Practical overview
When it fits
Use it when you have a trained model and example data and want to explore predictions, compare the effects of edited inputs, or examine performance and fairness across subsets.
Who it is for
- Machine-learning practitioners examining trained classification or regression models.
- Notebook and TensorBoard users who want to inspect predictions and model behavior.
Documented uses
- Run inference over a set of examples and visualize the results.
- Edit examples manually or programmatically and compare rerun predictions.
- Investigate model performance and fairness across dataset subsets.
- Inspect attribution values when using supported AI Platform models or custom prediction functions.
Requirements & limits
The project repository identifies the software as open source under the Apache-2.0 license.
- TensorBoard integration uses a model served through TensorFlow Serving; users provide its host and port.
- Notebook support includes TensorFlow Estimators accepting TensorFlow Example or SequenceExample inputs, hosted prediction models with supported input formats, and custom prediction functions with correct input and output
- For TensorBoard Predict API models, classification outputs must include class probabilities and regression outputs must provide one score per example.
- The project includes example workflows spanning binary and multiclass classification and regression.
Check current requirements in the official documentation. Source-based guidance does not mean OpenViST has run or independently tested this project.
Build and open the Census salary demo
Build and open the What-If Tool binary-classification demo for UCI Census salary prediction.
Before you start
- The What-If Tool repository and its demo source code.
- Bazel, to run the documented demo target.
Steps
Run
bazel run wit_dashboard/demo:demoserver.Navigate to
http://localhost:6006/wit-dashboard/demo.html.
Expected outcome
The Census salary-prediction demo is available at the documented local address.
Guide limitations
- The demo predicts whether a person earns more or less than $50,000 using Census information.
- The source does not specify Bazel installation or other setup steps.
Compare options for Model inference and serving
These projects document a common task and share a project role. This is a source-based comparison, not an execution benchmark or a guarantee of interchangeability.
| Project | Documented purpose | Platform | Access and requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| What If Tool | Run inference over a set of examples and visualize the results. | Cloud, Web | The project repository identifies the software as open source under the Apache-2.0 license. |
| FMBench | Compare inference latency and transactions per minute across model-serving configurations. | CLI, Cloud | FMBench is distributed as a Python package and used from the command line. The project is published under the MIT-0 license. |
Sources & review
Source record details
- Source availability
- Active
- Sources checked
- 13 October 2026
- Original website title
- PAIR-code/what-if-tool · Official homepage title · retained in its source language

