Setup

Software¶

This tutorial requires minimal software to be installed in advance:

• A computer running an 64 bit version of Linux, macOS, or Windows.

• Pixi

• Git

  • If you are not already familiar with using git and GitHub, please install gh as well to simplify the workflow.

• A text editor or IDE of your choice.

Web Platforms (optional, but encouraged)¶

• GitHub

For this tutorial we would like you to create your own Git repository where you add the results of your work as you move through the tutorial so that you have a sharable form of what you have learned by the end. It doesn’t need to be GitHub (GitLab.com or some other alternative exist) but for the sake of consistency, the instructions will assume you are using GitHub.

Installation¶

Pixi¶

To install Pixi follow the installation instructions for your particular machine and then restart your shell.

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | sh

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm -useb https://pixi.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

Pixi Shell completions¶

Additionally, install the Pixi shell completions for your particular shell choice.

Git¶

You probably already have Git installed on your machine. You can check with

command -v git

If the command doesn’t return a filepath to the git executable, first make sure you have Pixi installed, as described above, and then run

pixi global install git

You can now use the Git anywhere on your machine.

GitHub CLI (gh)¶

If you are not already familiar with git and GitHub, we recommend installing the GitHub CLI to simplify the workflow. To install the GitHub CLI, first make sure you have Pixi installed, as described above, and then run

pixi global install gh

Then log in to your GitHub account with

gh auth login

You can now use the GitHub CLI anywhere on your machine.

Setup a Personal GitHub Repository¶

To share your work from this tutorial, we will create a GitHub repository to store your code and results. This will allow you to easily share your work with others and keep track of your progress, or share it with the Brev instance.

1. Create a personal GitHub account if you don’t have one yet.

2. Add a new repository to your account through this link: Create a new repository.

3. Name the new repository pyhep-2025-pixi-tutorial, make it public, and give it a README and an open source license (e.g. MIT License).

To streamline this you can optionally use the GitHub CLI to create the repository.

Feel free to change any of the options below to suit your needs, but the following command will create a new public repository with a README, a Python .gitignore, and an MIT license:

gh repo create pyhep-2025-pixi-tutorial \
   --public \
   --description "PyHEP 2025 Pixi tutorial" \
   --add-readme \
   --gitignore Python \
   --license MIT \
   --clone

Because of the --clone option, this will also clone the newly created repository to your local machine. Now you can navigate to the newly created repository directory:

cd pyhep-2025-pixi-tutorial

Now you have a GitHub repository set up to store your work from this tutorial.