My bad you have to pass it to the container itself:
https://github.com/allegroai/clearml-agent/blob/a5a797ec5e5e3e90b115213c0411a516cab60e83/docs/clearml.conf#L149
extra_docker_arguments: ["-e", "CLEARML_AGENT_SKIP_PYTHON_ENV_INSTALL=1"]

hey RoughTiger69
Can you describe me how you are setting up the environment variable please ?

Setting up that flag will skip the virtual env installation : the agent will use your environment and the packages installed into it.

Using Task.add_requirements(requirements.txt) allows to add specific packages at will. Note that this function will be executed even with the flag CLEARML_AGENT_SKIP_PIP_VENV_INSTALL set

SweetBadger76 I think it’s not related to the flag or whether or not I am running in a virtual env.
I just noticed that even when I clear the list of installed packages in the UI, upon startup, clearml agent still picks up the requirements.txt (after checking out the code) and tries to install it.
I wonder if there’s a way to tell it to skip this step too?

will try it

hi Assaf
By default the agent runs in pip mode (not on docker).

The flag is the right one 🙂 CLEARML_AGENT_SKIP_PIP_VENV_INSTALL=1

You can also specify some requirements if you need to. The function is Task.add_requirements
https://clear.ml/docs/latest/docs/references/sdk/task#taskadd_requirements

SweetBadger76 thanks for your reply.
One quirk I found was that even with this flag on, the agent decides to install whatever is in the requirements.txt.

Ahha! I see

AgitatedDove14 yes, i am passing this flag to the agent with CLEARML_AGENT_SKIP_PYTHON_ENV_INSTALL=1 clearml-agent….
running inside docker
and it still tries to install the requirements.txt

Using 1.3.1

can you try to create an empty text file and provide its path to Task.force_requirements_env_freeze( your_empty_txt_file) ?

Hi RoughTiger69

One quirk I found was that even with this flag on, the agent decides to install whatever is in the requirements.txt

Whats the clearml-agent you are using?

I just noticed that even when I clear the list of installed packages in the UI, upon startup, clearml agent still picks up the requirements.txt (after checking out the code) and tries to install it.

It can also just skip the entire Python installation with:
CLEARML_AGENT_SKIP_PYTHON_ENV_INSTALL=1