Describe a Model

Description

The DESCRIBE statement is used to display the attributes of an existing model.

The available options to describe a model depend on the underlying engine.

Syntax

Here is how to retrieve general information on the model:

DESCRIBE model_name;

Or:

DESCRIBE MODEL model_name;

This command is similar to the below command:

SELECT *
FROM models
WHERE name = 'model_name';

One difference between these two commands is that DESCRIBE outputs an additional column that stores all available options to describe a model, depending on the underlying engine.

Examples

Lightwood Models

MindsDB uses the Lightwood engine by default. Let’s see how to describe such models.

DESCRIBE [MODEL] home_rentals_model;

On execution we get:

+--------------------------------------+--------------------+-----------+---------+--------+---------+----------+----------+--------------+---------------+-----------------+--------+--------------------------------------+----------------------------+--------+
| tables                               | NAME               | ENGINE    | PROJECT | ACTIVE | VERSION | STATUS   | ACCURACY | PREDICT      | UPDATE_STATUS | MINDSDB_VERSION | ERROR  | SELECT_DATA_QUERY                    | TRAINING_OPTIONS           | TAG    |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------+-----------+---------+--------+---------+----------+----------+--------------+---------------+-----------------+--------+--------------------------------------+----------------------------+--------+
| ["info","features","model","jsonai"] | home_rentals_model | lightwood | mindsdb | true   | 1       | complete | 0.999    | rental_price | up_to_date    | 23.4.4.0        | [NULL] | SELECT * FROM demo_data.home_rentals | {'target': 'rental_price'} | [NULL] |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------+-----------+---------+--------+---------+----------+----------+--------------+---------------+-----------------+--------+--------------------------------------+----------------------------+--------+

The tables output column lists all available options to describe a model.

DESCRIBE info

DESCRIBE [MODEL] home_rentals_model.info;

The above command returns the following output columns:

Name	Description
accuracies	It lists the accuracy function used to evaluate the model and the achieved score.
column_importances	It lists all feature-type columns and assigns importance values.
outputs	The target column.
inputs	All the feature columns.

NLP Models

MindsDB offers NLP models that utilize either Hugging Face or OpenAI engines. Let’s see how to describe such models.

DESCRIBE [MODEL] sentiment_classifier;

On execution we get:

+---------------------+----------------------+--------+---------+--------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+---------------+-----------------+--------+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+
| tables              | NAME                 | ENGINE | PROJECT | ACTIVE | VERSION | STATUS   | ACCURACY | PREDICT   | UPDATE_STATUS | MINDSDB_VERSION | ERROR  | SELECT_DATA_QUERY | TRAINING_OPTIONS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              | TAG    |
+---------------------+----------------------+--------+---------+--------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+---------------+-----------------+--------+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+
| ["args","metadata"] | sentiment_classifier | openai | mindsdb | true   | 1       | complete | [NULL]   | sentiment | up_to_date    | 23.1.3.2        | [NULL] | [NULL]            | {'target': 'sentiment', 'using': {'prompt_template': 'describe the sentiment of the reviews\n                     strictly as "positive", "neutral", or "negative".\n                     "I love the product":positive\n                     "It is a scam":negative\n                     "{{review}}.":'}} | [NULL] |
+---------------------+----------------------+--------+---------+--------+---------+----------+----------+-----------+---------------+-----------------+--------+-------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+

The tables output column lists all available options to describe a model.

DESCRIBE args

DESCRIBE [MODEL] sentiment_classifier.args;

The above command returns the following output columns:

Name	Description
key	It stores parameters, such as prompt_template and target.
value	It stores parameter values.

Nixtla Models

MindsDB integrates Nixtla engines, such as StatsForecast, NeuralForecast, and HierarchicalForecast. Let’s see how to describe models based on Nixtla engines.

DESCRIBE [MODEL] quarterly_expenditure_forecaster;

On execution we get:

+-----------------------------+----------------------------------+---------------+---------+--------+---------+----------+----------+-------------+---------------+-----------------+--------+---------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+
| tables                      | NAME                             | ENGINE        | PROJECT | ACTIVE | VERSION | STATUS   | ACCURACY | PREDICT     | UPDATE_STATUS | MINDSDB_VERSION | ERROR  | SELECT_DATA_QUERY                     | TRAINING_OPTIONS                                                                                                                                    | TAG    |
+-----------------------------+----------------------------------+---------------+---------+--------+---------+----------+----------+-------------+---------------+-----------------+--------+---------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+
| ["info","features","model"] | quarterly_expenditure_forecaster | statsforecast | mindsdb | true   | 1       | complete | [NULL]   | expenditure | up_to_date    | 23.4.4.0        | [NULL] | SELECT * FROM historical_expenditures | {'target': 'expenditure', 'using': {}, 'timeseries_settings': {'is_timeseries': True, 'order_by': 'month', 'horizon': 3, 'group_by': ['category']}} | [NULL] |
+-----------------------------+----------------------------------+---------------+---------+--------+---------+----------+----------+-------------+---------------+-----------------+--------+---------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------+

The tables output column lists all available options to describe a model.

DESCRIBE info

DESCRIBE [MODEL] quarterly_expenditure_forecaster.info;

The above command returns the following output columns:

Name	Description
accuracies	It lists the chosen model name and its accuracy score.
outputs	The target column.
inputs	All the feature columns.

Other Models

Models that utlize LangChain or are brought to MindsDB via MLflow can be described as follows:

DESCRIBE [MODEL] other_model;

The above command returs ["info"] in its first output column.

DESCRIBE [MODEL] other_model.info;

The above command lists basic model information.

If you need more information on how to DESCRIBE [MODEL] or understand the results, feel free to ask us on the community Slack workspace.