Installing NESTML

Please note that only Python 3.9 (and later versions) are supported. The instructions below assume that python is aliased to or refers to python3, and pip to pip3.

Installing the latest release from PyPI

The easiest way to install NESTML is to use the Python Package Index (PyPI). This requires the Python package management system pip to be installed. In Ubuntu, Mint and Debian Linux you can install pip as follows:

sudo apt install python3-pip

NESTML can then be installed into your local user directory via:

pip install nestml

Installing the latest release from PPA (Linux)

NESTML can be installed via the apt package manager. This requires superuser (sudo) access. First, add the NEST PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nest-simulator/nest

Then update the index and install the necessary packages:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nest python3-nestml
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nest/nestml/refs/heads/main/requirements.txt
python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Installing the latest development version from GitHub

To obtain the latest development version, clone directly from the main branch of the GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/nest/nestml

Install into your local user directory using:

cd nestml
python setup.py install --user

Attention

When using the latest development version, you may also need the development version of ODE-toolbox. It can be installed by running:

pip install git+https://github.com/nest/ode-toolbox

Testing

After installation, correct operation can be tested by:

python setup.py test

Installation with conda (with NEST simulator)

In preparation, create a conda environment with NEST, and install some additional dependencies.

Note

We recommend using miniforge or micromamba in place of Anaconda/miniconda as they have some advantages when installing in larger environments.

Please make sure to have the latest conda version installed and to create a new environment with the command below, i.e. installing all packages together at the start versus installing one by one.

conda create --name <env_name>
conda activate <env_name>
conda install -c conda-forge nest-simulator ipython cxx-compiler boost boost-cpp libboost cmake make
pip install nestml

Alternatively, NEST can also be installed from source in a conda environment. The instructions can be found here.

After installing NESTML, the neuron and synapse models can be found in the path $HOME/miniforge3/envs/<env_name>/models and the tutorial notebooks can be found under $HOME/miniforge3/envs/<env_name>/doc/tutorials. For more information on how to run NESTML, please refer to Running NESTML.

Docker installation

NESTML is installed as part of the official NEST Simulator Docker image.

For detailed instructions, please see https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation/index.html.