# Does "annotations\_per\_task" define annotations or annotators?

**URL:** <https://support.prodi.gy/t/does-annotations-per-task-define-annotations-or-annotators/7414>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [October 18, 2024, 4:02pm UTC](https://support.prodi.gy/t/does-annotations-per-task-define-annotations-or-annotators/7414 "2024-10-18T16:02:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nicolaiberk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/support.prodi.gy/nicolaiberk/32/4284_2.png) [@nicolaiberk](https://support.prodi.gy/u/nicolaiberk)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 4:02pm UTC](https://support.prodi.gy/t/does-annotations-per-task-define-annotations-or-annotators/7414/1 "2024-10-18T16:02:01Z")

</div>

Hi there,

unfortunately I was unable to find an appropriate answer to the above question.

I have a task for three annotators, each sample should have a total of 2 annotations from 2 DIFFERENT annotators.

I defined '"annotations\_per\_task": 2' in prodigy.json and also defined the environment variable PRODIGY\_ALLOWED\_SESSIONS="andrew,berta,curt".

**It is still unclear to me if, should an annotator have annotated each example once, they would be presented with examples they already annotated.** In other words: do I need a custom router to ensure that the maximum annotators per example is equal to 1?

Clarifications very much appreciated.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![magdaaniol](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/support.prodi.gy/magdaaniol/32/2787_2.png) [@magdaaniol](https://support.prodi.gy/u/magdaaniol)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2024, 12:41pm UTC](https://support.prodi.gy/t/does-annotations-per-task-define-annotations-or-annotators/7414/2 "2024-10-21T12:41:42Z")

</div>

Hi @nicolaiberk,

If you set `"annotations_per_task": 2` and define the sessions up front like you did, each task should receive 2 annotations from **different** annotators. The built-in router makes a check against the DB and the current queues of the sessions to make sure the annotators do not see tasks they have already annotated.

If, on the other hand, you have 3 annotators but want each task to be annotated only **once** to maximize the parallelization of your annotation project, you can set `"feed_overlap": false` which technically is equivalent to setting `"annotations_per_task": 1`

(In case you haven't seen it yet, here's our explainer video for task routers that gets into the logic behind each setting: [https://youtu.be/vyOtq-UXP-E](https://youtu.be/vyOtq-UXP-E))

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nicolaiberk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/support.prodi.gy/nicolaiberk/32/4284_2.png) [@nicolaiberk](https://support.prodi.gy/u/nicolaiberk)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 11:37am UTC](https://support.prodi.gy/t/does-annotations-per-task-define-annotations-or-annotators/7414/3 "2024-11-07T11:37:42Z")

</div>

Perfect, thank you for the clarification!