> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/cvat-ai/cvat/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction to CVAT

> Learn about CVAT, the interactive video and image annotation tool for computer vision

CVAT (Computer Vision Annotation Tool) is an interactive video and image annotation tool designed for computer vision applications. Used by tens of thousands of users and companies worldwide, CVAT helps teams solve real problems using a data-centric AI approach.

## What is CVAT?

CVAT is a free, open-source annotation platform that enables you to label images, videos, and 3D point clouds for training computer vision models. Whether you're building object detection systems, semantic segmentation models, or pose estimation algorithms, CVAT provides the tools and workflows to create high-quality training datasets efficiently.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Interactive annotation" icon="hand-pointer">
    Label images and videos with an intuitive interface that supports multiple annotation types including bounding boxes, polygons, polylines, points, cuboids, skeletons, and more.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Team collaboration" icon="users">
    Work together with your team using built-in user roles, assignment workflows, and quality control features to ensure consistent, accurate annotations.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Automatic labeling" icon="robot">
    Speed up annotation up to 10x with serverless AI functions for automatic labeling using pre-trained models or your custom models.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Flexible deployment" icon="cloud">
    Choose between CVAT Cloud for instant access or self-hosted deployment for complete control over your data and infrastructure.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Why teams choose CVAT

### Comprehensive annotation support

CVAT supports all major annotation formats and types:

* **Bounding boxes** (rectangle, rotated rectangle)
* **Polygons and polylines** for precise object boundaries
* **Points and keypoints** for landmark detection
* **Cuboids** for 3D object annotation
* **Skeleton annotation** for pose estimation
* **Segmentation masks** for pixel-level labeling
* **Tags** for image-level classification

### Enterprise-grade features

<Info>
  CVAT includes advanced features like quality control, analytics, webhooks, access tokens, and integration with popular ML frameworks and datasets.
</Info>

* **Quality control**: Built-in tools for validation, ground truth management, and quality reports
* **Organizations**: Manage multiple teams and projects with role-based access control
* **Cloud storage**: Connect to AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, or Google Cloud Storage
* **Version control**: Track changes and maintain annotation history
* **API and SDKs**: Automate workflows using REST API, Python SDK, or CLI

### Rich format ecosystem

Import and export annotations in 40+ formats including:

* COCO (MS COCO Object Detection, Keypoints, Stuff)
* YOLO (v5, v7, v8 - Detection, Segmentation, Pose, OBB)
* Pascal VOC
* KITTI
* Cityscapes
* TensorFlow Object Detection API
* Datumaro
* And many more...

## Deployment options

CVAT offers flexible deployment options to match your needs:

### CVAT Cloud

The fastest way to get started with CVAT:

<Card title="Start annotating now" icon="rocket" href="https://app.cvat.ai">
  Sign up for free at app.cvat.ai - no installation required
</Card>

**Features:**

* Free tier available
* Instant access with no setup
* Automatic updates
* Scale as you grow
* Premium features with paid plans
* Integration with Roboflow and HuggingFace models

### Self-hosted deployment

For complete control over your data and infrastructure:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Docker Compose">
    Perfect for development, small teams, or production deployments on a single server.

    ```bash theme={null}
    git clone https://github.com/cvat-ai/cvat
    cd cvat
    docker-compose up -d
    ```

    Access CVAT at `http://localhost:8080`
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Kubernetes">
    Ideal for enterprise deployments requiring high availability and scalability.

    ```bash theme={null}
    helm repo add cvat https://cvat-ai.github.io/cvat/
    helm install cvat cvat/cvat
    ```
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Cloud providers">
    Deploy to AWS, Azure, GCP with pre-configured templates and guides available in the administration documentation.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

<Note>
  Self-hosted deployments support SSO, LDAP, advanced analytics, and premium integrations with Enterprise support plans.
</Note>

## Use cases

CVAT powers annotation workflows across industries:

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Autonomous vehicles">
    Annotate road scenes with bounding boxes, semantic segmentation, and 3D cuboids for training perception systems. Support for KITTI, Waymo, and other autonomous driving formats.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Robotics">
    Label objects, paths, and zones in robot workspace images and videos. Create datasets for object detection, pose estimation, and scene understanding.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Medical imaging">
    Annotate medical images with precise polygon and mask annotations for diagnostic AI systems. Supports DICOM and standard image formats.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Retail and e-commerce">
    Create product detection and classification datasets. Annotate fashion items, product categories, and visual attributes.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Surveillance and security">
    Label people, vehicles, and events in security footage. Track objects across video frames for activity recognition.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Agriculture">
    Annotate crops, pests, and field conditions for precision agriculture AI. Support for aerial imagery and drone footage.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Getting started

Ready to start annotating? Here are your next steps:

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="bolt" href="/quickstart">
    Get started in minutes with our step-by-step guide
  </Card>

  <Card title="Key concepts" icon="book" href="/key-concepts">
    Understand projects, tasks, jobs, and labels
  </Card>

  <Card title="Installation guide" icon="download" href="/self-hosted/installation/overview">
    Set up your own CVAT instance
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Community and support

Join thousands of CVAT users:

* **GitHub**: Report issues, request features, and contribute at [github.com/cvat-ai/cvat](https://github.com/cvat-ai/cvat)
* **Discord**: Join the community for discussions and support
* **Gitter**: Ask questions and get help from the core team
* **YouTube**: Watch tutorials and product demonstrations

<Tip>
  CVAT is open-source software released under the MIT License. Contributions are welcome!
</Tip>