Infrastructure¶

The latent infra command manages local development infrastructure via Docker Compose. It provisions three services that back the Latent evaluation workflow: PostgreSQL, Prefect server, and MLflow tracking server.

Overview¶

Service	Purpose	Default Port
PostgreSQL	Shared database for Prefect and MLflow	5432
Prefect	Workflow orchestration server and UI	4200
MLflow	Experiment tracking server and UI	5001

All three services are defined in a single docker-compose.yaml at the repository root. PostgreSQL acts as the backing store for both Prefect (workflow state) and MLflow (experiment metadata).

When latent infra up starts successfully, it writes a state file to .latent/infra/state.json in the workspace. Other commands -- notably latent run -- read this file to auto-configure PREFECT_API_URL and MLFLOW_TRACKING_URI so flows connect to the local services without manual environment setup.

Prerequisites¶

Docker with Compose v2 (docker compose) or the standalone docker-compose binary.
Ports 5432, 4200, and 5001 available (or overridden via environment variables).

Commands¶

`latent infra up`¶

Start infrastructure services.

# Start all services in the foreground (streams Docker logs, Ctrl-C to stop)
latent infra up

# Start in background (detached)
latent infra up --detach
latent infra up -d

# Start specific services only
latent infra up postgres prefect

Flag	Description
`--detach`, `-d`	Run in background. Uses `--wait` to block until services are healthy.

Available service names: postgres, prefect, mlflow.

When running in the foreground, pressing Ctrl-C triggers latent infra down automatically.

`latent infra down`¶

Stop all infrastructure services and remove containers.

# Stop services, keep data volumes
latent infra down

# Stop services and delete persistent data (PostgreSQL data, etc.)
latent infra down --volumes
latent infra down -v

Flag	Description
`--volumes`, `-v`	Also remove persistent Docker volumes (destroys database data).

`latent infra status`¶

Show a table of running service names, health status, and exposed ports.

latent infra status

Example output:

            Infrastructure Status
+----------+---------+-------+
| Service  | Status  | Ports |
+----------+---------+-------+
| postgres | healthy | 5432  |
| prefect  | healthy | 4200  |
| mlflow   | healthy | 5001  |
+----------+---------+-------+

If no services are running, the command prints a hint to run latent infra up.

`latent infra logs`¶

Show logs for infrastructure services.

# Show last 50 lines from all services
latent infra logs

# Follow logs in real time
latent infra logs --follow
latent infra logs -f

# Show logs for a specific service
latent infra logs prefect

# Control number of lines
latent infra logs --lines 200
latent infra logs -n 200

Flag	Description
`--follow`, `-f`	Tail logs in real time (Ctrl-C to stop).
`--lines`, `-n`	Number of historical lines to show (default: 50).

`latent infra env`¶

Print shell export statements for connecting to the running infrastructure. Designed to be used with eval:

eval $(latent infra env)

Output:

export PREFECT_API_URL="http://localhost:4200/api"
export MLFLOW_TRACKING_URI="http://localhost:5001"

Note

latent run reads the infra state file automatically, so you typically do not need to run eval $(latent infra env) unless you are using Prefect or MLflow CLIs directly.

Configuration¶

Environment Variables¶

Override default ports by setting these variables before running latent infra up:

Variable	Default	Description
`LATENT_INFRA_PG_PORT`	`5432`	Host port for PostgreSQL
`LATENT_INFRA_PREFECT_PORT`	`4200`	Host port for the Prefect server and UI
`LATENT_INFRA_MLFLOW_PORT`	`5001`	Host port for the MLflow tracking server and UI

Example:

LATENT_INFRA_PREFECT_PORT=4201 LATENT_INFRA_MLFLOW_PORT=5002 latent infra up -d

Docker Compose File¶

The docker-compose.yaml at the repository root defines the services:

postgres -- postgres:16-alpine with a latent user/database. An init script at infra/init-databases.sql creates additional databases required by Prefect and MLflow. Data is persisted in a Docker volume (latent-pgdata).
prefect -- Built from infra/Dockerfile.prefect. Connects to PostgreSQL via postgresql+asyncpg. Depends on a healthy postgres container.
mlflow -- Built from infra/Dockerfile.mlflow. Also depends on a healthy postgres container.

State File¶

When services start, InfraManager writes .latent/infra/state.json in the workspace:

{
  "prefect_api_url": "http://localhost:4200/api",
  "mlflow_tracking_uri": "http://localhost:5001",
  "pg_port": 5432
}

This file is removed on latent infra down. Other Latent commands use it to auto-configure connections.

Typical Workflow¶

# 1. Start infrastructure in the background
latent infra up -d

# 2. Verify services are healthy
latent infra status

# 3. Run a flow (auto-connects to Prefect and MLflow)
latent run my_eval_flow

# 4. View results in the MLflow UI
open http://localhost:5001

# 5. Stop when done
latent infra down