---
title: Pipelines
---

Users can automate [Tasks](task) to run consecutively or according to some logic by putting the tasks into a pipeline. 
Tasks in a pipeline can leverage other tasks' work products such as artifacts and parameters. 

Pipelines are controlled by a *Controller Task* that holds the logic of the pipeline execution steps. 

## How Do Pipelines Work? 

Before running a pipeline, we need to configure a Controller Task, in which the pipeline is defined. Pipelines are made 
up of steps. Each step consists of a task that already exists in the ClearML Server and is used as a template. The 
user decides the controlling logic of the step interactions, whether it be simple ([DAG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_acyclic_graph)) 
or more complex. 

Once the pipeline is running, it starts sequentially launching the steps configured in the Controller. In each step, the template task 
is cloned, and the cloned task is sent for execution. Depending on the specifications laid out in the Controller Task, a 
step's parameters can be overridden, and / or a step can use a previous step's work products. 

Callbacks can be utilized to control pipeline execution flow. A callback can be defined 
to be called before and / or after the execution of every task in a pipeline. Additionally, there is an option to 
create customized, step-specific callbacks. 

![Pipeline chart](../img/fundamentals_pipeline.png)


## Simple DAG Pipelines

For a simple, DAG based logic, use the off-the-shelf [`PipelineController`](../references/sdk/automation_controller_pipelinecontroller.md) class to define the DAG (see an example 
[here](../guides/pipeline/pipeline_controller)). Once the `PipelineController` object is populated and configured, 
we can start the pipeline, which will begin executing the steps in succession, then it waits until the pipeline is completed. 
The pipeline control logic is processed in a background thread. 

:::note
We recommend enqueuing Pipeline Controller Tasks into a 
[services](agents_and_queues.md#services-agent--queue) queue
:::

Callback functions can be specified to be called in the steps of a `PipelineController` object. 
There is an option to define a callback to be called before and / or after every step in the pipeline, 
using the `step_task_created_callback` or the `step_task_completed_callback` parameters of the [`start`](../references/sdk/automation_controller_pipelinecontroller.md#start) 
method. Alternatively, step-specific callback functions can be specified with the `pre_execute_callback` and / or 
`post_execute_callback` parameters of the [`add_step`](../references/sdk/automation_controller_pipelinecontroller.md#add_step) 
method. 

## Advanced Pipelines

Since a pipeline *Controller Task* is itself a ClearML Task, it can be used as a pipeline step and can be used to create 
more complicated workflows, such as pipelines running other pipelines, or a pipeline running multiple tasks concurrently.

For example, it could be useful to have one pipeline for data preparation, which triggers a second pipeline that trains
networks.

It could also be useful to run a pipeline that runs tasks concurrently, training multiple networks with different hyperparameter
values simultaneously. See the [Tabular training pipeline](../guides/frameworks/pytorch/notebooks/table/tabular_training_pipeline.md) 
example of a pipeline with concurrent steps. 

## Custom Pipelines

In cases where a DAG is insufficient (for example, when needing to launch one pipeline, then, if performance is inadequate, 
rerun pipeline again), users can apply custom logic, using generic methods to enqueue tasks, implemented in python code.
The custom logic of the pipeline sits in the *Controller Task*'s script.  

Custom pipelines usually involve cloning template tasks, modifying their parameters, and manually enqueuing 
them to queues (for execution by [agents](../clearml_agent.md)). It's possible to create custom logic that controls inputs 
(e.g. overriding hyperparameters and artifacts) and acts upon task outputs.

See examples of custom pipelines: 
   * [Task Piping](../guides/automation/task_piping.md)
   * [Manual Random Parameter Search](../guides/automation/manual_random_param_search_example.md)