Creating RNN, LSTM and bidirectional RNN/LSTMs with TensorFlow

Creating a bidirectional LSTM

import tensorflow as tf

dims, layers = 32, 2
# Creating the forward and backwards cells
lstm_fw_cell = tf.nn.rnn_cell.BasicLSTMCell(dims, forget_bias=1.0)
lstm_bw_cell = tf.nn.rnn_cell.BasicLSTMCell(dims, forget_bias=1.0)
# Pass lstm_fw_cell / lstm_bw_cell directly to tf.nn.bidrectional_rnn
# if only a single layer is needed
lstm_fw_multicell = tf.nn.rnn_cell.MultiRNNCell([lstm_fw_cell]*layers)
lstm_bw_multicell = tf.nn.rnn_cell.MultiRNNCell([lstm_bw_cell]*layers)

# tf.nn.bidirectional_rnn takes a list of tensors with shape 
# [batch_size x cell_fw.state_size], so separate the input into discrete
# timesteps.
_X = tf.unpack(state_below, axis=1)
# state_fw and state_bw are the final states of the forwards/backwards LSTM, respectively
outputs, state_fw, state_bw = tf.nn.bidirectional_rnn(lstm_fw_multicell, lstm_bw_multicell, _X, dtype='float32')

Parameters

state_below is a 3D tensor of with the following dimensions: [batch_size, maximum sequence index, dims]. This comes from a previous operation, such as looking up a word embedding.
dims is the number of hidden units.
layers can be adjusted above 1 to create a stacked LSTM network.

Notes

tf.unpack may not be able to determine the size of a given axis (use the nums argument if this is the case).
It may be helpful to add an additional weight + bias multiplication beneath the LSTM (e.g. tf.matmul(state_below, U) + b.