CUG-26 Tutorial: Programmatic Access to HPC resources with FirecREST API¶
Date & Time: April 27th, 2026 at 13h
Organizers¶
- Juan Dorsch (ETH Zurich - Swiss National Supercomputing Centre)
- James Womack (University of Bristol)
- Juha Lehtonen (CSC - IT Center for Science)
Abstract
The use of APIs in High Performance Computing (HPC) aims to simplify access and automate processes in traditional HPC settings. In this context, CSCS has developed FirecREST, a RESTful web interface that has proven to be efficient, streamlining the usage of CI/CD pipelines, UX/UI applications, workflow managers, and interactive computing across various HPC environments. This has been demonstrated on Alps, a Cray HPE EX machine featuring heterogeneous hardware including AMD and Nvidia CPUs and GPUs, as well as Grace-Hopper superchips. Moreover, FirecREST is being deployed in other HPE-powered Centres, such as Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS-UK); and the CSC - IT Center for Science, in Finland, that operates LUMI the HPE Cray EX supercomputer owned by the EuroHPC and hosted by a consortium of 11 European countries. The objectives of this tutorial are to facilitate automation of users’ workflows on HPC using a standard programming interface, and promote the usage of APIs on HPE centres in search of a common interface to run workflows across facilities. For further references, the FirecREST team has delivered training on FirecREST in 2023 and 2025 for CSCS users and the general public.
Agenda¶
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 13:00 (30 mins) | FirecREST introduction |
| 13:30 (60 mins) | Hands-on: demo exercises (PyFirecREST and FirecREST CLI examples) in Alps infrastructure at CSCS |
| 14:30 (30 mins) | Coffee break |
| 15:00 (60 mins) | Hands-on: use cases (CI/CD pipeline, UI, or Workflow Manager) |
| 16:00 (30 mins) | Demo: FirecREST in your laptop: containerized deployment |
| 16:30 | Final remarks and end of tutorial |
FirecREST Introduction¶
FirecREST is a RESTful API that enables users and developers to create workflows and services on top of HPC computational and storage resources.
This API acts as a lightweight proxy that receives a standard HTTP request, translates it into HPC business logic, and returns a standard web response to the users.
The idea behind FirecREST is to provide programming standards and documentation to the community to streamline automated access to HPC.
At the same time, for HPC sites FirecREST provides a single point of access for multiple workflows, thus facilitating user support.
FirecREST OpenAPI Specification¶
FirecREST OpenAPI specification
Tip
For more information on the details of FirecREST implementation, please visit the official FirecREST Documentation.