Control Parameters Step
Description
A SEAMM plug-in for defining command-line parameters for a flowchart. This plug-in provides a step in a SEAMM flowchart where a user can define required and optional arguments for the flowchart as a whole. When the flowchart is run, the command-line is parsed and the arguments placed in variables that can then be used by other steps.
This can be used to pass file names or SMILES strings for the molecules to run; or give the temperature and pressure; or any appropriate parameters that the flowchart author feels are relevant.
When run from the command-line, giving the option –help provides help on these control parameters as well as other options for the run:
bash-3.2$ ../flowcharts/psi4.flow --help
usage: ../flowcharts/psi4.flow [options] plug-in [options] plug-in [options] ...
positional arguments:
SMILES The SMILES string for the input molecule
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--method {b3lyp-d3mbj,mp2,ccsd}
The type of calculation
...
Free software: BSD-3-Clause
Documentation: https://molssi-seamm.github.io/control_parameters_step/index.html
Features
Graphical user interface (GUI) to define the parameters.
Mandatory and optional arguments, as well as flags for boolean options.
Default values for optional arguments.
Follows standard, familiar Unix conventions for command-line arguments.
Help provided by -h or –help options.
Credits
This package was created with Cookiecutter and the molssi-seamm/cookiecutter-seamm-plugin project template.
Developed by the Molecular Sciences Software Institute (MolSSI), which receives funding from the National Science Foundation under award OAC-1547580 and CHE-2136142.
History
- 2026.10.20 – Bugfix: a variable defined with only some of its items
A flowchart made with seamm-flowchart or the MCP server could define a variable with only some items, e.g. its type, default and help. Reading the flowchart kept it as given, so submitting the job stopped with the error ‘nargs’. The missing items now take the values the dialog starts with (‘a single value’, optional, not overwritten, no choices), and an item with a value that is not allowed, such as an unknown type, is reported when the flowchart is checked.
Internal: the tests run under uv in CI (test_env.yaml removed).
- 2026.7.28: File-typed control parameters can reference another job
A control parameter of type “file” can now reference another job’s file, via job://<job number>/<name> (SEAMM’s Node.file_path gained read-only cross-job references) – useful for pulling in a file produced by an earlier, separate job.
- 2025.5.7: Bugfix: Error printing lists of values
Fixed a problem printing variables that were a list of floats.
- 2023.11.15: Improved handling of boolean options
Properly support using boolean options on the commandline as just a flag to indicate True.
- 2023.11.6: Bugfix for choices in control parameters
Ensuring compatibility of older flowcharts with improved handling of choices in the control parameters, necessitated by the Web GUI.
- 2023.10.21: Improved handling of choices
When editing the choices for a parameter, the entryfield now accepts the choices separated by spaces. If a choice has spaces or other special characters they can be protected with quotes or backslash in the normal fashion for shell arguments.
2023.7.10: Bugfix handling parameters with 0+ values
The default was not correctly handled for control parameters with 0+ arguments, where they need to be a list.
2023.1.23: Fixed issue with parameters with ‘_’
Fixed issue with ‘-’ and ‘_’ in parameter/variable names
Revamped documentation to the new MolSSI style and diátaxis layout.
(internal) Moved from LGTM to GitHub CodeQL for code quality analysis
2022-6-6: Fixed bugs when editing parameters
Also added button to remove a parameter.
2022.2.9: Added ‘files’ to parameter types
Added ‘files’ to parameter types. Needed for job submission
2021.10.13: Cleaned up the GUI
Made the dialog larger
Show all parameters
Made appropriate comboboxes read only
2021.6.3: Update for internal change in argument parsing
Updated for the SEAMM argument parser moving to seamm_util
2021.2.9: Improved description for the installer
Added to the README text, and made it conform to the standard style
2020.12.4: First working release
Adds functionality to SEAMM for specifying key control parameters, items such as the structure, temperature, and pressure, and use them as command-line parameters. In the future, we will also provide the ability to set them when submitting a flowchart from the Python or web interfaces.
0.1 (2020-10-06)
First release on PyPI.
Metadata
Release files for control-parameters-step 2026.10.20
For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.
Source distribution (sdist)
| File | Size | Uploaded | Provenance | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| control_parameters_step-2026.10.20.tar.gz | 1.7 MB | Without provenance | Details for control_parameters_step-2026.10.20.tar.gz |
Built distribution (wheel)
| File | Interpreter | ABI | Platform | Actions Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| control_parameters_step-2026.10.20-py2.py3-none-any.whl | Python 3, Python 2 | none | any | Details for control_parameters_step-2026.10.20-py2.py3-none-any.whl |
Total release size: 1.7 MB
Release files / control_parameters_step-2026.10.20.tar.gz
| Download URL | control_parameters_step-2026.10.20.tar.gz |
|---|---|
| Size | 1.7 MB |
| Tags | Source |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
a8496853572e1454e128fe4eeb49ea47345cdb83343c44ba8ef3a3665df3d225
|
|
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums |
325e09efb77d1af56b3b4b462f74b408e7f6b68d00b645ec28d87cadc5ed2639
|
| Upload date | |
|
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
No |
| Uploaded via |
twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14
|
Release files / control_parameters_step-2026.10.20-py2.py3-none-any.whl
| Download URL | control_parameters_step-2026.10.20-py2.py3-none-any.whl |
|---|---|
| Size | 20.7 kB |
| Tags | Python 2 Python 3 |
|
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums |
a35cb3e985fa6cd747691467edc54bd2029a66ce5c1e5b534dd976f534aeb294
|
|
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums |
894906fc1ce372954022f96ef0b09c802ce51add68c70ffa9ce9ec2b0ed0c4e9
|
| Upload date | |
|
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing? |
No |
| Uploaded via |
twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14
|
Security for control-parameters-step 2026.10.20
Provenance
Provenance describes where a file came from. On PyPI, provenance is shared via attestations, which provide a verifiable record of the build or publishing details. View details, limitations and caveats.
No provenance found
None of the files in this release were uploaded with provenance metadata.
A note on package security
PyPI is a repository for distributing packages, not a service for auditing them. While third-party security researchers and our staff do their best to detect and remove malicious packages, PyPI cannot guarantee the quality, security or suitability of any given package.
To learn more about protecting yourself from malicious actors, visit our package security documentation.