the-hf-stack/dagster-hf-datasets-examples/streaming_oom_datasets - Storage Bucket

Streaming OOM Datasets

Demonstrate the pattern for working with datasets that are too large to load fully into memory.

What this example shows

• Why streaming datasets need different handling from in-memory Dataset assets
• Avoiding len(dataset) on streamed inputs
• Emitting bounded reports instead of materializing an entire large corpus
• Keeping memory use predictable by processing a fixed number of records
• Documenting the tradeoff between exact row counts and streaming safety

Dataset pattern

Large text corpora such as Dolma, FineWeb, or Common Crawl derivatives can be too large for local materialization. In those cases, use Hugging Face streaming mode and consume only the records needed for the current asset.

Concern	In-memory dataset	Streaming dataset
Row count	len(dataset) is available	Often unavailable
Access	Random access and full transforms	Iterator-style processing
Best use	Small and medium datasets	Very large corpora, sampling, audits
Persistence	Save full transformed dataset	Save bounded sample or report

Intended asset graph

dolma_stream
     |
     v
streaming_report

dolma_stream represents a bounded streamed sample. streaming_report records the sample size and any aggregate metrics that can be computed without loading the full source dataset.

Key API

@hf_dataset_asset(
    path="allenai/dolma",
    split="train",
    streaming=True,
    group_name="streaming_oom_datasets",
)
def dolma_stream(context, dataset) -> MaterializeResult:
    rows = list(islice(dataset, 1000))
    sample = Dataset.from_list(rows)

    return MaterializeResult(
        value=sample,
        metadata={
            "sample_rows": len(sample),
            "streaming": True,
        },
    )

The important rule is to treat streamed inputs as iterators. Do not call len(dataset), do not assume random access, and keep materialized outputs bounded.

Metadata to surface

Key	Description
sample_rows	Number of streamed examples retained locally
streaming	Confirms the source was read in streaming mode
source_dataset	Hub dataset identifier
processing_limit	Maximum number of rows consumed from the stream

Storage layout

.dagster_hf_storage/
└── dolma_stream/        # bounded sample, not the full corpus

streaming_report returns a MaterializeResult with report data and metadata.

How to run

pip install dagster dagster-hf-datasets 

cd dagster_hf_datasets_examples

dagster dev -m streaming_oom_datasets.definitions

Materialize the streamed sample first, then the report. Keep the sample limit small for local development and increase it only when the Dagster run worker has enough memory and disk budget.