Load and save configs

Use OmegaConf.create() for a YAML string and OmegaConf.load() for a YAML file. Both return an OmegaConf config:

>>> from omegaconf import OmegaConf
>>> cfg = OmegaConf.create("""
... server:
...   port: 80
... """)
>>> cfg.server.port
80

Save and load YAML

OmegaConf.save(cfg, path) writes YAML, and OmegaConf.load(path) reads it back. Paths, filenames, and file objects are accepted. YAML preserves values but not the Python schema of a structured config. Use OmegaConf.to_yaml(cfg) when you need a YAML string or OmegaConf.to_container(cfg) when another Python API needs ordinary dictionaries, lists, and tuples.

>>> yaml_text = OmegaConf.to_yaml(cfg)
>>> print(yaml_text, end="")
server:
  port: 80

to_yaml() accepts PyYAML's default_flow_style option for controlling compact sequence formatting.

>>> matrix = OmegaConf.create({"rows": [[1, 0], [0, 1]]})
>>> print(OmegaConf.to_yaml(matrix, default_flow_style=None), end="")
rows:
- [1, 0]
- [0, 1]

The same operations accept file objects. Loading YAML does not restore a structured config's dataclass or attrs type:

>>> import io
>>> buffer = io.StringIO()
>>> OmegaConf.save(config=cfg, f=buffer)
>>> restored = OmegaConf.load(io.StringIO(buffer.getvalue()))
>>> restored == cfg
True

Convert config to YAML

OmegaConf.to_yaml(cfg) converts a config to a YAML string. By default (resolve=False), it preserves interpolation expressions, even if you have already accessed their resolved values. This keeps references intact when you save and reload a config.

Pass resolve=True to include the resolved values in the YAML string:

>>> cfg = OmegaConf.create({"port": 80, "url": "http://localhost:${port}"})
>>> cfg.url
'http://localhost:80'
>>> # The default YAML output keeps the interpolation expression.
>>> print(OmegaConf.to_yaml(cfg), end="")
port: 80
url: http://localhost:${port}
>>> # Resolve the interpolation in the YAML output.
>>> print(OmegaConf.to_yaml(cfg, resolve=True), end="")
port: 80
url: http://localhost:80

resolve=True affects the returned YAML string; it does not replace the interpolation in cfg. The config still resolves url using the current port:

>>> cfg.port = 8080
>>> cfg.url
'http://localhost:8080'

To replace interpolations inside the config itself, use OmegaConf.resolve().

Pickle

For a Python-only round trip that retains OmegaConf type information, use pickle with trusted data. The resulting file is not guaranteed to work across OmegaConf versions:

>>> import pickle
>>> restored = pickle.loads(pickle.dumps(cfg))
>>> restored == cfg
True