Quality Control

CVAT provides comprehensive quality control features to ensure annotation accuracy and consistency. Quality control includes validation workflows, ground truth comparison, consensus annotation, and automated quality metrics.

Overview

CVAT’s quality system includes:

Quality settings: Configurable comparison parameters
Ground truth jobs: Reference annotations for validation
Quality reports: Automated comparison and metrics
Validation workflows: Review and approval stages
Consensus annotation: Multiple annotators for agreement analysis
Honeypot tasks: Hidden validation frames

Quality Settings

Quality settings define how annotations are compared and validated.

Creating Quality Settings

For a project:

from cvat_sdk import Client, models

client = Client(url="https://app.cvat.ai")
client.login(("username", "password"))

# Create quality settings for a project
quality_settings = client.api_client.quality_api.create_settings(
    quality_settings_request=models.QualitySettingsRequest(
        project_id=1,
        iou_threshold=0.5,
        oks_sigma=0.09,
        line_thickness=0.01,
        low_overlap_threshold=0.3,
        compare_line_orientation=True,
        line_orientation_threshold=0.1,
        compare_groups=True,
        group_match_threshold=0.5,
        check_covered_annotations=True,
        object_visibility_threshold=0.5,
        panoptic_comparison=False,
        compare_attributes=True,
        target_metric="accuracy",
        target_metric_threshold=0.7,
        max_validations_per_job=3
    )
)

print(f"Quality settings created with ID: {quality_settings[0].id}")

For a task:

quality_settings = client.api_client.quality_api.create_settings(
    quality_settings_request=models.QualitySettingsRequest(
        task_id=10,
        inherit=False,  # Don't inherit from project
        iou_threshold=0.6,
        target_metric="precision",
        target_metric_threshold=0.8
    )
)

Using the REST API:

curl -X POST "https://app.cvat.ai/api/quality/settings" \
  -H "Authorization: Token <your-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "project_id": 1,
    "iou_threshold": 0.5,
    "oks_sigma": 0.09,
    "target_metric": "accuracy",
    "target_metric_threshold": 0.7,
    "compare_attributes": true
  }'

Quality Setting Parameters

Shape Matching Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`iou_threshold`	float	0.4	IoU threshold for shape matching (0-1)
`oks_sigma`	float	0.09	OKS sigma for point matching (0-1)
`line_thickness`	float	0.01	Thickness for polyline matching
`low_overlap_threshold`	float	0.3	Threshold for low-overlap conflicts

Comparison Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`compare_line_orientation`	boolean	true	Compare polyline direction
`line_orientation_threshold`	float	0.1	Min IoU gain for direction mismatch
`compare_groups`	boolean	true	Compare annotation grouping
`group_match_threshold`	float	0.5	Min IoU for group matching
`check_covered_annotations`	boolean	true	Detect covered annotations
`object_visibility_threshold`	float	0.5	Min visibility for coverage check
`panoptic_comparison`	boolean	false	Use panoptic segmentation comparison
`compare_attributes`	boolean	true	Compare attribute values

Quality Targets

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`target_metric`	string	”accuracy”	Primary metric: `accuracy`, `precision`, `recall`
`target_metric_threshold`	float	0.7	Minimum quality threshold (0-1)
`max_validations_per_job`	integer	0	Max validation attempts (0 = unlimited)

Advanced Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`inherit`	boolean	true	Inherit project settings (task-level only)
`empty_is_annotated`	boolean	false	Treat empty frames as annotated
`point_size_base`	string	”group_bbox_size”	Point size reference: `image_size` or `group_bbox_size`
`job_filter`	string	`{"==": [{"var": "type"}, "annotation"]}`	Filter jobs for validation

Updating Quality Settings

# Get existing settings
settings_list = client.api_client.quality_api.list_settings(project_id=1)
settings = settings_list.results[0]

# Update settings
client.api_client.quality_api.partial_update_settings(
    id=settings.id,
    patched_quality_settings_request=models.PatchedQualitySettingsRequest(
        iou_threshold=0.6,
        target_metric_threshold=0.75
    )
)

Ground Truth Validation

Ground truth jobs provide reference annotations for quality comparison.

Creating Ground Truth Jobs

Random frame selection:

# Create GT job with random frames
gt_job = client.jobs.create(
    spec=models.JobWriteRequest(
        task_id=10,
        type="ground_truth",
        frame_selection_method="random_uniform",
        frame_count=50,  # 50 random frames
        random_seed=42   # Reproducible selection
    )
)

print(f"Created GT job {gt_job.id} with {len(gt_job.segment.frames)} frames")

Random per job:

# Random frames from each job
gt_job = client.jobs.create(
    spec=models.JobWriteRequest(
        task_id=10,
        type="ground_truth",
        frame_selection_method="random_per_job",
        frames_per_job_count=10,  # 10 frames per job
        random_seed=42
    )
)

Manual frame selection:

# Specific frames
gt_job = client.jobs.create(
    spec=models.JobWriteRequest(
        task_id=10,
        type="ground_truth",
        frame_selection_method="manual",
        frames=[0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90]
    )
)

Using the API:

curl -X POST "https://app.cvat.ai/api/jobs" \
  -H "Authorization: Token <your-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "task_id": 10,
    "type": "ground_truth",
    "frame_selection_method": "random_uniform",
    "frame_count": 50,
    "random_seed": 42
  }'

Each task can have only one ground truth job. The GT job must be annotated separately to serve as the quality reference.

GT Job Frame Selection

Method	Parameters	Description
`random_uniform`	`frame_count` or `frame_share`	Random frames across entire task
`random_per_job`	`frames_per_job_count` or `frames_per_job_share`	Random frames from each job
`manual`	`frames` (list)	Manually specified frame indices

Honeypot Validation

Honeypot tasks contain hidden validation frames mixed with regular frames.

Creating Honeypot Tasks

Configure validation during task creation:

# Create task with honeypot frames
task = client.tasks.create(
    spec=models.TaskWriteRequest(
        name="Honeypot Task",
        project_id=1,
        segment_size=100
    )
)

# Upload data with validation params
task.upload_data(
    resources=image_paths,
    params={
        "validation_params": {
            "mode": "gt_pool",
            "frame_selection_method": "random_per_job",
            "frames_per_job_count": 10  # 10 honeypot frames per job
        }
    }
)

Validation modes:

gt: Standard ground truth validation
gt_pool: Honeypot validation with hidden frames

Managing Honeypot Frames

# Update honeypot frames for a job
client.api_client.jobs_api.partial_update_validation_layout(
    id=job_id,
    patched_job_validation_layout_write_request={
        "frame_selection_method": "manual",
        "honeypot_real_frames": [5, 15, 25, 35, 45]
    }
)

Honeypot frames are only supported in 2D image tasks. Video tasks and 3D tasks cannot use honeypot validation.

Quality Reports

Quality reports compare job annotations against ground truth.

Creating Quality Reports

For a job:

# Create quality report for a job
report_data = client.api_client.quality_api.create_report(
    quality_report_create_request=models.QualityReportCreateRequest(
        job_id=15
    )
)

report = report_data[0]
print(f"Quality report ID: {report.id}")
print(f"Accuracy: {report.summary['accuracy']:.2%}")
print(f"Precision: {report.summary['precision']:.2%}")
print(f"Recall: {report.summary['recall']:.2%}")

For a task:

# Generate report for entire task
report = client.api_client.quality_api.create_report(
    quality_report_create_request=models.QualityReportCreateRequest(
        task_id=10
    )
)[0]

For a project:

# Generate project-wide quality report
report = client.api_client.quality_api.create_report(
    quality_report_create_request=models.QualityReportCreateRequest(
        project_id=1
    )
)[0]

Using the API:

# Create job quality report
curl -X POST "https://app.cvat.ai/api/quality/reports" \
  -H "Authorization: Token <your-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"task_id": 10}'

Quality Report Structure

A quality report includes:

{
    "id": 1,
    "job_id": 15,
    "task_id": 10,
    "project_id": 1,
    "parent_id": null,
    "target": "job",
    "created_date": "2026-03-04T12:00:00Z",
    "target_last_updated": "2026-03-04T11:00:00Z",
    "gt_last_updated": "2026-03-04T10:00:00Z",
    "summary": {
        "frame_count": 50,
        "frame_share": 0.5,
        "conflict_count": 15,
        "warning_count": 8,
        "error_count": 7,
        "conflicts_by_type": {
            "missing_annotation": 5,
            "extra_annotation": 4,
            "low_overlap": 3,
            "mismatching_label": 2,
            "mismatching_attributes": 1
        },
        "annotations": {
            "valid_count": 85,
            "ds_count": 90,
            "gt_count": 95,
            "total_count": 100,
            "accuracy": 0.85,
            "precision": 0.944,
            "recall": 0.895
        }
    }
}

Quality Metrics

Accuracy: valid_count / total_count

Percentage of correctly annotated objects
Considers both false positives and false negatives

Precision: valid_count / ds_count

Percentage of annotated objects that are correct
High precision = few false positives

Recall: valid_count / gt_count

Percentage of ground truth objects found
High recall = few false negatives

Conflict Types

Conflict Type	Description
`missing_annotation`	Ground truth object not annotated
`extra_annotation`	Annotated object not in ground truth
`mismatching_label`	Wrong class label
`low_overlap`	IoU below threshold but above minimum
`mismatching_direction`	Polyline direction reversed
`mismatching_attributes`	Incorrect attribute values
`mismatching_groups`	Wrong object grouping
`covered_annotation`	Object obscured by another annotation

Retrieving Quality Reports

# List all quality reports for a job
reports = client.api_client.quality_api.list_reports(job_id=15)

for report in reports.results:
    print(f"Report {report.id}: Accuracy {report.summary['accuracy']:.2%}")

# Get specific report
report = client.api_client.quality_api.retrieve_report(id=1)

# Get conflicts for a report
conflicts = client.api_client.quality_api.list_conflicts(report_id=1)

for conflict in conflicts.results:
    print(f"Frame {conflict.frame}: {conflict.type} ({conflict.severity})")
    for ann_id in conflict.annotation_ids:
        print(f"  Annotation {ann_id.obj_id} in job {ann_id.job_id}")

Using the API:

# List reports
curl "https://app.cvat.ai/api/quality/reports?task_id=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Token <your-token>"

# Get report details
curl "https://app.cvat.ai/api/quality/reports/1" \
  -H "Authorization: Token <your-token>"

# Get conflicts
curl "https://app.cvat.ai/api/quality/conflicts?report_id=1" \
  -H "Authorization: Token <your-token>"

Consensus Annotation

Consensus annotation assigns the same data to multiple annotators for agreement analysis.

Creating Consensus Tasks

# Create task with consensus replicas
task = client.tasks.create(
    spec=models.TaskWriteRequest(
        name="Consensus Task",
        project_id=1,
        segment_size=100,
        consensus_replicas=3  # 3 annotators per segment
    )
)

print(f"Created task with {task.consensus_replicas} consensus replicas")

This creates 3 jobs for each segment, allowing multiple annotators to work on identical data. Using the API:

curl -X POST "https://app.cvat.ai/api/tasks" \
  -H "Authorization: Token <your-token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Consensus Task",
    "project_id": 1,
    "segment_size": 100,
    "consensus_replicas": 3
  }'

Analyzing Consensus

Compare annotations between consensus replicas:

# Get all consensus jobs
task = client.tasks.retrieve(task_id=10)
jobs = task.get_jobs()

# Filter consensus replica jobs
consensus_jobs = [
    job for job in jobs 
    if job.type == "consensus_replica"
]

# Create quality reports between replicas
for i, job1 in enumerate(consensus_jobs):
    for job2 in consensus_jobs[i+1:]:
        # Create cross-validation report
        # (requires setting one job as GT temporarily)
        print(f"Comparing job {job1.id} vs {job2.id}")

Consensus replicas must be between 2 and the configured maximum (default: 10). Setting consensus_replicas=0 disables consensus annotation.

Validation Workflows

Job Stages and States

Jobs progress through workflow stages: Stages:

annotation: Initial annotation phase
validation: Review and quality check
acceptance: Final approval

States:

new: Not started
in progress: Work ongoing
completed: Finished
rejected: Needs rework

Moving Jobs Through Workflow

# Move job to validation stage
job = client.jobs.retrieve(job_id=15)
job.update(models.PatchedJobWriteRequest(
    stage="validation",
    state="new"
))

# Approve job (move to acceptance)
job.update(models.PatchedJobWriteRequest(
    stage="acceptance",
    state="completed"
))

# Reject job (send back to annotation)
job.update(models.PatchedJobWriteRequest(
    stage="annotation",
    state="rejected"
))

Automatic Acceptance

Configure automatic acceptance based on quality thresholds:

quality_settings = client.api_client.quality_api.create_settings(
    quality_settings_request=models.QualitySettingsRequest(
        task_id=10,
        target_metric="accuracy",
        target_metric_threshold=0.85,
        max_validations_per_job=3  # Max 3 attempts
    )
)

If job quality exceeds target_metric_threshold, it can be automatically accepted. After max_validations_per_job attempts, manual review is required.

Best Practices

Configure quality settings early

Set quality thresholds before annotation begins
Choose appropriate iou_threshold for your use case:
- 0.5-0.6 for general object detection
- 0.7-0.8 for precise segmentation
Enable compare_attributes for attribute validation
Set realistic target_metric_threshold values

Use ground truth strategically

Create GT jobs with 5-10% of total frames
Use random_per_job for balanced coverage
Ensure GT annotations are high quality
Review GT jobs with domain experts
Update GT as annotation guidelines evolve

Implement validation workflows

Assign jobs to annotators in annotation stage
Move to validation stage for quality review
Use quality reports to identify issues
Provide feedback before rejecting jobs
Track metrics over time to measure improvement

Use consensus annotation wisely

Enable consensus for critical or ambiguous data
Use 2-3 replicas (more is usually unnecessary)
Analyze agreement to identify labeling issues
Refine guidelines based on disagreements
Balance cost vs quality requirements

Monitor quality metrics

Generate reports regularly during annotation
Track accuracy, precision, and recall trends
Investigate common conflict types
Identify struggling annotators for training
Adjust quality settings based on results

Quality Control Workflow Example

Complete quality control setup:

from cvat_sdk import Client, models

client = Client(url="https://app.cvat.ai")
client.login(("username", "password"))

# 1. Create project with labels
project = client.projects.create(
    spec=models.ProjectWriteRequest(
        name="Quality Controlled Project",
        labels=[...]
    )
)

# 2. Configure quality settings
quality_settings = client.api_client.quality_api.create_settings(
    quality_settings_request=models.QualitySettingsRequest(
        project_id=project.id,
        iou_threshold=0.5,
        target_metric="accuracy",
        target_metric_threshold=0.85,
        max_validations_per_job=3,
        compare_attributes=True
    )
)

# 3. Create task
task = client.tasks.create(
    spec=models.TaskWriteRequest(
        name="Annotate Batch 1",
        project_id=project.id,
        segment_size=100,
        overlap=5
    )
)

# 4. Upload data
task.upload_data(resources=image_paths)

# 5. Create ground truth job
gt_job = client.jobs.create(
    spec=models.JobWriteRequest(
        task_id=task.id,
        type="ground_truth",
        frame_selection_method="random_per_job",
        frames_per_job_count=10
    )
)

print("Quality control setup complete!")
print(f"Project ID: {project.id}")
print(f"Task ID: {task.id}")
print(f"GT Job ID: {gt_job.id}")
print("\nNext steps:")
print("1. Annotate ground truth job with expert annotator")
print("2. Assign annotation jobs to team")
print("3. Generate quality reports during annotation")
print("4. Review and provide feedback")

Next Steps

Creating Projects

Set up new projects with quality settings

Managing Tasks

Create and manage tasks and jobs

Monitoring

View quality metrics and performance analytics

API Reference

Quality API documentation

Get Started

Annotation

Projects & Tasks

Dataset Management

Integrations

Account & Organization

​Overview

​Quality Settings

​Creating Quality Settings

​Quality Setting Parameters

​Shape Matching Parameters

​Comparison Options

​Quality Targets

​Advanced Options

​Updating Quality Settings

​Ground Truth Validation

​Creating Ground Truth Jobs

​GT Job Frame Selection

​Honeypot Validation

​Creating Honeypot Tasks

​Managing Honeypot Frames

​Quality Reports

​Creating Quality Reports

​Quality Report Structure

​Quality Metrics

​Conflict Types

​Retrieving Quality Reports

​Consensus Annotation

​Creating Consensus Tasks

​Analyzing Consensus

​Validation Workflows

​Job Stages and States

​Moving Jobs Through Workflow

​Automatic Acceptance

​Best Practices

​Quality Control Workflow Example

​Next Steps

Creating Projects

Managing Tasks

Monitoring

API Reference

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Overview

Quality Settings

Creating Quality Settings

Quality Setting Parameters

Shape Matching Parameters

Comparison Options

Quality Targets

Advanced Options

Updating Quality Settings

Ground Truth Validation

Creating Ground Truth Jobs

GT Job Frame Selection

Honeypot Validation

Creating Honeypot Tasks

Managing Honeypot Frames

Quality Reports

Creating Quality Reports

Quality Report Structure

Quality Metrics

Conflict Types

Retrieving Quality Reports

Consensus Annotation

Creating Consensus Tasks

Analyzing Consensus

Validation Workflows

Job Stages and States

Moving Jobs Through Workflow

Automatic Acceptance

Best Practices

Quality Control Workflow Example

Next Steps