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Getting Started

Get up and running with Expanse in minutes.

Installation​

Install the Expanse CLI on your local machine:

curl -sSL https://get.expanse.org.uk | sh

Authentication​

Log in to your Expanse account:

expanse login

This will open a browser window for authentication. Once complete, your credentials are stored locally.

Configure Clusters​

Create an expanse.yaml file in your project root to define your cluster connections:

# expanse.yaml
clusters:
  archer2:
    type: slurm
    host: login.archer2.ac.uk
    user: ${ARCHER2_USER}
    workdir: /work/your-project
  cirrus:
    type: slurm
    host: login.cirrus.ac.uk
    user: ${CIRRUS_USER}
    workdir: /lustre/home/your-project

Run Your First Workflow​

1. Initialise a new project​

expanse init my-simulation

2. Define your nodes​

See the Node Configuration section for details.

3. Run a single node​

expanse run preprocess --cluster archer2

4. Or run an entire workflow​

expanse run full_pipeline --cluster archer2

Project Structure​

After initialisation, your project will look like this:

my-simulation/
├── expanse.yaml              # Cluster configuration
├── nodes/
│   └── example/
│       ├── node.yaml
│       └── main.py
└── workflows/
    └── pipeline.yaml

Next Steps​

  • Learn about Nodes - the building blocks of workflows
  • Understand Workflows - how to chain nodes together
  • Explore Data Transfer - how data flows between nodes