pocketflow/cookbook/pocketflow-parallel-batch

Parallel Batch Translation Process

This project demonstrates using PocketFlow's async and parallel features (AsyncFlow, AsyncParallelBatchNode) to translate a document into multiple languages concurrently.

• Check out the Substack Post Tutorial for more!

Goal

Translate ../../README.md into multiple languages (Chinese, Spanish, etc.) in parallel, saving each to a file in the translations/ directory. The main goal is to compare execution time against a sequential process.

Getting Started

1. Install requirements:

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Set API Key: Set the environment variable for your Anthropic API key.

   export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
   

   (Replace "your-api-key-here" with your actual key) (Alternatively, place ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-api-key-here in a .env file)

3. Verify API Key (Optional): Run a quick check using the utility script.

   python utils.py
   

   (Note: This requires a valid API key to be set.)

4. Run the translation process:

   python main.py
   

How It Works

The implementation uses an AsyncParallelBatchNode that processes translation requests concurrently. The TranslateTextNodeParallel:

1. Prepares batches, pairing the source text with each target language.

2. Executes translation calls to the LLM for all languages concurrently using async operations.

3. Saves the translated content to individual files (translations/README_LANGUAGE.md).

This approach leverages asyncio and parallel execution to speed up I/O-bound tasks like multiple API calls.

Example Output & Comparison

Running this parallel version significantly reduces the total time compared to a sequential approach:

# --- Sequential Run Output (from pocketflow-batch) ---
Starting sequential translation into 8 languages...
Translated Chinese text
...
Translated Korean text
Saved translation to translations/README_CHINESE.md
...
Saved translation to translations/README_KOREAN.md

Total sequential translation time: ~1136 seconds

=== Translation Complete ===
Translations saved to: translations
============================


# --- Parallel Run Output (this example) ---
Starting parallel translation into 8 languages...
Translated French text
Translated Portuguese text
... # Messages may appear interleaved
Translated Spanish text
Saved translation to translations/README_CHINESE.md
...
Saved translation to translations/README_KOREAN.md

Total parallel translation time: ~209 seconds

=== Translation Complete ===
Translations saved to: translations
============================

(Actual times will vary based on API response speed and system.)

Files

• main.py: Implements the parallel batch translation node and flow.
• utils.py: Async wrapper for calling the Anthropic model.
• requirements.txt: Project dependencies (includes aiofiles).
• translations/: Output directory (created automatically).