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Introduction

Welcome to the NOMAD Development & Plugins Workshop 🎉

The goal of this workshop is to:

  • Set up a complete NOMAD development environment on your Windows PC

  • Learn how to install, modify, and test plugins

  • Practice using Git and GitHub to manage changes collaboratively

  • Build and deploy your own NOMAD Oasis image

By the end of the workshop, you will:

  • Have a working local NOMAD development setup

  • Understand the plugin structure and how to extend NOMAD

  • Be able to contribute changes via GitHub

  • Know how to package and run your own NOMAD Oasis with custom plugins

What we will do and why

This workshop will guide you through the full development cycle:

  1. System preparation
    • Set up WSL2 and Docker Desktop
    • Install additional software (Python, Node.js, Yarn, uv)
  2. NOMAD distro-dev
    • Clone and run the NOMAD development distribution
  3. Plugin development
    • Install and activate a plugin
    • Modify the plugin and test changes (via CLI and GUI)
  4. Collaboration with GitHub
    • Push changes, open pull requests, merge into main
  5. Deployment
    • Build and run a NOMAD Oasis image with your plugin

This end-to-end workflow mirrors how real NOMAD development is done in practice.

Participant check

Before we dive in:

  • Who already has experience with NOMAD, Git, or Docker?

  • Who has used WSL2 on Windows before?

  • Who has installed VS Code and feels comfortable with the terminal?

This helps us adapt the pace of the workshop.

Prerequisites

Please make sure you have:

  • A NOMAD account (https://www.nomad-lab.eu
  • A GitHub account (with ability to fork and push to repositories)
  • Software prerequisites (Docker Desktop, WSL2, Git, Python, Node.js, Yarn, uv, VS Code)

👉 We will check in the next section if these tools are installed and working correctly. If something is missing, we will fix it together.