Indexed Manifests and IteratorNodes

Indexed manifests are the foundation for exact O(1) restore of Lhotse’s dataloading pipeline. This page explains what they are, how they compose through lazy iterator graphs, how checkpointing uses them, and what contract new IteratorNode implementations must satisfy.

What an indexed manifest is

An indexed manifest is a lazy manifest backed by an auxiliary binary .idx file that lets Lhotse jump directly to a specific example instead of scanning from the beginning.

Typical examples are:

an uncompressed .jsonl manifest with cuts.jsonl.idx
an uncompressed Shar manifest shard such as cuts.000000.jsonl together with cuts.000000.jsonl.idx
an uncompressed tar shard together with recording.000000.tar.idx

When the underlying data is indexed, Lhotse can reconstruct a buffered example directly during checkpoint restore rather than replaying earlier batches.

Creating indexes

For standalone manifests:

lhotse index jsonl /path/to/cuts.jsonl
lhotse index tar /path/to/recording.tar

For Shar:

lhotse index shar /path/to/shar_dir/

When writing Shar from Python, keep the cuts manifest uncompressed and enable index creation:

from lhotse.shar import SharWriter

writer = SharWriter(
    "data/",
    fields={"recording": "wav"},
    shard_size=1000,
    compress_jsonl=False,
    create_index=True,
)

Note

Indexed access requires uncompressed, seekable data sources. .jsonl.gz and pipe:... inputs are valid for sequential streaming, but they do not provide constant-time reconstruction. Local files and supported remote/object-store URIs can be indexed as long as the storage backend supports indexed reads.

Reading indexed data

Use indexed=True when reading plain manifests:

from lhotse import CutSet

cuts = CutSet.from_file("cuts.jsonl", indexed=True)

For Shar:

cuts = CutSet.from_shar(in_dir="data/", indexed=True)

CutSet.from_shar(..., indexed=None) will auto-detect indexed mode when all requested field shards are uncompressed, indexable, and have matching indexes available.

How iterator composition works

Lhotse builds a lazy iterator graph underneath CutSet. The concrete nodes in that graph are subclasses of lhotse.lazy.IteratorNode.

Examples:

CutSet.from_file(..., indexed=True) creates a lhotse.lazy.LazyIndexedManifestIterator
cuts.filter(...) wraps the current iterator with lhotse.lazy.LazyFilter
cuts.map(...) wraps it with lhotse.lazy.LazyMapper
CutSet.mux(a, b) creates lhotse.lazy.LazyIteratorMultiplexer
cuts.mix(...) creates lhotse.cut.set.LazyCutMixer

CutSet itself is just a manifest wrapper. Graph-building code should work on the underlying iterator stored in CutSet.data. The helper resolve_iterator_source() does exactly that.

Three important capabilities

Every IteratorNode exposes three related but distinct properties:

is_checkpointable: the node can save and restore its internal iteration state.
is_indexed: the node is backed by indexed data.
has_constant_time_access: the node can reconstruct a specific output item directly through __getitem__.

has_constant_time_access is the crucial property for exact O(1) restore. It does not mean the node has a dense integer index. It only means the node can take a restore token and rebuild the matching output item directly.

For example:

a plain indexed manifest may use integer tokens such as 17
a multiplexer may use (source_idx, child_token)
a repeater may use (repeat_idx, child_token)
an indexed Shar iterator may use (global_idx, shar_epoch)

Property summary for built-in iterators

The following table summarizes the three properties for the iterator nodes shipped with Lhotse. checkpointable means state_dict / load_state_dict work; indexed means the node is backed by random-access data; O(1) means __getitem__ reconstructs the exact item directly from a graph token without replay.

“delegates” means the property is a Python @property that returns the value of the same property on the wrapped source — so the answer depends on what you compose the transform with. To check at runtime, use getattr(node, "is_indexed", False) etc., or the helper supports_graph_restore(node) for a combined check.

Iterator	Checkpointable	Indexed	O(1)
`LazyJsonlIterator`	no	no	no
`LazyManifestIterator`	yes	no	no
`LazyIndexedManifestIterator`	yes	delegates	delegates
`LazySharIterator`	yes	no	no
`LazyIndexedSharIterator`	yes	delegates	delegates
`LazyIteratorChain`	yes	delegates	delegates
`LazyIteratorMultiplexer`	yes	delegates	delegates
`LazyMapper`	yes	delegates	delegates
`LazyFilter`	yes	delegates	delegates
`LazyShuffler`	delegates	delegates	delegates
`LazyFlattener`	delegates	delegates	delegates
`LazyCutMixer`	delegates	delegates	delegates
`LazyRepeater`	yes	delegates	delegates

The leaf manifest iterators (LazyJsonlIterator, LazyManifestIterator, LazySharIterator) are streaming-only. To get indexed / O(1) behavior, construct them via CutSet.from_file(..., indexed=True) / CutSet.from_shar(..., indexed=True), which build LazyIndexedManifestIterator / LazyIndexedSharIterator instead.

Checkpointing: graph tokens

Indexed restore uses _graph_origin tokens attached to yielded items:

the sampler saves a token for every buffered item
on restore it calls source[token]
each iterator node consumes its part of the token and delegates the rest to its child
the graph reconstructs the same output item without replay

Why this enables O(1) restore

Replay-based restore starts from the beginning and skips already-consumed data. For large blends that is expensive.

Graph-token restore avoids replay:

the sampler restores its own RNG and buffer state
buffered items are rebuilt from their saved tokens
iterator nodes restore their internal cursor/RNG state
iteration continues from the next batch

For indexed datasets, Lhotse treats this as a strict contract:

missing indexed checkpoint state is a hard error
missing _graph_origin on graph-restorable buffered items is a hard error
Lhotse does not silently downgrade indexed exact restore to replay

Worker-process restore

With torchdata.stateful_dataloader.StatefulDataLoader, each worker process stores its own iterator graph state. Indexed restore works in workers for the same reason it works in the main process: workers also rebuild buffered items from graph tokens rather than replaying from the start.

Implementing a new IteratorNode

Start with this checklist.

Derive from lhotse.lazy.IteratorNode.
Store children in self.source or self.sources.
Call resolve_iterator_source() in __init__ so CutSet wrappers do not leak into the graph.
Set is_checkpointable correctly.
Delegate child checkpoint state from state_dict() / load_state_dict() when the child is checkpointable.
If the node supports exact reconstruction, implement __getitem__ and has_constant_time_access.
Propagate graph tokens through iteration and reconstruction.
If the node has mutable iteration state, include that state in state_dict() and load_state_dict().

Checkpointable does not imply O(1)

is_checkpointable and has_constant_time_access are different contracts.

Examples of checkpointable but non-O(1) nodes in the codebase:

LazyManifestIterator
LazySharIterator

Set is_checkpointable = True when the node can resume exactly, even if that resume path is sequential rather than random-access. Set has_constant_time_access = True only when __getitem__ can rebuild a specific output item directly from a token.

Minimal stateless transform node

This is the simplest useful pattern for a transform that preserves exact O(1) restore when its source supports it. The important detail is that a checkpointable parent must delegate child state explicitly; checkpoint graph traversal does not recurse into checkpointable children of a checkpointable parent.

from lhotse.lazy import (
    IteratorNode,
    attach_graph_origin,
    get_graph_origin,
    maybe_attach_graph_origin,
    normalize_graph_token,
    resolve_iterator_source,
    supports_graph_restore,
)


class MyTransform(IteratorNode):
    is_checkpointable = True

    def __init__(self, source):
        self.source = resolve_iterator_source(source)

    @property
    def is_indexed(self):
        return getattr(self.source, "is_indexed", False)

    @property
    def has_constant_time_access(self):
        return supports_graph_restore(self.source)

    def __getitem__(self, token):
        token = normalize_graph_token(token)
        item = self.source[token]
        item = transform(item)
        return attach_graph_origin(item, token)

    def __iter__(self):
        for item in self.source:
            yield maybe_attach_graph_origin(transform(item), get_graph_origin(item))

    def state_dict(self):
        state = {}
        if getattr(self.source, "is_checkpointable", False):
            state["source"] = self.source.state_dict()
        return state

    def load_state_dict(self, state):
        if "source" in state:
            self.source.load_state_dict(state["source"])

Stateful node with RNG or cursor state

If the node has its own position, RNG state, or per-epoch behavior, that state must be part of the checkpoint. Typical examples are:

multiplexer choice RNG
iterator position within a shard
current repeat epoch
per-iteration seed used to derive deterministic item-level randomness

State restoration must satisfy this rule:

after load_state_dict(), the node must yield the same remaining outputs as an uninterrupted run

When a node also supports exact reconstruction, its token must contain all information needed to rebuild the exact output. Indexed Shar is a good example: the token includes both the global item index and the Shar epoch metadata that was attached when the item was first produced.

When a node should not support exact restore

Some iterator shapes are intentionally not checkpointable or not exact:

infinite approximate multiplexers
transforms whose output cannot be reconstructed exactly and whose in-flight state cannot be serialized compactly

For these nodes:

keep is_checkpointable = False only when exact resumption of any kind is not implementable
do not claim has_constant_time_access = True
prefer an explicit exception over an implicit fallback

Nodes such as LazyShuffler and LazyFlattener can still be exact for indexed outer sources by saving compact local state:

LazyShuffler saves its shuffle buffer and RNG state
LazyFlattener saves the outer token and the local offset inside the current inner collection

Transforms that change cardinality

Transforms whose output cardinality depends on the input data — i.e. one input row produces a variable number of output rows — can still preserve indexedness and O(1) restore, but only when they implement the composite- token contract.

LazyFlattener is the canonical example. Each input row contains a collection that may have anywhere between 0 and N items, and the flattener emits (outer_token, inner_token) pairs as graph tokens. Its __getitem__((outer_token, inner_token)) rebuilds the right inner item by indexing into the outer source first and then into the materialized collection. So a LazyFlattener over an indexed source remains indexed, checkpointable, and O(1) — there is no replay degradation.

The pitfall is with custom cardinality-changing transforms that don’t implement that contract. If your transform yields more than one item per input row but does not expose __getitem__ taking a composite token (and does not propagate graph origins on yielded items), the resulting iterator can no longer reconstruct a specific output item from a saved token. In an indexed pipeline this surfaces as a hard error from Lhotse’s strict graph-token contract above.

Two safe patterns for custom cardinality-changing transforms:

Materialize offline. Run the transform once and write the expanded manifest. Downstream iterators then see one row per output item and the whole graph stays indexed end-to-end. This is the simplest option when the expansion is deterministic and the storage cost is acceptable.
Implement composite tokens following the LazyFlattener pattern: emit (outer_token, inner_token) graph origins from __iter__, implement __getitem__ to dispatch on them, and delegate is_indexed / has_constant_time_access to the source.

Runtime metadata rules

Checkpoint metadata such as _graph_origin is runtime-only. Do not attach it through normal custom fields on cuts, because that would serialize it into manifests.

Use attach_graph_origin(...). This helper bypasses cut serialization hooks and keeps checkpoint metadata process-local.

Testing new IteratorNodes

A new node should have tests for:

uninterrupted iteration vs checkpoint/restore equality
main-process restore
worker-process restore when supported
graph-token propagation if it wraps another indexed node
failure behavior when reconstruction is impossible
strict errors when the node claims graph restore support but emitted items are missing _graph_origin

The checkpoint matrix in test/test_iterator_node_e2e_checkpoint.py is the main coverage gate for production IteratorNode subclasses.