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name: mlops-dag-builder description: Design DAG-based MLOps pipeline architectures with Airflow, Dagster, Kubeflow, or Prefect. Activates for DAG orchestration, workflow automation, pipeline design patterns, CI/CD for ML. Use for platform-agnostic MLOps infrastructure - NOT for SpecWeave increment-based ML (use ml-pipeline-orchestrator instead).

MLOps DAG Builder

Design and implement DAG-based ML pipeline architectures using production orchestration tools.

Overview

This skill provides guidance for building platform-agnostic MLOps pipelines using DAG orchestrators (Airflow, Dagster, Kubeflow, Prefect). It focuses on workflow architecture, not SpecWeave integration.

When to use this skill vs ml-pipeline-orchestrator:

• Use this skill: General MLOps architecture, Airflow/Dagster DAGs, cloud ML platforms
• Use ml-pipeline-orchestrator: SpecWeave increment-based ML development with experiment tracking

When to Use This Skill

• Designing DAG-based workflow orchestration (Airflow, Dagster, Kubeflow)
• Implementing platform-agnostic ML pipeline patterns
• Setting up CI/CD automation for ML training jobs
• Creating reusable pipeline templates for teams
• Integrating with cloud ML services (SageMaker, Vertex AI, Azure ML)

What This Skill Provides

Core Capabilities

1. Pipeline Architecture

   • End-to-end workflow design
   • DAG orchestration patterns (Airflow, Dagster, Kubeflow)
   • Component dependencies and data flow
   • Error handling and retry strategies

2. Data Preparation

   • Data validation and quality checks
   • Feature engineering pipelines
   • Data versioning and lineage
   • Train/validation/test splitting strategies

3. Model Training

   • Training job orchestration
   • Hyperparameter management
   • Experiment tracking integration
   • Distributed training patterns

4. Model Validation

   • Validation frameworks and metrics
   • A/B testing infrastructure
   • Performance regression detection
   • Model comparison workflows

5. Deployment Automation

   • Model serving patterns
   • Canary deployments
   • Blue-green deployment strategies
   • Rollback mechanisms

Reference Documentation

See the references/ directory for detailed guides:

• data-preparation.md - Data cleaning, validation, and feature engineering
• model-training.md - Training workflows and best practices
• model-validation.md - Validation strategies and metrics
• model-deployment.md - Deployment patterns and serving architectures

Assets and Templates

The assets/ directory contains:

• pipeline-dag.yaml.template - DAG template for workflow orchestration
• training-config.yaml - Training configuration template
• validation-checklist.md - Pre-deployment validation checklist

Usage Patterns

Basic Pipeline Setup

# 1. Define pipeline stages
stages = [
    "data_ingestion",
    "data_validation",
    "feature_engineering",
    "model_training",
    "model_validation",
    "model_deployment"
]

# 2. Configure dependencies
# See assets/pipeline-dag.yaml.template for full example

Production Workflow

1. Data Preparation Phase

   • Ingest raw data from sources
   • Run data quality checks
   • Apply feature transformations
   • Version processed datasets

2. Training Phase

   • Load versioned training data
   • Execute training jobs
   • Track experiments and metrics
   • Save trained models

3. Validation Phase

   • Run validation test suite
   • Compare against baseline
   • Generate performance reports
   • Approve for deployment

4. Deployment Phase

   • Package model artifacts
   • Deploy to serving infrastructure
   • Configure monitoring
   • Validate production traffic

Best Practices

Pipeline Design

• Modularity: Each stage should be independently testable
• Idempotency: Re-running stages should be safe
• Observability: Log metrics at every stage
• Versioning: Track data, code, and model versions
• Failure Handling: Implement retry logic and alerting

Data Management

• Use data validation libraries (Great Expectations, TFX)
• Version datasets with DVC or similar tools
• Document feature engineering transformations
• Maintain data lineage tracking

Model Operations

• Separate training and serving infrastructure
• Use model registries (MLflow, Weights & Biases)
• Implement gradual rollouts for new models
• Monitor model performance drift
• Maintain rollback capabilities

Deployment Strategies

• Start with shadow deployments
• Use canary releases for validation
• Implement A/B testing infrastructure
• Set up automated rollback triggers
• Monitor latency and throughput

Integration Points

Orchestration Tools

• Apache Airflow: DAG-based workflow orchestration
• Dagster: Asset-based pipeline orchestration
• Kubeflow Pipelines: Kubernetes-native ML workflows
• Prefect: Modern dataflow automation

Experiment Tracking

• MLflow for experiment tracking and model registry
• Weights & Biases for visualization and collaboration
• TensorBoard for training metrics

Deployment Platforms

• AWS SageMaker for managed ML infrastructure
• Google Vertex AI for GCP deployments
• Azure ML for Azure cloud
• Kubernetes + KServe for cloud-agnostic serving

Progressive Disclosure

Start with the basics and gradually add complexity:

1. Level 1: Simple linear pipeline (data → train → deploy)
2. Level 2: Add validation and monitoring stages
3. Level 3: Implement hyperparameter tuning
4. Level 4: Add A/B testing and gradual rollouts
5. Level 5: Multi-model pipelines with ensemble strategies

Common Patterns

Batch Training Pipeline

# See assets/pipeline-dag.yaml.template
stages:
  - name: data_preparation
    dependencies: []
  - name: model_training
    dependencies: [data_preparation]
  - name: model_evaluation
    dependencies: [model_training]
  - name: model_deployment
    dependencies: [model_evaluation]

Real-time Feature Pipeline

# Stream processing for real-time features
# Combined with batch training
# See references/data-preparation.md

Continuous Training

# Automated retraining on schedule
# Triggered by data drift detection
# See references/model-training.md

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

• Pipeline failures: Check dependencies and data availability
• Training instability: Review hyperparameters and data quality
• Deployment issues: Validate model artifacts and serving config
• Performance degradation: Monitor data drift and model metrics

Debugging Steps

1. Check pipeline logs for each stage
2. Validate input/output data at boundaries
3. Test components in isolation
4. Review experiment tracking metrics
5. Inspect model artifacts and metadata

Next Steps

After setting up your pipeline:

1. Explore hyperparameter-tuning skill for optimization
2. Learn experiment-tracking-setup for MLflow/W&B
3. Review model-deployment-patterns for serving strategies
4. Implement monitoring with observability tools

Related Skills

• ml-pipeline-orchestrator: SpecWeave-integrated ML development (use for increment-based ML)
• experiment-tracker: MLflow and Weights & Biases experiment tracking
• automl-optimizer: Automated hyperparameter optimization with Optuna/Hyperopt
• ml-deployment-helper: Model serving and deployment patterns