NEST Server -- A Python-based API server for the NEST Simulator

This repository contains a REST-based interface to talk to the NEST Simulator.

Quick start

Install NEST Server with pip

pip install nest-server

Start NEST Server

nest-server start

Command options

Entering nest-server without sub-command prints the documentation:

usage: nest-server [-d] [-h HOST] [-o] [-p PORT] [-t TIMEOUT] [-w WORKERS] {log,pid,start,stop,version}

A Python-based API server for NEST Simulator

positional arguments:
  {log,pid,start,stop,version}

options:
  -d, --daemon          daemonize the server process
  -h, --host HOST       use hostname/IP address <HOST> for the server [default: 127.0.0.1]
  -o, --outputs         print NEST outputs to the console
  -p, --port PORT       use port <PORT> for opening the socket [default: 52425]
  -t, --timeout TIMEOUT
                        workers silent for more than this many seconds are killed and restarted [default: 30]
  -w, --workers WORKERS
                        the number of worker processes for handling requests [default: 1]

Default environment variables

NEST_SERVER_DAEMON=false
NEST_SERVER_HOST="127.0.0.1"
NEST_SERVER_LOGFILE="/tmp/nest-server.log"
NEST_SERVER_PORT=52425
NEST_SERVER_STDOUT=false
NEST_SERVER_TIMEOUT=30
NEST_SERVER_WORKERS=1

NEST_SERVER_ACCESS_TOKEN=""
NEST_SERVER_DISABLE_AUTH=false
NEST_SERVER_DISABLE_RESTRICTION=false
NEST_SERVER_CORS_ORIGINS="http://localhost:*,http://127.0.0.1:*"
NEST_SERVER_ENABLE_EXEC_CALL=false
NEST_SERVER_MODULES="import nest"

Development mode

We recommend to use virtual environment, e.g. with uv:

Install nest-client as an editable package

uv pip install -e .

Run nest-server in an virtual environment

uv run nest-server start

See more commands in Makefile.

References

Documentation
NEST Simulator via its REST-based interface

Release files for nest-server 3.0.0b6

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Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for nest-server 3.0.0b6
File	Size	Uploaded
nest_server-3.0.0b6.tar.gz	20.8 kB	Sep 25, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for nest-server 3.0.0b6
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
nest_server-3.0.0b6-py3-none-any.whl 30.4 kB Sep 25, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 51.2 kB

Release files / nest_server-3.0.0b6.tar.gz

Download URL	nest_server-3.0.0b6.tar.gz
Size	20.8 kB
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Download URL	nest_server-3.0.0b6-py3-none-any.whl
Size	30.4 kB
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Upload date	Sep 25, 2026
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Uploaded via	`twine/7.0.0 CPython/3.13.14`

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Publishing platform: GitHub Actions
Publishing repository: github.com/nest/nest-server
Publishing commit: github.com/nest/nest-server/tree/2d61027049d1ca90e681ae0ba694a6dc2a00ea32

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Publishing configuration: github.com/nest/nest-server/blob/2d61027049d1ca90e681ae0ba694a6dc2a00ea32/.github/workflows/python-publish.yml
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