# Distributed and Insights

Use Distributed and Insights when a scalar line chart is not enough: rank-aware
views for one distributed run, and exploratory summaries over many runs.

> **Note:** Both surfaces operate on the selected run, selected runs, or the currently loaded summary page; they do not pull every run across every page in a project.

## Analyze a distributed run

![Distributed dashboard](/docs/assets/images/product/dashboard-distributed.png)

Distributed (titled **Rank reducers**) is scoped to one selected run and is
aimed at jobs where individual ranks or workers each log values. Pick a run and
a rank key to see:

- Reducer lines — mean, weighted mean, and median, with a p05–p95 band.
- Rank coverage versus the expected world size.
- A per-rank snapshot at the latest step.
- A deviation heatmap and the highest-deviation rank/step outliers.

Log the inputs with rank-aware metrics:

```python
run.log_rank_metrics(
    {"train/loss": loss},
    step=step,
    rank=rank,
    world_size=world_size,
)
```

## Explore run summaries in Insights

![Insights dashboard](/docs/assets/images/product/dashboard-insights.png)

Insights has two views, switched with the toggle in its header and defaulting
to **Run Analysis**:

- **GPU & System** summarizes GPU and system-usage telemetry across the loaded
  or selected runs.
- **Run Analysis** holds exploratory views over the run summaries: grouped
  reducers, an evaluation-metric summary grid, hyperparameter scatter, k-means
  cluster projections, and parallel-coordinate traces for sweep/HPO tradeoffs.

These views are exploratory and summary-only; they are not saved Runs workspace
panels.

Parallel coordinates work best when the loaded or selected run summaries have
several numeric config or summary fields with real variation: learning rate,
batch size, duration, best validation score, return mean, loss, or accuracy.
Keep seed as replicate metadata instead of a default axis, and use Runs
workspace distribution panels when the main question is "is this variant stable
across seeds?"

Log the inputs with ordinary SDK run config and scalar metrics:

```python
import instantml as im

run = im.init(
    project="sweep",
    config={"learning_rate": lr, "batch_size": batch_size, "seed": seed},
)
run.log_metrics({"eval/accuracy": accuracy, "train/loss": loss}, step=epoch)
```

## Pick the right surface

| Surface | Use it when |
| --- | --- |
| Runs | You need a fast broad scan |
| Metrics | You need one metric charted carefully |
| Run Detail | You need to inspect one run |
| Compare (Runs → Table) | You have a candidate set and need differences |
| Distributed | Rank/worker context matters |
| Insights | You want exploratory summaries over the loaded/selected runs |

## Next steps

- [Runs workspace](/docs/dashboard/runs-workspace.md)
- [Distributed training in the SDK](/docs/sdk/distributed-training.md)
- [Metrics and charts](/docs/dashboard/metrics-charts.md)
- [Compare runs](/docs/dashboard/compare-runs.md)

## Agent navigation

- [Docs index](/llms.txt)
- [Full docs bundle](/llms-full.txt)

### Get Started

- [Overview](/docs/index.md)
- [Quickstart](/docs/quickstart.md)
- [Core Concepts](/docs/concepts/core-concepts.md)
- [Pricing](/docs/pricing.md)
- [Benchmarks](/docs/benchmarks.md)
- [Examples](/docs/guides/examples.md)
- [Troubleshooting](/docs/troubleshooting.md)

### SDK

- [Installation Auth](/docs/sdk/installation-auth.md)
- [Logging](/docs/sdk/logging.md)
- [Tracing](/docs/sdk/tracing.md)
- [Metrics Steps](/docs/sdk/metrics-steps.md)
- [Config Tags Notes](/docs/sdk/config-tags-notes.md)
- [Artifacts Checkpoints](/docs/sdk/artifacts-checkpoints.md)
- [Rich Objects](/docs/sdk/rich-objects.md)
- [Distributed Training](/docs/sdk/distributed-training.md)
- [Console System Integrations](/docs/sdk/console-system-integrations.md)
- [Reliability](/docs/sdk/reliability.md)
- [Cli Login](/docs/sdk/cli-login.md)
- [Querying Data](/docs/sdk/querying-data.md)
- [Agent Mcp](/docs/sdk/agent-mcp.md)
- [Examples Patterns](/docs/sdk/examples-patterns.md)

### Integrations

- [Overview](/docs/integrations/overview.md)
- [Pytorch Lightning](/docs/integrations/pytorch-lightning.md)
- [Huggingface Transformers](/docs/integrations/huggingface-transformers.md)
- [Keras](/docs/integrations/keras.md)
- [Wandb](/docs/integrations/wandb.md)

### Dashboard

- [Tour](/docs/dashboard/tour.md)
- [Organizations Workspaces](/docs/dashboard/organizations-workspaces.md)
- [Runs Workspace](/docs/dashboard/runs-workspace.md)
- [Metrics Charts](/docs/dashboard/metrics-charts.md)
- [Run Detail](/docs/dashboard/run-detail.md)
- [Traces](/docs/dashboard/traces.md)
- [Compare Runs](/docs/dashboard/compare-runs.md)
- [Research Dashboards](/docs/dashboard/research-dashboards.md) (current page)
- [Artifacts Files](/docs/dashboard/artifacts-files.md)
- [Run Health](/docs/dashboard/alerts.md)
- [Datasets](/docs/dashboard/datasets.md)
- [Checkpoints](/docs/dashboard/checkpoints.md)
- [Reports](/docs/dashboard/reports.md)
- [Settings Api Keys](/docs/dashboard/settings-api-keys.md)
- [Api Tab](/docs/dashboard/api-tab.md)
- [Onboarding Team Billing](/docs/dashboard/onboarding-team-billing.md)

### Data

- [Imports](/docs/guides/imports.md)
- [W&B alternative](/docs/guides/wandb-alternative.md)
- [InstantML vs MLflow](/docs/guides/instantml-vs-mlflow.md)
- [W&B import guide](/docs/guides/wandb-import-guide.md)
- [W&B and Neptune imports](/docs/guides/wandb-neptune-imports.md)
- [Export Usage Limits](/docs/guides/export-usage-limits.md)
- [Pricing Limits Billing](/docs/guides/pricing-limits-billing.md)
- [Auth Billing Storage](/docs/guides/auth-billing-storage.md)
- [Customer Owned Clickhouse](/docs/guides/customer-owned-clickhouse.md)
- [Observability](/docs/guides/observability.md)

### API

**Practical API guides**

- [Authentication](/docs/api/authentication.md)
- [Errors And Limits](/docs/api/errors-and-limits.md)
- [Health Observability](/docs/api/health-observability.md)
- [Projects Runs](/docs/api/projects-runs.md)
- [Metrics Series](/docs/api/metrics-series.md)
- [Attributes Objects](/docs/api/attributes-objects.md)
- [Artifacts](/docs/api/artifacts.md)
- [Reports](/docs/api/reports.md)
- [Iframe Embeds](/docs/api/iframe-embeds.md)
- [Import Export Usage](/docs/api/import-export-usage.md)
- [Dashboard Control State](/docs/api/dashboard-control-state.md)
**Architecture**

- [System Overview](/docs/architecture/system-overview.md)
- [Service Planes](/docs/architecture/service-planes.md)
- [Storage Model](/docs/architecture/storage-model.md)
- [Google Clickhouse](/docs/architecture/google-clickhouse.md)
- [Auth Tenancy](/docs/architecture/auth-tenancy.md)
- [Schema Reference](/docs/architecture/schema-reference.md)

### API Reference

- [API Reference](/docs/api-reference.md)