Anaconda Project Documentation

Release 0.8.0rc5

Anaconda, Inc

Nov 29, 2017

 Contents

1 Benefits of Project 3

2 How Project works 5

3 Stability 7

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Reproducible and executable project directories

Anaconda Project encapsulates data science projects and makes them easily portable. Project automates setup steps
such as installing the right packages, downloading files, setting environment variables and running commands.
Project makes it easy to reproduce your work, share projects with others and run them on different platforms. It also
simplifies deployment to servers. Anaconda projects run the same way on your machine, on another user’s machine
or when deployed to a server.
Traditional build scripts such as setup.py automate building the project—going from source code to something
runnable—while Project automates running the project—taking build artifacts and doing any necessary setup before
executing them.
You can use Project on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Project is supported and offered by Anaconda, Inc® and contributors under a 3-clause BSD license.

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2 Contents
 CHAPTER 1

Benefits of Project

• A README file that contains setup steps can become outdated, or users might not read it and then you have to
help them diagnose problems. Project automates the setup steps so that the README file need only say “Type
anaconda-project run.”
• Project facilitates collaboration by ensuring that all users working on a project have the same dependencies in
their conda environments. Project automates environment creation and verifies that environments have the right
versions of packages.
• You can run os.getenv("DB_PASSWORD") and configure Project to prompt the user for any missing cre-
dentials. This allows you to avoid including your personal passwords or secret keys in your code.
• Project improves reproducibility. Someone who wants to reproduce your analysis can ensure that they have the
same setup that you have on your machine.
• Project simplifies deployment of your analysis as a web application. The configuration in
anaconda-project.yml tells hosting providers how to run your project, so no special setup is needed
when you move from your local machine to the web.

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 CHAPTER 2

How Project works

By adding an anaconda-project.yml configuration file to your project directory, a single

anaconda-project run command can set up all dependencies and then launch the project. Running an
Anaconda project executes a command specified in the anaconda-project.yml file, where you can also
configure any arbitrary commands.
Project automates project setup by establishing all prerequisite conditions for the project’s commands to execute
successfully. These conditions could include:
• Creating a conda environment that includes certain packages.
• Prompting the user for passwords or other configuration.
• Downloading data files.
• Starting extra processes such as a database server.

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 CHAPTER 3

Stability

Currently, the Project API and command-line syntax are subject to change in future releases. A project created with
the current beta version of Project may always need to be run with that version of Project and not Project 1.0. When
we think things are solid, we will switch from beta to version 1.0, and you will be able to rely on long-term interface
stability.

3.1 Installation

Anaconda Project is included in Anaconda® versions 4.3.1 and later.

You can also get Project by installing Miniconda and then installing Project with this command:

conda install anaconda-project

Test your installation by running anaconda-project with the version option:

anaconda-project --version

A successful installation reports the version number.

3.2 User guide

3.2.1 Concepts

• Project
• Configuration files
• Environment variables

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• Comparing Project to conda env and environment.yml

Project

A project is a folder that contains an anaconda-project.yml configuration file together with scripts, notebooks
and other files.
You can make any folder into a project by adding a configuration file named anaconda-project.yml to the
folder. The configuration file can include the following sections:
• commands
• variables
• services
• downloads
• packages
• channels
• env_specs
Data scientists use projects to encapsulate data science projects and make them easily portable. A project is usually
compressed into a .tar.bz2 file for sharing and storing.
Anaconda Project automates setup steps, so that data scientists that you share projects with can run your project with
a single command—anaconda-project run.

Configuration files

Projects are affected by 3 configuration files:

• anaconda-project.yml—Contains information about a project to be shared across users and machines.
If you use source control, put anaconda-project.yml into your system.
• anaconda-project-local.yml—Contains your local configuration state, which you do not want to
share with others. Put this file into .gitignore, .svnignore or the equivalent in your source control system.
• anaconda-project-lock.yml—Optional. Contains information needed to lock your package dependen-
cies at specific versions. Put this file into source control along with anaconda-project.yml. For more
information on anaconda-project-lock.yml, see Reference.
To modify these files, use Project commands, Anaconda Navigator, or any text editor.

Environment variables

Anything in the “variables” section of an anaconda-project.yml file is considered to be an environment variable

needed by your project.
EXAMPLE: The variables section of an anaconda-project.yml file that specifies 2 variables:

variables:
- AMAZON_EC2_USERNAME
- AMAZON_EC2_PASSWORD

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When a user runs your project, Project asks them for values to assign to these variables.
In your script, you can use os.getenv() to obtain these variables. This is a much better option than hardcoding
passwords into your script, which can be a security risk.

Comparing Project to conda env and environment.yml

Project has similar functionality to the conda env command and the environment.yml file, but it may be more
convenient. The advantage of Project for environment handling is that it performs conda operations and records them
in a configuration file for reproducibility, all in one step.
EXAMPLE: The following command uses conda to install Bokeh and adds bokeh=0.11 to an environment spec in
anaconda-project.yml:
anaconda-project add-packages bokeh=0.11

The effect is comparable to adding the environment spec to environment.yml. In this way, the state of your
current conda environment and your configuration to be shared with others will not get out of sync.
Project also automatically sets up environments for other users when they type anaconda-project run on their
machines. They do not have to separately create, update or activate environments before they run the code. This may
be especially useful when you change the required dependencies. With conda env, users may forget to rerun it and
update their packages, while anaconda-project run automatically adds missing packages every time.
In addition to creating environments, Project can perform other kinds of setup, such as adding data files and running a
database server. In that sense, it is a superset of conda env.

3.2.2 Getting started

This getting started guide walks you through using Anaconda Project for the first time.
After completing this guide, you will be able to:
• Create a project containing a Bokeh app.
• Run the project with a single command.
• Package and share the project.
If you have not yet installed and started Project, follow the Installation instructions.
For more information on Bokeh, see Welcome to Bokeh.

Creating a project containing a Bokeh app

To create a project called “clustering_app”:

1. Open a Command Prompt or terminal window.
2. Create a directory called clustering_app, switch to it and then initialize the project:
$ mkdir clustering_app
$ cd clustering_app
$ anaconda-project init
Project configuration is in /User/Anaconda/My Anaconda Projects/clustering_app/
˓→anaconda-project.yml

3. Inside the clustering_app project directory, create and save a file named main.py that contains the code
from the Bokeh clustering example.

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4. Add the packages that the Bokeh clustering demo depends on:

anaconda-project add-packages python=3.5 bokeh=0.12.4 numpy=1.12.0 scikit-learn=0.

˓→18.1

5. Tell Project about the Bokeh app:

anaconda-project add-command plot .

NOTE: By default, Bokeh looks for the file main.py, so you do not need to include this in the command string
after the “plot” command name.
6. When prompted, type B for Bokeh app:

Is `plot` a (B)okeh app, (N)otebook, or (C)ommand line? B

Added a command 'plot' to the project.
Run it with `anaconda-project run plot`.

7. Run your new project:

anaconda-project run

NOTE: If your project included more than one command, you would need to specify which command to run.
For more information, see Running a project.
A browser window opens, displaying the clustering app.

Sharing your project

To share this project with a colleague:

1. Archive the project:

anaconda-project archive clustering.zip

2. Send the archive file to your colleague.

You can also share a project by uploading it to Anaconda Cloud. For more information, see Sharing a project.

Running your project

Anyone with Project—your colleague or someone who downloads your project from Cloud—can run your project by
unzipping the project archive file and then running a single command, without having to do any setup:

anaconda-project run

NOTE: If your project contained more than one command, the person using your project would need to specify which
command to run. For more information, see Running a project.
Project downloads the data, installs the necessary packages and runs the command.

Next steps

• Learn more about what you can do in Project, including how to download data with your project and how to
configure your project with environment variables.
• Learn more about the anaconda-project.yml format.

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3.2.3 Tasks

Creating a project

1. Create a project directory:

anaconda-project init --directory directory-name

NOTE: Replace directory-name with the name of your project directory.

EXAMPLE: To create a project directory called “iris”:

$ cd /home/alice/mystuff
$ anaconda-project init --directory iris
Create directory '/home/alice/mystuff/iris'? y
Project configuration is in /home/alice/mystuff/iris/anaconda-project.yml

You can also turn any existing directory into a project by switching to the directory and then running
anaconda-project init without options or arguments.
2. OPTIONAL: In a text editor, open anaconda-project.yml to see what the file looks like for an empty
project. As you work with your project, the anaconda-project commands you use will modify this file.

Downloading data into a project

Often data sets are too large to keep locally, so you may want to download them on demand.
To set up your project to download data:
1. From within your project directory, run:

anaconda-project add-download env_var URL

NOTE: Replace env_var with a name for an environment variable that Anaconda Project will create to store
the path to your downloaded data file. Replace URL with the URL for the data to be downloaded.
Anaconda Project downloads the data file to your project directory.
EXAMPLE: The following command downloads the iris.csv data file from a GitHub repository into the
“iris” project, and stores its new path in the environment variable IRIS_CSV:

$ anaconda-project add-download IRIS_CSV https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bokeh/

˓→bokeh/f9aa6a8caae8c7c12efd32be95ec7b0216f62203/bokeh/sampledata/iris.csv

File downloaded to /home/alice/mystuff/iris/iris.csv

Added https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bokeh/bokeh/
˓→f9aa6a8caae8c7c12efd32be95ec7b0216f62203/bokeh/sampledata/iris.csv to the

˓→project file.

2. OPTIONAL: In a text editor, open anaconda-project.yml to see the new entry in the downloads section.

Working with commands

• Adding a command to a project

• Using commands that need different environments

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• Using commands to automatically start processes

• Viewing a list of commands in a project
• Running a project command

Run all of the commands on this page from within the project directory.

Adding a command to a project

A project contains some sort of code, such as Python files, which have a .py extension.
You could run your Python code with the command:

python file.py

NOTE: Replace file with the name of your file.

However, to gain the benefits of Anaconda Project, use Project to add code files to your project:
1. Put the code file, application file, or notebook file into your project directory.
2. Add a command to run your file:

anaconda-project add-command name "command"

NOTE: Replace name with a name of your choosing for the command. Replace command with the command
string.
EXAMPLE:: To add a command called “notebook” that runs the IPython notebook mynotebook.ipynb:

anaconda-project add-command notebook mynotebook.ipynb

EXAMPLE: To add a command called “plot” that runs a Bokeh app located outside of your project directory:

anaconda-project add-command plot app-path-filename

NOTE: Replace app-path-filename with the path and filename of the Bokeh app. By default, Bokeh looks
for the file main.py, so if your app is called main.py, you do not need to include the filename.
3. When prompted for the type of command, type:
• B if the command string is a Bokeh app to run.
• N if the command string is a Notebook to run.
• C if the command string is a Command line instruction to run, such as using Python to run a Python .py
file.
EXAMPLE: To add a command called “hello” that runs python hello.py:

$ anaconda-project add-command hello "python hello.py"

Is `hello` a (B)okeh app, (N)otebook, or (C)ommand line? C
Added a command 'hello' to the project. Run it with
`anaconda-project run hello`.

4. OPTIONAL: In a text editor, open anaconda-project.yml to see the new command listed in the com-
mands section.

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Using commands that need different environments

You can have multiple conda environment specifications in a project, which is useful if some of your commands
use a different version of Python or otherwise have distinct dependencies. Add these environment specs with
anaconda-project add-env-spec.

Using commands to automatically start processes

Project can automatically start processes that your commands depend on. Currently it only supports starting Redis, for
demonstration purposes.
To see Project automatically start the Redis process:

anaconda-project add-service redis

More types of services will be supported soon. If there are particular services that you would find useful, let us know.

Viewing a list of commands in a project

To list all of the commands in a project:

anaconda-project list-commands

EXAMPLE:

$ anaconda-project list-commands
Commands for project: /home/alice/mystuff/iris

Name Description
==== ===========
hello python hello.py
plot Bokeh app iris_plot
showdata python showdata.py

Running a project command

Running a project command is the same as Running a project.

Working with packages

To include packages in your project that are not yet in your environment:
1. From within your project directory, run:

anaconda-project add-packages package1 package2

NOTE: Replace package1 and package2 with the names of the packages that you want to include. You can
specify as many packages as you want.
The packages are installed in your project’s environment, so you now see package files in your project folder,
such as:

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envs/PATH/package1

NOTE: Replace PATH with the actual path to your package.

EXAMPLE: To add the packages Bokeh and pandas:

$ anaconda-project add-packages bokeh=0.12 pandas

conda install: Using Anaconda Cloud api site https://api.anaconda.org
Using Conda environment /home/alice/mystuff/iris/envs/default.
Added packages to project file: bokeh=0.12, pandas.

2. OPTIONAL: In a text editor, open anaconda-project.yml to see the new packages listed in the packages
section.

Working with environment variables

• Using variables in scripts

• Adding a variable
• Adding an encrypted variable
• Adding a variable with a default value
• Changing a variable’s value
• Removing a variable’s value
• Removing a variable

Run all of the commands on this page from within the project directory.
Anaconda Project sets some environment variables automatically:
• PROJECT_DIR specifies the location of your project directory.
• CONDA_ENV_PATH is set to the file system location of the current conda environment.
• PATH includes the binary directory from the current conda environment.
These variables always exist and can always be used in your Python code.

Using variables in scripts

Use Python’s os.getenv() function to obtain variables from within your scripts.
EXAMPLE: The following script, called showdata.py, prints out data:

import os
import pandas as pd

project_dir = os.getenv("PROJECT_DIR")
env = os.getenv("CONDA_DEFAULT_ENV")
iris_csv = os.getenv("IRIS_CSV")

flowers = pd.read_csv(iris_csv)

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print(flowers)
print("My project directory is {} and my conda environment is {}".format(project_dir,
˓→env))

If you tried to run this example script with python showdata.py, it would not work if pandas was not installed
and the environment variables were not set.

Adding a variable

If a command needs a user-supplied parameter, you can require—or just allow—users to provide values for these
before the command runs.
NOTE: Encrypted variables such as passwords are treated differently from other custom variables. See Adding an
encrypted variable.
1. Add the unencrypted variable to your project:

anaconda-project add-variable VARIABLE

NOTE: Replace VARIABLE with the name of the variable that you want to add.
EXAMPLE: To add a variable called COLUMN_TO_SHOW:

anaconda-project add-variable COLUMN_TO_SHOW

2. OPTIONAL: In a text editor, open anaconda-project.yml to see the new variable listed in the variables
section.
3. OPTIONAL: Use the command anaconda-project list-variables to see the new variables listed.
4. Include the new variable in your script in the same way as you would for any other variable.
The first time a user runs your project, they are prompted to provide a value for your custom variable. On subsequent
runs, the user will not be prompted.

Adding an encrypted variable

Use variables for passwords and other secret information so that each user can input their own private information.
Encrypted variable values are kept in the system keychain, while other variable values are kept in the
anaconda-project-local.yml file. In all other respects, working with encrypted variables is the same as
for unencrypted variables.
Any variable ending in _PASSWORD, _SECRET, or _SECRET_KEY is automatically encrypted.
To create an encrypted variable:

anaconda-project add-variable VARIABLE_encrypt-flag

NOTE: Replace VARIABLE with the name of the variable that you want to add. Replace _encrypt-flag with
_PASSWORD, _SECRET or _SECRET_KEY.
EXAMPLE: To create an encrypted variable called DB_PASSWORD:

anaconda-project add-variable DB_PASSWORD

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Adding a variable with a default value

You can set a default value for a variable, which is stored with the variable in anaconda-project.yml. If you
set a default, users are not prompted to provide a value, but they can override the default value if they want to.
To add a variable with a default value:

anaconda-project add-variable --default=default_value VARIABLE

NOTE: Replace default_value with the default value to be set and VARIABLE with the name of the variable to
create.
EXAMPLE: To add the variable COLUMN_TO_SHOW with the default value petal_width:

anaconda-project add-variable --default=petal_width COLUMN_TO_SHOW

If you or a user sets the variable in anaconda-project-local.yml, the default is ignored. However, you can
unset the local override so that the default is used:

anaconda-project unset-variable VARIABLE

NOTE: Replace VARIABLE with the variable name.

EXAMPLE: To unset the COLUMN_TO_SHOW variable:

anaconda-project unset-variable COLUMN_TO_SHOW

Changing a variable’s value

The variable values entered by a user are stored in the user’s anaconda-project-local.yml file. To change a
variable’s value in the user’s file:

anaconda-project set-variable VARIABLE=value

NOTE: Replace VARIABLE with the variable name and value with the new value for that variable.
EXAMPLE: To set COLUMN_TO_SHOW to petal_length:

anaconda-project set-variable COLUMN_TO_SHOW=petal_length

Removing a variable’s value

Use the unset-variable command to remove the value that has been set for a variable. Only the value is removed.
The project still requires a value for the variable in order to run.

Removing a variable

Use the remove-variable command to remove the variable from anaconda-project.yml so that the project
no longer requires the variable value in order to run.

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Running a project

Run all of the commands on this page from within the project directory.
To run a project:
1. If necessary, extract the files from the project archive file—.zip, .tar.gz or .tar.bz2.
2. If you do not know the exact name of the command you want to run, list the commands in the project.
3. If there is only one command in the project, run:

anaconda-project run

4. If there are multiple commands in the project, include the command name:

anaconda-project run command-name

NOTE: Replace command-name with the actual command name.

EXAMPLE: To run a command called “showdata”, which could download data, install needed packages and
run the command:

anaconda-project run showdata

5. For a command that runs a Bokeh app, you can include options for bokeh serve in the run command.
EXAMPLE: The following command passes the --show option to the bokeh serve command, to tell Bokeh
to open a browser window:

anaconda-project run plot --show

When you run a project for the first time, there is a short delay as the new dedicated project is created, and then the
command is executed. The command will run much faster on subsequent runs because the dedicated project is already
created.
In your project directory, you now have an envs subdirectory. By default every project has its own packages in its
own sandbox to ensure that projects do not interfere with one another.

Cleaning a project

Your projects contain files that Anaconda Project creates automatically, such as any downloaded data and the envs/
default directory.
Use the clean command to remove such files and make a clean, reproducible project.
Run the following command from within the project directory:

anaconda-project clean

Project removes automatically created files and downloaded data.

To restore these files:
• Prepare the project.
OR
• Run the project.

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Preparing a project

When you run a project, Anaconda Project automatically generates certain files and downloads necessary data. The
prepare command allows you to initiate that process without running the project.
To prepare a project, run the prepare command from within your project directory:

anaconda-project prepare

Creating a project archive

To share a project with others, you likely want to put it into an archive file, such as a .zip file. Anaconda Project can
create .zip, .tar.gz and .tar.bz2 archives. The archive format matches the file extension that you provide.

Excluding files from the archive

Do not include the envs/default directory in the archive, because conda environments are large and do not work
if moved between machines. If your project works with large downloaded files, you might not want to include those
either.
The anaconda-project archive command automatically omits the files that Project can reproduce automati-
cally, which includes the envs/default directory and any downloaded data.
To manually exclude any other files that you do not want to be in the archive, create a .projectignore file.

Creating the archive file

To create a project archive, run the following command from within your project directory:

anaconda-project archive filename.zip

NOTE: Replace filename with the name for your archive file. If you want to create a .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 archive
instead of a zip archive, replace zip with the appropriate file extension.
EXAMPLE: To create a zip archive called “iris”:

anaconda-project archive iris.zip

Project creates the archive file.

If you list the files in the archive, you will see that automatically generated files are not listed.
EXAMPLE:

$ unzip -l iris.zip
Archive: iris.zip
Length Date Time Name
--------- ---------- ----- ----
16 06-10-2016 10:04 iris/hello.py
281 06-10-2016 10:22 iris/showdata.py
222 06-10-2016 09:46 iris/.projectignore
4927 06-10-2016 10:31 iris/anaconda-project.yml
557 06-10-2016 10:33 iris/iris_plot/main.py
--------- -------
6003 5 files

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Sharing a project

To share a project with other people:

1. Archive the project.
2. Send the file to another user—for example, by email, by copying the file to a shared network location, and so
on.
OR
Upload the file to Anaconda Cloud by running the following command from within the project directory:

anaconda-project upload

NOTE: You need a free Cloud account to upload projects to Cloud.

3. The user retrieves the archive file and runs the project.

3.2.4 Reference

The anaconda-project command works with project directories, which can contain scripts, notebooks, data files,
and anything that is related to your project.
Any directory can be made into a project by adding a configuration file named anaconda-project.yml.
.yml files are in the YAML format and follow the YAML syntax.
TIP: Read more about YAML syntax at http://yaml.org/start.html
TIP: You may want to go through the anaconda-project tutorial before digging into the details in this document.

anaconda-project.yml, anaconda-project-local.yml, anaconda-project-lock.yml

Anaconda projects are affected by three configuration files, anaconda-project.yml,

anaconda-project-local.yml, and anaconda-project-lock.yml.
The file anaconda-project.yml contains information about a project that is intended to be shared across users
and machines. If you use source control, the file anaconda-project.yml should probably be put in source
control.
The file anaconda-project-local.yml, on the other hand, goes in .gitignore (or .svnignore or equiv-
alent), because it contains your local configuration state that you do not want to share with others.
The file anaconda-project-lock.yml is optional and contains information needed to lock your package de-
pendencies at specific versions. This “lock file” should go in source control along with anaconda-project.yml.
These files can be manipulated with anaconda-project commands, or with Anaconda Navigator, or you can edit
them with any text editor.

Commands and Requirements

In the anaconda-project.yml file you can define commands and requirements that the commands need in order
to run.
For example, let’s say you have a script named analyze.py in your project directory along with a file
anaconda-project.yml:

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myproject/
analyze.py
anaconda-project.yml

The file anaconda-project.yml tells conda how to run your project:

commands:
default:
unix: "python ${PROJECT_DIR}/analyze.py"
windows: "python %PROJECT_DIR%\analyze.py"

There are separate command lines for Unix shells (Linux and macOS) and for Windows. You may target only one
platform, and are not required to provide command lines for other platforms.
When you send your project to someone else, they can type anaconda-project run to run your script. The best
part is that anaconda-project run makes sure that all prerequisites are set up before it runs the script.
Let’s say your script requires a certain conda package to be installed. Add the redis-py package to
anaconda-project.yml as a dependency:

packages:
- redis-py

Now when someone runs anaconda-project run the script is automatically run in a conda environment that
has redis-py installed.
Here’s another example. Let’s say your script requires a huge data file that you don’t want to put in source control and
you don’t want to email. You can add a requirement that the file will be downloaded locally:

downloads:
MYDATAFILE:
url: http://example.com/bigdatafile
sha1: da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709

Now when someone runs anaconda-project run, the file is downloaded if it hasn’t been downloaded already,
and the environment variable MYDATAFILE is set to the local filename of the data. In your analyze.py file you
can write something like this:

import os
filename = os.getenv('MYDATAFILE')
if filename is None:
raise Exception("Please use 'anaconda-project run' to start this script")
with open(filename, 'r') as input:
data = input.read()
# and so on

anaconda-project supports many other requirements, too. Instead of writing long documentation about how to
set up your script before others can run it, simply put the requirements in a anaconda-project.yml file and let
anaconda-project check and execute the setup automatically.

Multiple Commands

An anaconda-project.yml can list multiple commands. Each command has a name, and
anaconda-project run COMMAND_NAME runs the command named COMMAND_NAME.
anaconda-project list-commands lists commands, along with a description of each command. To cus-
tomize a command’s description, add a description: field in anaconda-project.yml, like this:

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commands:
mycommand:
unix: "python ${PROJECT_DIR}/analyze.py"
windows: "python %PROJECT_DIR%\analyze.py"
description: "This command runs the analysis"

Special command types

Bokeh apps and notebooks have a shorthand syntax:

commands:
foo:
bokeh_app: foo
description: "Runs the bokeh app in the foo subdirectory"
bar:
notebook: bar.ipynb
description: "Opens the notebook bar.ipynb"

Notebook-specific options

Notebook commands can annotate that they contain a function registered with Anaconda Fusion:

commands:
bar:
notebook: bar.ipynb
description: "Notebook exporting an Anaconda Fusion function."
registers_fusion_function: true

If your notebook contains @fusion.register when you anaconda-project init or

anaconda-project add-command, registers_fusion_function: true will be added auto-
matically.

HTTP Commands

anaconda-project can be used to pack up web applications and run them on a server. Web applications include
Bokeh applications, notebooks, APIs, and anything else that communicates with HTTP.
To make an anaconda-project command into a deployable web application, it has to support a list of command-
line options.
Any command with notebook: or bokeh_app: automatically supports these options, because
anaconda-project translates them into the native options supplied by the Bokeh and Jupyter command lines.
Shell commands (those with unix: or windows:) must implement the options themselves. If you’ve implemented
support for these options in your shell command, add the supports_http_options: true field:

commands:
myapp:
unix: launch_flask_app.py
description: "Launches a Flask web app"
supports_http_options: true

In the above example, you’d have a command line option parser in your script launch_flask_app.py to support
the expected options.

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The options your command should handle before specifying supports_http_options: true are:
• --anaconda-project-host=HOST:PORT can be specified multiple times and indicates a permit-
ted value for the HTTP Host header. The value may include a port as well. There will be one
--anaconda-project-host option for each host that browsers can connect to. This option specifies
the application’s public hostname:port and does not affect the address or port the application listens on.
• --anaconda-project-port=PORT indicates the local port the application should listen on; unlike the
port which may be included in the --anaconda-project-host option, this port will not always be the
one that browsers connect to. In a typical deployment, applications listen on a local-only port while a reverse
proxy such as nginx listens on a public port and forwards traffic to the local port. In this scenario, the public port
is part of --anaconda-project-host and the local port is provided as --anaconda-project-port.
• --anaconda-project-address=IP indicates the IP address the application should listen on. Unlike the
host which may be included in the --anaconda-project-host option, this address may not be the one
that browsers connect to.
• --anaconda-project-url-prefix=PREFIX gives a path prefix that should be the first part of the paths
to all routes in your application. For example, if you usually have a page /foo.html, and the prefix is /bar,
you would now have a page /bar/foo.html.
• --anaconda-project-no-browser means “don’t open a web browser when the command is run.” If
your command never opens a web browser anyway, you should accept but ignore this option.
• --anaconda-project-iframe-hosts=HOST:PORT gives a value to be included in the
Content-Security-Policy header as a value for frame-ancestors when you serve an HTTP
response. The effect of this is to allow the page to be embedded in an iframe by the supplied HOST:PORT.
• --anaconda-project-use-xheaders tells your application that it’s behind a reverse proxy and can
trust “X-” headers, such as X-Forwarded-For or X-Host.
A deployment service based on anaconda-project can (in principle) deploy any application which supports these
options.

Environments and Channels

You can configure packages in a top level packages section of the anaconda-project.yml file, as we discussed
earlier:
packages:
- redis-py

You can also add specific conda channels to be searched for packages:
channels:
- conda-forge

anaconda-project creates an environment in envs/default by default. But if you prefer, you can have
multiple named environments available in the envs directory. To do that, specify an env_specs: section of your
anaconda-project.yml file:
env_specs:
default:
packages:
- foo
- bar
channels:
- conda-forge
python27:

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description: "Uses Python 2 instead of 3"

packages:
- python < 3
channels:
- https://example.com/somechannel

An environment specification or “env spec” is a description of an environment, describing the packages that the project
requires to run. By default, env specs are instantiated as actual Conda environments in the envs directory inside your
project.
In the above example we create two env specs, which will be instantiated as two environments, envs/default and
envs/python27.
To run a project using a specific env spec, use the --env-spec option:

anaconda-project run --env-spec myenvname

If you have top level channels or packages sections in your anaconda-project.yml file (not in the
env_specs: section), those channels and packages are added to all env specs.
The default env spec can be specified for each command, like this:

commands:
mycommand:
unix: "python ${PROJECT_DIR}/analyze.py"
windows: "python %PROJECT_DIR%\analyze.py"
env_spec: my_env_spec_name

Env specs can also inherit from one another. List a single env spec or a list of env specs to inherit from, something
like this:

env_specs:
test_packages:
description: "Packages used for testing"
packages:
- pytest
- pytest-cov
app_dependencies:
description: "Packages used by my app"
packages:
- bokeh
app_test_dependencies:
description: "Packages used to test my app"
inherit_from: [test_packages, app_dependencies]

commands:
default:
unix: start_my_app.py
env_spec: app_dependencies
test:
unix: python -m pytest myapp/tests
env_spec: app_test_dependencies

pip packages

Underneath any packages: section, you can add a pip: section with a list of pip requirement specifiers.

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packages:
- condapackage1
- pip:
- pippackage1
- pippackage2

Locking package versions

Any env spec can be “locked”, which means it specifies exact versions of all packages to be installed, kept in
anaconda-project-lock.yml.
Hand-creating anaconda-project-lock.yml isn’t recommended. Instead, create it with the
anaconda-project lock command, and update the versions in the configuration file with
anaconda-project update.
Locked versions are distinct from the “logical” versions in anaconda-project.yml. For example, your
anaconda-project.yml might list that you require bokeh=0.12. The anaconda-project lock com-
mand expands that to an exact version of Bokeh such as bokeh=0.12.4=py27_0. It will also list exact versions of
all Bokeh’s dependencies transitively, so you’ll have a longer list of packages in anaconda-project-lock.yml.
For example:
locking_enabled: true

env_specs:
default:
locked: true
env_spec_hash: eb23ad7bd050fb6383fcb71958ff03db074b0525
platforms:
- linux-64
- win-64
packages:
all:
- backports=1.0=py27_0
- backports_abc=0.5=py27_0
- bokeh=0.12.4=py27_0
- futures=3.0.5=py27_0
- jinja2=2.9.5=py27_0
- markupsafe=0.23=py27_2
- mkl=2017.0.1=0
- numpy=1.12.1=py27_0
- pandas=0.19.2=np112py27_1
- pip=9.0.1=py27_1
- python-dateutil=2.6.0=py27_0
- python=2.7.13=0
- pytz=2016.10=py27_0
- pyyaml=3.12=py27_0
- requests=2.13.0=py27_0
- singledispatch=3.4.0.3=py27_0
- six=1.10.0=py27_0
- ssl_match_hostname=3.4.0.2=py27_1
- tornado=4.4.2=py27_0
- wheel=0.29.0=py27_0
unix:
- openssl=1.0.2k=1
- readline=6.2=2
- setuptools=27.2.0=py27_0
- sqlite=3.13.0=0

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- tk=8.5.18=0
- yaml=0.1.6=0
- zlib=1.2.8=3
win:
- setuptools=27.2.0=py27_1
- vs2008_runtime=9.00.30729.5054=0

By locking your versions, you can make your project more portable. When you share it with someone else or deploy
it on a server or try to use it yourself in a few months, you’ll get the same package versions you’ve already used
for testing. If you don’t lock your versions, you may find that your project stops working due to changes in its
dependencies.
When you’re ready to test the latest versions of your dependencies, run anaconda-project update to update
the versions in anaconda-project-lock.yml to the latest available.
If you check anaconda-project-lock.yml into revision control (such as git), then when you check out old
versions of your project you’ll also get the dependencies those versions were tested with. And you’ll be able to see
changes in your dependencies over time in your revision control history.

Specifying supported platforms

Whenever you lock or update a project, dependencies are resolved for all platforms that the project supports. This
allows you to do your work on Windows and deploy to Linux, for example.
anaconda-project lock by default adds a platforms: [linux-64,osx-64,win-64] line to
anaconda-project.yml. If you don’t need to support these three platforms, or want different ones, change
this line. Updates will be faster if you support fewer platforms. Also, some projects only work on certain platforms.
The platforms: line does nothing when a project is unlocked.
Platform names are the same ones used by conda. Possible values in platforms: include linux-64,
linux-32, win-64, win-32, osx-64, osx-32, linux-armv6l, linux-armv7l, linux-ppc64le, and
so on.
In anaconda-project.yml a platforms: list at the root of the file will be inherited by all env specs, and then
each env spec can add (but not subtract) additional platforms. It works the same way as the channels: list in this
respect. inherit_from: will also cause platforms to be inherited.

Enabling and disabling locked versions

If you delete anaconda-project-lock.yml, the project will become “unlocked.”

If you have an anaconda-project-lock.yml, the locking_enabled: field indicates whether env specs are
locked by default. Individual env spec sections in anaconda-project-lock.yml can then specify locked:
true or locked: false to override the default on a per-env-spec basis.
anaconda-project unlock turns off locking for all env specs and anaconda-project lock turns on
locking for all env specs.

Updating locked versions after editing an env spec

If you use commands such as anaconda-project add-packages or anaconda-project

add-env-spec to edit your anaconda-project.yml, then anaconda-project-lock.yml will
automatically be kept updated.

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However, if you edit anaconda-project.yml by hand and change an env spec, you’ll need to run
anaconda-project update to update anaconda-project-lock.yml to match.
If locking isn’t enabled for the project or for the env spec, there’s no need to anaconda-project update after
editing your env spec.

Requiring environment variables to be set

Anything in the variables: section of a anaconda-project.yml file is considered an environment variable

needed by your project. When someone runs your project, anaconda-project asks them to set these variables.
For example:

variables:
- AMAZON_EC2_USERNAME
- AMAZON_EC2_PASSWORD

Now in your script, you can use os.getenv() to get these variables.
NOTE: This is a much better option than hardcoding passwords into your script, which can be a security risk.

Variables that contain credentials

Variables that end in _PASSWORD, _ENCRYPTED, _SECRET_KEY, or _SECRET are treated sensitively by
default. This means that if anaconda-project stores a value for them in anaconda-project.
yml or anaconda-project-local.yml or elsewhere, that value is encrypted. NOTE:
anaconda-project-local.yml stores and encrypts the value that you enter when prompted.
To force a variable to be encrypted or not encrypted, add the encrypted option to it in anaconda-project.
yml, like this:

variables:
# let's encrypt the password but not the username
AMAZON_EC2_USERNAME: { encrypted: false }
AMAZON_EC2_PASSWORD: { encrypted: true }

NOTE: The value of the environment variable is NOT encrypted when passed to your script; the encryption happens
only when we save the value to a config file.

Variables with default values

If you make the variables: section a dictionary instead of a list, you can give your variables default values.
Anything in the environment or in anaconda-project-local.yml overrides these defaults. To omit a default
for a variable, set its value to either null or {}.
For example:

.. code-block:: yaml

variables: ALPHA: “default_value_of_alpha” BRAVO: null # no default for BRAVO CHARLIE: {} #

no default for CHARLIE # default as part of options dict, needed if you also # want to set some
options such as ‘encrypted: true’ DELTA: { default: “default_value_of_delta” } ECHO: { default:
“default_value_of_echo”, encrypted: true }

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Variables can have custom description strings

A variable can have a ‘description’ field, which will be used in UIs which display the variable.
For example:

variables:
SALES_DB_PASSWORD: {
description: "The password for the sales database. Ask [email protected] if you don
˓→'t have one."

Variables that are always set

anaconda-project ensures that the following variables are always set:

• PROJECT_DIR is set to the top level directory of your project
• CONDA_ENV_PATH is set to the filesystem location of the current conda environment
• PATH includes the binary directory from the current conda environment
These variables always exist and can always be used in your Python code. For example, to get a file from your project
directory, try this in your Python code (notebook or script):

import os
project_dir = os.getenv("PROJECT_DIR")
my_file = os.path.join(project_dir, "my/file.txt")

Services

TIP: Services are a proof-of-concept demo feature for now.

Services can be automatically started, and their address can be provided to your code by using an environment variable.
For example, you can add a services section to your anaconda-project.yml file:

services:
REDIS_URL: redis

Now when someone else runs your project, anaconda-project offers to start a local instance of redis-server
automatically.
There is also a long form of the above service configuration:

services:
REDIS_URL: { type: redis }

and you can set a default and any options a service may have:

services:
REDIS_URL:
type: redis
default: "redis://localhost:5895"

Right now there is only one supported service (Redis) as a demo. We expect to support more soon.

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File Downloads

The downloads: section of the anaconda-project.yml file lets you define environment variables that point
to downloaded files. For example:

downloads:
MYDATAFILE:
url: http://example.com/bigdatafile
sha1: da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709

Rather than sha1, you can use whatever integrity hash you have; supported hashes are md5, sha1, sha224, sha256,
sha384, sha512.
NOTE: The download is checked for integrity ONLY if you specify a hash.
You can also specify a filename to download to, relative to your project directory. For example:

downloads:
MYDATAFILE:
url: http://example.com/bigdatafile
filename: myfile.csv

This downloads to myfile.csv, so if your project is in /home/mystuff/foo and the download succeeds,
MYDATAFILE is set to /home/mystuff/foo/myfile.csv.
If you do not specify a filename, anaconda-project picks a reasonable default based on the URL.
To avoid the automated download, it’s also possible for someone to run your project with an existing file path in the
environment. On Linux or Mac, that looks like:

MYDATAFILE=/my/already/downloaded/file.csv anaconda-project run

Conda can auto-unzip a zip file as it is downloaded. This is the default if the URL path ends in ”.zip” unless the
filename also ends in ”.zip”. For URLs that do not end in ”.zip”, or to change the default, you can specify the “unzip”
flag:

downloads:
MYDATAFILE:
url: http://example.com/bigdatafile
unzip: true

The filename is used as a directory and the zip file is unpacked into the same directory, unless the zip contains a
single file or directory with the same name as filename. In that case, then the two are consolidated.
EXAMPLE: If your zip file contains a single directory foo with file bar inside that, and you specify downloading to
filename foo, then you’ll get PROJECT_DIR/foo/bar, not PROJECT_DIR/foo/foo/bar.

Describing the Project

By default, anaconda-project names your project with the same name as the directory in which it is located.
You can give it a different name in anaconda-project.yml:

name: myproject

You can also have an icon file, relative to the project directory:

icon: images/myicon.png

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No need to edit anaconda-project.yml directly

You can edit anaconda-project.yml with the anaconda-project command.

To add a download to anaconda-project.yml:

anaconda-project add-download MYFILE http://example.com/myfile

To add a package:

anaconda-project add-packages redis-py

To ask for a running Redis instance:

anaconda-project add-service redis

3.3 Help and support

To ask questions or submit bug reports, use the Github Issue Tracker.

3.3.1 Paid support

Anaconda Project is an open source project that originated at Anaconda, Inc. Continuum offers paid training and
support.

3.3.2 Send feedback

Help us make this documentation better. Send feedback about the Project documentation to documenta-
[email protected].

3.3. Help and support 29