Image, Video, Audio, Document)
t = pxt.create_table('images', {'input_image': pxt.Image})

# Computed columns: define transformation logic once, runs on all data
from pixeltable.functions import huggingface

# Object detection with automatic model management
t.add_computed_column(
    detections=huggingface.detr_for_object_detection(
        t.input_image, 
        model_id='facebook/detr-resnet-50'
    )
)

# Extract specific fields from detection results
t.add_computed_column(detections_text=t.detections.label_text)

# OpenAI Vision API integration with built-in rate limiting and async managemennt
from pixeltable.functions import openai         

t.add_computed_column(
    vision=openai.vision(
        prompt="Describe what's in this image.",
        image=t.input_image,
        model='gpt-4o-mini'
    )
)

# Insert data - automatically triggers computation of all computed columns
t.insert(input_image='https://raw.github.com/pixeltable/pixeltable/release/docs/resources/images/000000000025.jpg')

# Query - All data, metadata, and computed results are persistently stored
results = t.select(
    t.input_image,
    t.detections_text,
    t.vision
).collect()

✨ What Happened?

• Data Ingestion & Storage: References files (images, videos, audio, docs) in place, handles structured data.
• Transformation & Processing: Applies any Python function (UDFs) or built-in operations (chunking, frame extraction) automatically.
• AI Model Integration: Runs inference (embeddings, object detection, LLMs) as part of the data pipeline.
• Indexing & Retrieval: Creates and manages vector indexes for fast semantic search alongside traditional filtering.
• Incremental Computation: Only recomputes what's necessary when data or code changes, saving time and cost.
• Versioning & Lineage: Automatically tracks data and schema changes for reproducibility.

Focus on your application logic, not the infrastructure.

⚖️ Key Principles

• Unified Multimodal Interface: pxt.Image, pxt.Video, pxt.Audio, pxt.Document, etc. – manage diverse data consistently.

  t = pxt.create_table(
    'media', 
    {
        'img': pxt.Image, 
        'video': pxt.Video
    }
  )
  

• Declarative Computed Columns: Define processing steps once; they run automatically on new/updated data.

  t.add_computed_column(
    classification=huggingface.vit_for_image_classification(
        t.image
    )
  )
  

• Built-in Vector Search: Add embedding indexes and perform similarity searches directly on tables/views.

  t.add_embedding_index(
    'img', 
    embedding=clip.using(
        model_id='openai/clip-vit-base-patch32'
    )
  )
  
  sim = t.img.similarity("cat playing with yarn")
  

• On-the-Fly Data Views: Create virtual tables using iterators for efficient processing without data duplication.

  frames = pxt.create_view(
    'frames', 
    videos, 
    iterator=FrameIterator.create(
        video=videos.video, 
        fps=1
    )
  )
  

• Seamless AI Integration: Built-in functions for OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face, CLIP, YOLOX, and more.

  t.add_computed_column(
    response=openai.chat_completions(
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": t.prompt}]
    )
  )
  

• Bring Your Own Code: Extend Pixeltable with simple Python User-Defined Functions.

  @pxt.udf
  def format_prompt(context: list, question: str) -> str:
      return f"Context: {context}\nQuestion: {question}"
  

• Agentic Workflows / Tool Calling: Register @pxt.udf or @pxt.query functions as tools and orchestrate LLM-based tool use (incl. multimodal).

  # Example tools: a UDF and a Query function for RAG
  tools = pxt.tools(get_weather_udf, search_context_query)
  
  # LLM decides which tool to call; Pixeltable executes it
  t.add_computed_column(
       tool_output=invoke_tools(tools, t.llm_tool_choice)
  )
  

• Persistent & Versioned: All data, metadata, and computed results are automatically stored.

  t.revert()  # Revert to a previous version
  stored_table = pxt.get_table('my_existing_table')  # Retrieve persisted table
  

• SQL-like Python Querying: Familiar syntax combined with powerful AI capabilities.

  results = (
    t.where(t.score > 0.8)
    .order_by(t.timestamp)
    .select(t.image, score=t.score)
    .limit(10)
    .collect()
  )
  

💡 Key Examples

(See the Full Quick Start or Notebook Gallery for more details)

1. Multimodal Data Store and Data Transformation (Computed Column):

pip install pixeltable

import pixeltable as pxt

# Create a table
t = pxt.create_table(
    'films', 
    {'name': pxt.String, 'revenue': pxt.Float, 'budget': pxt.Float}, 
    if_exists="replace"
)

t.insert([
  {'name': 'Inside Out', 'revenue': 800.5, 'budget': 200.0},
  {'name': 'Toy Story', 'revenue': 1073.4, 'budget': 200.0}
])

# Add a computed column for profit - runs automatically!
t.add_computed_column(profit=(t.revenue - t.budget), if_exists="replace")

# Query the results
print(t.select(t.name, t.profit).collect())
# Output includes the automatically computed 'profit' column

2. Object Detection with YOLOX:

pip install pixeltable pixeltable-yolox

import PIL
import pixeltable as pxt
from yolox.models import Yolox
from yolox.data.datasets import COCO_CLASSES

t = pxt.create_table('image', {'image': pxt.Image}, if_exists='replace')

# Insert some images
prefix = 'https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons'
paths = [
    '/1/15/Cat_August_2010-4.jpg',
    '/e/e1/Example_of_a_Dog.jpg',
    '/thumb/b/bf/Bird_Diversity_2013.png/300px-Bird_Diversity_2013.png'
]
t.insert({'image': prefix + p} for p in paths)

@pxt.udf
def detect(image: PIL.Image.Image) -> list[str]:
    model = Yolox.from_pretrained("yolox_s")
    result = model([image])
    coco_labels = [COCO_CLASSES[label] for label in result[0]["labels"]]
    return coco_labels

t.add_computed_column(classification=detect(t.image))

print(t.select().collect())

3. Image Similarity Search (CLIP Embedding Index):

pip install pixeltable sentence-transformers

import pixeltable as pxt
from pixeltable.functions.huggingface import clip

# Create image table and add sample images
images = pxt.create_table('my_images', {'img': pxt.Image}, if_exists='replace')
images.insert([
    {'img': 'https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Orange_tabby_cat_sitting_on_fallen_leaves-Hisashi-01A.jpg/1920px-Orange_tabby_cat_sitting_on_fallen_leaves-Hisashi-01A.jpg'},
    {'img': 'https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Retriever_in_water.jpg'}
])

# Add CLIP embedding index for similarity search
images.add_embedding_index(
    'img',
    embedding=clip.using(model_id='openai/clip-vit-base-patch32')
)

# Text-based image search
query_text = "a dog playing fetch"
sim_text = images.img.similarity(query_text)
results_text = images.order_by(sim_text, asc=False).limit(3).select(
    image=images.img, similarity=sim_text
).collect()
print("--- Text Query Results ---")
print(results_text)

# Image-based image search
query_image_url = 'https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Huskiesatrest.jpg/2880px-Huskiesatrest.jpg'
sim_image = images.img.similarity(query_image_url)
results_image = images.order_by(sim_image, asc=False).limit(3).select(
    image=images.img, similarity=sim_image
).collect()
print("--- Image URL Query Results ---")
print(results_image)

4. Multimodal/Incremental RAG Workflow (Document Chunking & LLM Call):

pip install pixeltable openai spacy sentence-transformers

python -m spacy download en_core_web_sm

import pixeltable as pxt
import pixeltable.functions as pxtf
from pixeltable.functions import openai, huggingface
from pixeltable.iterators import DocumentSplitter

# Manage your tables by directories
directory = "my_docs"
pxt.drop_dir(directory, if_not_exists="ignore", force=True)
pxt.create_dir("my_docs")

# Create a document table and add a PDF
docs = pxt.create_table(f'{directory}.docs', {'doc': pxt.Document})
docs.insert([{'doc': 'https://github.com/pixeltable/pixeltable/raw/release/docs/resources/rag-demo/Jefferson-Amazon.pdf'}])

# Create chunks view with sentence-based splitting
chunks = pxt.create_view(
    'doc_chunks',
    docs,
    iterator=DocumentSplitter.create(document=docs.doc, separators='sentence')
)

# Explicitly create the embedding function object
embed_model = huggingface.sentence_transformer.using(model_id='all-MiniLM-L6-v2')
# Add embedding index using the function object
chunks.add_embedding_index('text', string_embed=embed_model)

# Define query function for retrieval - Returns a DataFrame expression
@pxt.query
def get_relevant_context(query_text: str, limit: int = 3):
    sim = chunks.text.similarity(query_text)
    # Return a list of strings (text of relevant chunks)
    return chunks.order_by(sim, asc=False).limit(limit).select(chunks.text)

# Build a simple Q&A table
qa = pxt.create_table(f'{directory}.qa_system', {'prompt': pxt.String})

# 1. Add retrieved context (now a list of strings)
qa.add_computed_column(context=get_relevant_context(qa.prompt))

# 2. Format the prompt with context
qa.add_computed_column(
    final_prompt=pxtf.string.format(
        """
        PASSAGES: 
        {0}
        
        QUESTION: 
        {1}
        """, 
        qa.context, 
        qa.prompt
    )
)

# 4. Generate the answer using the well-formatted prompt column
qa.add_computed_column(
    answer=openai.chat_completions(
        model='gpt-4o-mini',
        messages=[{
            'role': 'user',
            'content': qa.final_prompt
        }]
    ).choices[0].message.content
)

# Ask a question and get the answer
qa.insert([{'prompt': 'What can you tell me about Amazon?'}])
print("--- Final Answer ---")
print(qa.select(qa.answer).collect())

📚 Notebook Gallery

Explore Pixeltable's capabilities interactively:

Topic	Notebook	Topic	Notebook
Fundamentals		Integrations
10-Min Tour		OpenAI
Tables & Ops		Anthropic
UDFs		Together AI
Embedding Index		Label Studio
External Files		Mistral
Use Cases		Sample Apps
RAG Demo		Multimodal Agent
Object Detection		Image/Text Search
Audio Transcription		Discord Bot

🚨 Maintaining Production-Ready Multimodal AI Apps is Still Too Hard

Building robust AI applications, especially multimodal ones, requires stitching together numerous tools:

• ETL pipelines for data loading and transformation.
• Vector databases for semantic search.
• Feature stores for ML models.
• Orchestrators for scheduling.
• Model serving infrastructure for inference.
• Separate systems for parallelization, caching, versioning, and lineage tracking.

This complex "data plumbing" slows down development, increases costs, and makes applications brittle and hard to reproduce.

🔮 Roadmap (2025)

Cloud Infrastructure and Deployment

We're working on a hosted Pixeltable service that will:

• Enable Multimodal Data Sharing of Pixeltable Tables and Views | Waitlist
• Provide a persistent cloud instance
• Turn Pixeltable workflows (Tables, Queries, UDFs) into API endpoints/MCP Servers

🤝 Contributing

We love contributions! Whether it's reporting bugs, suggesting features, improving documentation, or submitting code changes, please check out our Contributing Guide and join the Discussions or our Discord Server.

🏢 License

Pixeltable is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.