HyperHerd

⚠️ Pre-release / actively developed. HyperHerd is in soft launch — the YAML schema, CLI flags, and Python API may change without notice between versions. Pin to an exact version (hyperherd==X.Y.Z) if you build on top of it, and expect breaking changes until a tagged 1.0.

Hyperparameter sweeps on SLURM, run by an autonomous agent. Declare your search in YAML, hand over a one-line launcher script, and walk away — herd monitor submits trials in stages, diagnoses failures, retries the ones SLURM can fix, and pings you on Discord only when it can't.

📖 Full documentation: allenwlynch.github.io/hyperherd

What you get

• One-command sweeps. Write a YAML, run herd run, and that's it — no sbatch boilerplate, no manual resubmits.
• An agent that operates the sweep for you. herd monitor ramps trials in stages, diagnoses failures, bumps memory or wall-time when that's the right fix, and only interrupts you when it isn't.
• Two-way Discord control. A dedicated channel per sweep with deterministic slash commands (/status, /run, /cancel, /tail, …) and free-form mentions for the agent.
• Resume from anywhere. Pull the plug, edit the sweep, re-run — completed trials stick, failed ones go back to the queue.
• Edit mid-run. Bump a learning-rate range or add a value; the next herd run appends the new trials without disturbing the ones already running.
• Configs you don't have to memorize. A bundled Claude Code skill writes hyperherd.yaml for you from a one-paragraph description.

Hydra is the recommended trainer harness (its CLI consumes the override format natively), but the launcher is free-form bash — parse the arguments however you want.

Quick start

# Install (Python 3.8+ for the base CLI)
pip install hyperherd

# Install the Claude Code skill for authoring sweep configs
herd install-skill

# Scaffold a workspace
herd init my_experiment

# Edit my_experiment/hyperherd.yaml and my_experiment/launch.sh, then:
herd run my_experiment --dry-run    # preview
herd run my_experiment              # submit
herd status my_experiment           # one-shot status

To run the autonomous monitor (Python ≥ 3.10 + a Discord bot — see Discord setup):

pip install 'hyperherd[monitor]'
herd monitor my_experiment

Have Claude Code set you up

Open Claude Code in your project directory and paste this — it'll walk you through install, config authoring, validation, and (if you want it) the autonomous monitor end-to-end:

Help me set up HyperHerd. Read the setup guide at
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AllenWLynch/hyperherd/main/docs/setup-help.md
and follow it — start with the Phase 0 interview, then drive the rest.

The full guide is also browsable at allenwlynch.github.io/hyperherd/setup-help.

Documentation

• Getting started — install, scaffold, run your first sweep
• Autonomous monitor — the agent daemon: setup, Discord control, failure triage
• Discord setup — one-time bot creation walkthrough
• Sweep config reference — every field in hyperherd.yaml
• Conditions — filter or modify parameter combinations
• Launcher script — contract + examples (Apptainer, conda, non-Hydra)
• Command reference — every herd subcommand
• Claude Code skill — authoring configs by asking Claude

Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.8 for the base herd CLI
• Python ≥ 3.10 for the [monitor] extras (the autonomous monitor — Discord, Claude Agent SDK)
• A SLURM cluster with sbatch, sacct, squeue, scancel on the submission host