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Person Re-Identification

OfficialFree

Efficiently match individuals across multiple camera views.

by nvidia2.8k stars on nvidia/skills
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Updated Aug 7, 2026
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Free · Opens the source repo

What Person Re-Identification does

The Person Re-Identification skill focuses on learning discriminative embeddings that enable the matching of the same individual across different camera views. This is achieved through a metric learning approach, which is particularly useful in scenarios such as surveillance and security where tracking individuals across various locations is necessary. By leveraging this skill, developers can implement robust solutions that enhance the accuracy of person identification in complex environments.

This skill provides a comprehensive framework for training, evaluating, exporting, and running inference on TAO (Train, Adapt, Optimize) person re-identification models. Users can easily set the model.pretrained_model_path to utilize pretrained weights, streamlining the training process. The skill is designed to facilitate various actions including training the model with specific datasets, evaluating its performance, and exporting the trained model for deployment. Each action requires specific dataset formats and paths, ensuring that users have a clear structure to follow.

To maximize the effectiveness of the training process, the skill is AutoML-enabled, allowing for automated machine learning processes to optimize model parameters. Users can control the AutoML settings through the automl_policy, which can be toggled on or off depending on the user's requirements. The skill comes with predefined schemas for each action, guiding users in setting up their datasets and model specifications accurately.

This skill is particularly suited for developers and data scientists working on computer vision projects that require person re-identification capabilities. It provides the necessary tools to create and refine models that can accurately recognize individuals across different camera feeds, making it a valuable asset for applications in security, retail analytics, and smart city initiatives.

When to use it

Use this skill when you need to train or evaluate a person re-identification model for applications that require cross-camera matching.

When not to use it

This skill may not be suitable for projects that do not involve person re-identification or require real-time processing without prior training.

What you can build with it

Surveillance System Development

Integrate the skill into a surveillance system to track individuals across multiple camera feeds.

Retail Analytics

Use the skill to analyze customer movement patterns by identifying individuals in a retail environment.

Smart City Initiatives

Implement the skill in smart city projects to enhance public safety by monitoring individuals across different locations.

How to install Person Re-Identification

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1. Install with the skills CLI

npx skills add nvidia/skills/tao-train-reid --agent claude-code

2. Or install it manually

Download the skill folder and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/ for all projects, or .claude/skills/ to scope it to one repo. Restart Claude Code so it picks up the new skill.

Anthropic's agentic coding CLI, and the reference implementation of Agent Skills. Drop a skill folder into ~/.claude/skills and Claude Code loads it automatically whenever a task matches the skill's description. Claude Code docs

Inside SKILL.md

Written by nvidia

Re-Identification

Person re-identification. Learns discriminative embeddings to match the same person across different camera views. Metric learning based.

Set model.pretrained_model_path for pretrained weights.

Dataclass Schemas

Generated TAO Core schemas are packaged in schemas/<action>.schema.json, with schemas/manifest.json listing available actions. Each generated schema also emits references/spec_template_<action>.yaml from the schema top-level default field. AutoML enablement is declared at the model layer in references/skill_info.yaml via automl_enabled. Runnable AutoML still requires schemas/train.schema.json and references/spec_template_train.yaml to exist and parse. Use the packaged train schema for automl_default_parameters, automl_disabled_parameters, defaults, min/max bounds, enums, option weights, math conditions, dependencies, and popular parameters. Do not expect ~/tao-core at runtime; maintainers regenerate schemas/templates before packaging the skill bank.

Train Action Policy

This model is AutoML-enabled at the model layer. Before handling any train-stage request, read references/skill_info.yaml and resolve the run override from either an explicit automl_policy value or the user's workflow request. Use automl_policy: on by default and only expose on / off in new launch prompts. Treat phrases like "turn off AutoML", "disable AutoML", "no HPO", or "plain training" as automl_policy: off for this run only. When automl_policy: on, automl_enabled: true, and both schemas/train.schema.json and references/spec_template_train.yaml are packaged, route the train action through tao-skill-bank:tao-run-automl by default with this model's skill_dir. Preserve workflow/application overrides for datasets, specs, output directories, GPU/platform settings, parent checkpoints, and automl_policy. Use direct model training only when automl_policy: off or the packaged train schema/template is missing; in the missing-schema case, report that AutoML is enabled but not runnable for this model until schemas are generated.

Non-train actions such as evaluate, inference, export, and deploy flows stay in this model skill. The per-run automl_policy override does not change model metadata.

Supported Actions

The packaged Re-Identification PyT CLI supports train, evaluate, inference, export, and default_specs. This model skill exposes the runnable user actions train, evaluate, inference, and export; resume/retrain is performed through train with train.resume_training_checkpoint_path.

Do not advertise or synthesize dataset_convert, deploy, prune, quantize, gen_trt_engine, or standalone retrain for this model unless the packaged model skill and real CLI add those actions.

Training Requirements

  • Dataset type: re_identification
  • Formats: default
  • Monitoring metric: cmc_rank_1, maximize

Per-Action Dataset Requirements

ActionSpec KeySourceFilesList?
evaluateevaluate.test_datasettrain_datasetssample_test.tar.gzNo
evaluateevaluate.query_datasettrain_datasetssample_query.tar.gzNo
inferenceinference.test_datasettrain_datasetssample_test.tar.gzNo
inferenceinference.query_datasettrain_datasetssample_query.tar.gzNo
traindataset.train_dataset_dirtrain_datasetssample_train.tar.gzNo
traindataset.test_dataset_dirtrain_datasetssample_test.tar.gzNo
traindataset.query_dataset_dirtrain_datasetssample_query.tar.gzNo

Typical Spec Overrides

Data source overrides are mandatory for every action — the agent MUST construct data source paths from the Per-Action Dataset Requirements table above and include them in spec_overrides.

S3_TRAIN = "s3://bucket/data/train"
CHECKPOINT = "/results/{train_job_id}/results_dir/model_epoch_000_step_00099.pth"

train (mandatory data sources):

{
    "train.num_epochs": 30,
    "train.checkpoint_interval": 10,
    "train.validation_interval": 10,
    "train.num_gpus": 1,
    "dataset.num_classes": 100,
    "dataset.num_workers": 4,
    "dataset.batch_size": 16,
    "dataset.num_instances": 4,
    "dataset.train_dataset_dir": f"{S3_TRAIN}/sample_train.tar.gz",
    "dataset.test_dataset_dir": f"{S3_TRAIN}/sample_test.tar.gz",
    "dataset.query_dataset_dir": f"{S3_TRAIN}/sample_query.tar.gz",
}

resume train (mandatory checkpoint):

{
    "train.num_epochs": 31,
    "train.resume_training_checkpoint_path": CHECKPOINT,
    "dataset.num_classes": 100,
    "dataset.batch_size": 16,
    "dataset.num_instances": 4,
    "dataset.train_dataset_dir": f"{S3_TRAIN}/sample_train.tar.gz",
    "dataset.test_dataset_dir": f"{S3_TRAIN}/sample_test.tar.gz",
    "dataset.query_dataset_dir": f"{S3_TRAIN}/sample_query.tar.gz",
}

evaluate (mandatory data sources and checkpoint):

{
    "evaluate.test_dataset": f"{S3_TRAIN}/sample_test.tar.gz",
    "evaluate.query_dataset": f"{S3_TRAIN}/sample_query.tar.gz",
    "evaluate.checkpoint": CHECKPOINT,
    "evaluate.output_cmc_curve_plot": "/results/{evaluate_job_id}/results_dir/cmc_curve.png",
    "evaluate.output_sampled_matches_plot": "/results/{evaluate_job_id}/results_dir/sampled_matches.png",
}

export (mandatory checkpoint and output):

{
    "export.checkpoint": CHECKPOINT,
    "export.onnx_file": "/results/{export_job_id}/results_dir/reid.onnx",
}

inference (mandatory data sources and checkpoint):

{
    "inference.test_dataset": f"{S3_TRAIN}/sample_test.tar.gz",
    "inference.query_dataset": f"{S3_TRAIN}/sample_query.tar.gz",
    "inference.checkpoint": CHECKPOINT,
    "inference.output_file": "/results/{inference_job_id}/results_dir/reid_inference.json",
}

For export and inference, provide explicit file paths for export.onnx_file and inference.output_file. For evaluate, provide explicit file paths for evaluate.output_cmc_curve_plot and evaluate.output_sampled_matches_plot. Keep these as spec values or spec_params mappings; do not declare them as file outputs in skill_info.yaml for local Docker until the runner distinguishes files from folders during output pre-creation.

Eval Dataset

Required. Evaluation requires test and query datasets for retrieval-based metrics (CMC, mAP).

Important Parameters

  • dataset.num_classes: Number of identities. Default 751. Must match the number of unique identities in training data.
  • model.backbone: Default resnet_50.
  • optim.base_lr: Base learning rate. Default 3.5e-4.
  • dataset.batch_size: Per-GPU batch size. Default 64. Re-ID benefits from large batches for better triplet/contrastive sampling.
  • dataset.num_instances: Number of instances per identity in a batch. Controls sampling strategy for metric learning.

Multi-GPU / Multi-Node

Launch method: Lightning-managed (single python process, Lightning spawns workers).

Spec KeyDescriptionDefault
train.num_gpusNumber of GPUs1
train.gpu_idsGPU device indices[0]
  • Multi-GPU strategy: ddp_find_unused_parameters_true
  • sync_batchnorm is always enabled
  • Precision forced to FP16 (16-mixed)
  • No explicit num_nodes config — single-node oriented

Hardware

Minimum 1 GPU(s), recommended 2 GPU(s). 16GB+ VRAM per GPU. Re-ID models are relatively lightweight but benefit from large batch sizes for metric learning.

Error Patterns

num_classes mismatch: Ensure dataset.num_classes equals the number of unique identity folders in the training set.

Invalid triplet batch shape: dataset.batch_size must be compatible with dataset.num_instances so each mini-batch can be reshaped for hard-example mining. For local AutoML smoke runs, keep dataset.batch_size fixed to a known valid multiple such as 16 with dataset.num_instances: 4, and tune train.optim.base_lr instead of unconstrained batch size.

Query/gallery mismatch: Query and test (gallery) datasets must share the same identity namespace.

PyTorch 2.6 checkpoint load failure on checkpoint consumers: Current Re-ID checkpoints include OmegaConf containers. For checkpoints produced by the same trusted TAO train/AutoML workflow, set TORCH_FORCE_NO_WEIGHTS_ONLY_LOAD=1 in downstream resume, evaluate, inference, and export job env vars so Lightning/PyTorch can load the full checkpoint. Do not use this env var for untrusted checkpoints.

AutoML metric extraction: Re-ID train status files report retrieval KPIs such as cmc_rank_1, cmc_rank_5, cmc_rank_10, and mAP, plus train loss. Default AutoML train launches must optimize cmc_rank_1 with direction: maximize; do not use val_loss as the metric for this model.

Checkpoint handoff: Use the checkpoint resolver on the best AutoML child job's results_dir/train/ folder and select the action-appropriate model_epoch_*.pth checkpoint. Re-ID also writes reid_model_latest.pth, but that is a latest symlink and should only be used when a caller explicitly requests latest. Preserve the same dataset identity count and query/gallery archives for downstream actions.

Default spec generation: The packaged default_specs CLI action does not consume the normal -e <spec.yaml> experiment file for results_dir. Invoke it with a Hydra override such as re_identification default_specs results_dir=/workspace/run/results/default_specs. Passing only -e leaves cfg.results_dir unset and fails with MissingMandatoryValue: results_dir.

Spec Param / Parent Model Inference

Model-specific inference mappings belong in this MD file, not in config.json. Generated runners should read this section and apply the mappings with SDK helpers before create_job(). This mirrors the old microservices infer_params.py flow.

Inference mappings from TAO Core re_identification.config.json:

ActionSpec FieldInference FunctionMeaning
evaluateencryption_keykeyencryption key
evaluateevaluate.checkpointparent_modelmodel file inferred from the parent job results folder
evaluateevaluate.output_cmc_curve_plotcreate_evaluate_cmc_plot_reidReID CMC plot path
evaluateevaluate.output_sampled_matches_plotcreate_evaluate_matches_plot_reidReID sampled matches plot path
evaluateresults_diroutput_dircurrent job results directory
exportencryption_keykeyencryption key
exportexport.checkpointparent_modelmodel file inferred from the parent job results folder
exportexport.onnx_filecreate_onnx_fileoutput ONNX path
exportresults_diroutput_dircurrent job results directory
inferenceencryption_keykeyencryption key
inferenceinference.checkpointparent_modelmodel file inferred from the parent job results folder
inferenceinference.output_filecreate_inference_result_file_reidReID inference JSON path
inferenceresults_diroutput_dircurrent job results directory
trainencryption_keykeyencryption key
trainmodel.pretrained_model_pathptm_if_no_resume_modelPTM when no resume checkpoint exists
trainresults_diroutput_dircurrent job results directory
traintrain.resume_training_checkpoint_pathresume_modelmodel file inferred from the current job results folder

For parent_model or parent_model_folder, pass the upstream train/export/AutoML child job id as parent_job_id. The SDK lists the parent result folder, filters checkpoint artifacts, and returns the selected model file or folder. Do not add these mappings back to config.json and do not patch generated runner scripts to guess checkpoint paths.

Frequently asked questions about Person Re-Identification

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