| name | complexa-slurm |
| description | Launch Proteina-Complexa pipelines on a remote SLURM cluster — binder search, LaProteina monomer design, or multi-node distributed training. Reach for this skill whenever the user says "launch on SLURM", "submit to the cluster", "submit binder search to SLURM", "kick off training on the cluster", "multi-node training", "cluster job", "sbatch", "remote GPU run", "complexa slurm", "launch_protein_binder_search.sh", "launch_laproteina_train.sh", "launch_laproteina_design_pipeline.sh", "launch on grizzly / polar", "--on-cluster", "run distributed training", "sweep on SLURM", "run all targets on the cluster", "kick off a multi-target binder search", "rsync to cluster", "submit a singleton requeue chain", or whenever a Hydra config / sweep needs to escape a single workstation. This skill drives the launcher scripts under `slurm_utils/`, **always previews with `--dry-run` first**, then submits, captures SLURM job IDs, and emits a replayable manifest. SLURM submission costs cluster time and is hard to reverse, so the dry-run gate is non-optional.
|
| compatibility | complexa CLI installed; bash 4+; .env Section 5 populated; SSH key to CLUSTER_HOST |
| allowed-tools | Bash, Read, Write, AskUserQuestion |
Complexa SLURM Skill
Drive slurm_utils/launch_protein_binder_search.sh,
slurm_utils/launch_laproteina_design_pipeline.sh,
slurm_utils/launch_monomer_eval_from_pdb_dir.sh, and
slurm_utils/launch_laproteina_train.sh to submit Proteina-Complexa jobs to a
remote SLURM cluster. Probe the local + cluster environment first, gather the
right flags, always preview with --dry-run and surface the resolved sbatch
to the user before submission, then submit, capture the job IDs, and emit
slurm_manifest.json for replay.
No complexa CLI involvement. SLURM submission is bash-script-only —
there is no complexa slurm subcommand. The launchers source .env, rsync
the repo, generate sbatch scripts, and call sbatch over SSH. Don't try to
replace them with ssh ... sbatch <<EOF; you'll lose rsync gating, sweeper
expansion, and the --dry-run safety net.
What this skill enables
- Launch the four-stage binder search pipeline (generate → filter →
evaluate → analyze) on cluster GPUs, single-target or via
--targets-file.
Drives all three Complexa design pipelines — protein binder (default),
ligand binder, AME / enzyme scaffolding — by passing the matching
configs/search_*_pipeline.yaml to the launcher.
- Launch LaProteina monomer design (
launch_laproteina_design_pipeline.sh,
default config design_monomer_pipeline.yaml) for unconditional protein
generation.
- Launch multi-node distributed training sized from YAML
(
nnodes_, ngpus_per_node_, ncpus_per_task_train_, run_name).
- Choose between Docker (Pyxis/Enroot) and UV venv runtimes
per-submission via
--runtime.
- Orchestrate Hydra sweeps (
--sweeper) and per-config overrides
(--override) across the cluster.
- Stay safe by default — every submission is gated behind a dry-run
preview the user must approve.
- Auto-download results via rsync (skippable with
--skip-download).
Step 1: Cluster preflight
The local preflight (_shared/scripts/preflight.sh) covers GPU / ckpts / tools
on the local host. SLURM submission additionally needs cluster
reachability, an sbatch binary, and a live partition. Run both preflights.
bash .claude/skills/_shared/scripts/preflight.sh
bash .claude/skills/complexa-slurm/scripts/cluster_preflight.sh
cluster_preflight.sh writes cluster_preflight.json and checks:
.env Section 5 (CLUSTER_USER, CLUSTER_HOST, CLUSTER_ACCOUNT,
CLUSTER_PARTITION, CLUSTER_ROOT_REMOTE, CLUSTER_DATA_PATH,
CLUSTER_RUNTIME) is populated. Runtime-specific:
CLUSTER_CONTAINER_IMAGE (docker) or CLUSTER_UV_VENV + CLUSTER_CACHE_DIR
(uv).ssh -o BatchMode=yes -o ConnectTimeout=5 $CLUSTER_USER@$CLUSTER_HOST true
succeeds (passwordless SSH must already be set up).- The login node has
sbatch on $PATH.
sinfo -p $CLUSTER_PARTITION -h returns at least one node.CLUSTER_CKPT_PATH and CLUSTER_SHARED_MODELS_PATH (if set) exist on the
cluster.- Local repo git SHA (for the manifest).
Do not proceed to Step 2 if any required check fails — fix .env, SSH, or
permissions first. See reference/cluster_env.md for what each var means.
Step 2: Pick the workload
| Intent | Launch script |
|---|
| Complexa design pipeline (protein binder, ligand binder, AME) | slurm_utils/launch_protein_binder_search.sh (pass the matching configs/search_*_pipeline.yaml) |
| LaProteina unconditional monomer design | slurm_utils/launch_laproteina_design_pipeline.sh |
| Monomer evaluation from PDB dir | slurm_utils/launch_monomer_eval_from_pdb_dir.sh |
| Distributed training (fine-tune, RL, base training) | slurm_utils/launch_laproteina_train.sh |
Full flag matrices in reference/slurm_workloads.md.
Step 3: Gather params via AskUserQuestion
Ask only what's missing from context. Suggested order:
- Workload — binder search / LaProteina monomer design / training.
- Target / task (binder) — e.g.
22_DerF21, 02_PDL1, 39_7V11_LIGAND,
or M0096_1chm; or --targets-file path for batch mode.
- Config YAML path (training) — defaults to
configs/training_local_latents.yaml; ask if the user has a different one.
- Runtime override — leave to
.env default, or force docker / uv?
- Sweep — pass a
--sweeper FILE? (binder only)
- Targets file —
--targets-file FILE and --num-runs N? (binder only)
- Already on cluster? — pass
--on-cluster if the user is sitting on the
login node (skips SSH/rsync). Binder script only.
- Keep results remote? — pass
--skip-download to leave outputs on the
cluster. Default is to rsync them back.
Step 4: ALWAYS dry-run first
Build the command and run it with --dry-run. Show the user the full output —
specifically the generated sbatch script body, the Hydra overrides, the
rsync target, and the resource block (--nodes, --gres=gpu, --time,
--partition). Get an explicit yes/no before submitting.
./slurm_utils/launch_protein_binder_search.sh --dry-run 22_DerF21
./slurm_utils/launch_laproteina_design_pipeline.sh --dry-run
./slurm_utils/launch_laproteina_train.sh --dry-run --config configs/training_local_latents.yaml
The dry-run logs "DRY RUN MODE — No changes will be made" and "Would create
slurm_batch_script_*.sh with content: …". Surface that block verbatim.
Why this gate is non-negotiable: every real submission allocates an account
quota, schedules potentially many node-hours, may evict another user's job,
and creates a run directory on $CLUSTER_ROOT_REMOTE that the script refuses
to overwrite. A pre-submission read is the cheapest way to catch wrong
partitions, wrong run names, or a typo in a Hydra override.
Step 5: Submit
Re-run the same command without --dry-run. The launch scripts source .env,
rsync code under a .rsync_lock/, write slurm_batch_script_*.sh to the run
directory on the cluster, and call sbatch via SSH.
./slurm_utils/launch_protein_binder_search.sh 22_DerF21
./slurm_utils/launch_laproteina_design_pipeline.sh
./slurm_utils/launch_laproteina_train.sh --config configs/training_local_latents.yaml
Watch stdout for Submitted batch job <ID> (the helper logs
Submitted <stage> [i/N] with Job ID: <ID>). Training is submitted with
--dependency=singleton repeated --num-jobs times (default 5) — record all
IDs. Binder search and LaProteina design pipelines submit stages sequentially
and wait_for_job between stages, so the caller blocks until the next stage's
IDs are available.
Step 6: Monitor
Take one snapshot at submission time and surface it to the user. Do not
poll — re-invocation of this skill is cheap.
ssh "$CLUSTER_USER@$CLUSTER_HOST" "squeue -j <id1>,<id2>,... -u $CLUSTER_USER"
Log locations on the cluster (under the run directory
$CLUSTER_ROOT_REMOTE/<run_name>/):
| Script | Stage | Log path |
|---|
| binder search | generation | slurm_run_outputs/inf/slurm_<jobid>_<array>.{out,err} |
| binder search | filter | slurm_run_outputs/filter/slurm_<jobid>_<array>.{out,err} |
| binder search | evaluation | slurm_run_outputs/eval/slurm_<jobid>_<array>.{out,err} |
| binder search | analyze | slurm_run_outputs/agg/slurm_<jobid>_<array>.{out,err} |
| LaProteina design pipeline | gen/eval/agg | slurm_run_outputs/{gen,eval,agg}/... |
| training | all | slurm_run_outputs/slurm_<jobid>.{out,err} |
For follow-ups (job still running? failed?), have the user re-invoke this
skill, or ssh $CLUSTER_HOST and run squeue -u $CLUSTER_USER /
sacct -j <id> themselves.
Step 7: Download results
When the user reports the job is done:
- Default (no flag):
launch_*.sh auto-rsyncs results back when the pipeline
finishes. Binder search downloads to
<run_name>-<YYYY_MM_DD_HH>/{inference,evaluation_results} and aggregates
via script_utils/aggregate_successful_samples/aggregate_successful_samples.py.
LaProteina design pipeline downloads to
results_downloaded/<run_name>-<YYYY_MM_DD_HH>/.
--skip-download was passed: results stay at
$CLUSTER_ROOT_REMOTE/<run_name>/ on the cluster. Pull manually with
rsync -az $CLUSTER_USER@$CLUSTER_HOST:$CLUSTER_ROOT_REMOTE/<run_name>/ ./local_results/.--on-cluster was passed: pipeline ran on the login node; results stay
under the current working directory on the cluster.
Training does not auto-download — checkpoints live at
$CLUSTER_ROOT_REMOTE/<run_name>/ (or $CLUSTER_CKPT_PATH if configured).
Step 8: Emit slurm_manifest.json
Drop a single manifest into ./complexa_slurm/ so the user has one file with
everything needed for replay.
{
"timestamp": "2026-05-15T18:32:01Z",
"workload": "binder_search",
"launch_cmd": "./slurm_utils/launch_protein_binder_search.sh --runtime docker 22_DerF21",
"cluster_host": "login.mycluster.example.com",
"cluster_partition": "gpu,compute",
"cluster_account": "my_slurm_account",
"runtime": "docker",
"run_name": "search_binder_pipeline-search-22_DerF21",
"remote_run_dir": "/lustre/.../runs/search_binder_pipeline-search-22_DerF21",
"sbatch_scripts": [
"slurm_batch_script_gen.sh",
"slurm_batch_script_filter.sh",
"slurm_batch_script_eval.sh",
"slurm_batch_script_analyze.sh"
],
"slurm_job_ids": {"generation": "1234567", "filter": "...", "evaluation": "...", "analyze": "..."},
"git_sha": "abc1234"
}
The launch scripts already write .githash into the remote run dir; mirror
that SHA into the local manifest.
Hardware
| Workload | Per-job nodes | GPUs/node | CPUs/task | Walltime (default) | Notes |
|---|
| Binder search (any stage) | 1 | 1 (gpus-per-node 1) | from ncpus_ in pipeline YAML | 04:00:00 | Job array, one job per config |
| LaProteina design pipeline (any stage) | 1 | 1 | from ncpus_ in pipeline YAML | 02:00:00 | Job array, one job per config |
| Training | from nnodes_ (e.g. 12) | from ngpus_per_node_ (e.g. 8) | from ncpus_per_task_train_ | 04:00:00 | Singleton requeue chain (canonical: 12 × 8 = 96 H100 binder finetune) |
Defaults come from generate_array_slurm_header / generate_train_slurm_header
in slurm_utils/slurm_helper.sh. Full per-script breakdown in
reference/slurm_workloads.md.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|
ssh: connect: Permission denied (publickey) | No passwordless SSH / wrong CLUSTER_SSH_KEY | ssh-copy-id, or set CLUSTER_SSH_KEY=/abs/path/key in .env |
Directory ... already exists on remote | A prior run with the same run_name is on the cluster | ssh $CLUSTER_HOST 'rm -rf $RUN_DIR', or change run_name in the YAML |
Container sqsh file not found on cluster | CLUSTER_CONTAINER_IMAGE path wrong | Verify with ssh $CLUSTER_HOST 'ls -lh <image>', or switch to a registry URL |
Missing required fields in <pipeline_config> | gen_njobs / eval_njobs / run_name not in YAML | Re-derive from the canonical pipeline YAML; do not edit a downstream copy |
INVALID_QOS / account ... not allowed in partition | CLUSTER_ACCOUNT lacks access to CLUSTER_PARTITION | Pick a partition the account is bound to; ssh $CLUSTER_HOST 'sshare -A $CLUSTER_ACCOUNT' |
All array jobs PENDING (Resources) indefinitely | Partition oversubscribed or wrong reservation | Try a different partition; check sinfo -p $CLUSTER_PARTITION |
Long list (preemption, container pulls, missing checkpoints, rsync failures,
targets-file format, --on-cluster vs default) lives in
reference/troubleshooting.md.
References:
