nucl 0.18.0

Minimal ML experiment platform wrapping Azure ML, Vertex AI, and Vercel Sandbox

NUCL

Minimal ML experiment platform. 2,000 lines of code.

NUCL wraps Azure ML, Vertex AI, and Vercel Sandbox behind a unified CLI and web dashboard. No servers to manage, no databases to maintain, no collectors to deploy. Every feature delegates to a managed service.

nucl run --name "vision/resnet-50-v2" --script train.py --gpu-type t4
nucl ps vision/
nucl log vision/resnet-50-v2 -f
nucl pull vision/resnet-50-v2

Architecture

graph LR
    subgraph Clients
        CLI["CLI (Python)"]
        Web["Web Dashboard"]
    end

    subgraph Vercel
        API["Next.js API Routes"]
        Auth["Clerk (auth + API keys)"]
    end

    subgraph Sandbox["Vercel Sandbox (Python 3.13)"]
        AzureSDK["azure-ai-ml SDK"]
        VertexSDK["vertex AI SDK"]
    end

    subgraph Platforms
        AzureML["Azure ML"]
        VertexAI["Vertex AI"]
        SandboxRun["Sandbox (CPU)"]
    end

    CLI -- HTTP --> API
    Web -- HTTP --> API
    API --> Auth
    API -- "job submission" --> Sandbox
    API -. "read ops (list, logs, cancel)" .-> Platforms
    AzureSDK --> AzureML
    VertexSDK --> VertexAI
    Sandbox --> SandboxRun

Job submission spins up a short-lived Vercel Sandbox with Python 3.13 and uses the official cloud SDKs to upload code and create training jobs. Read operations (list, logs, cancel) use direct REST API calls.

Three platforms:

Platform	GPU	Use case
Azure ML	Yes	Production training on Azure
Vertex AI	Yes	Production training on GCP
Sandbox	No (CPU)	Quick tests, no cloud account needed

Getting Started

Install the CLI

uv tool install nucl
nucl --help

For users: join a team and run jobs

Your team admin will have already configured cloud credentials. You just need to log in and start running jobs.

# 1. Log in (opens browser)
nucl auth login

# 2. See your teams and pick one
nucl team list
nucl team set <org-id>

# 3. Check what's configured
nucl team show

# 4. Run a job
nucl run --name "my-project/first-test" --script train.py --gpu-type t4

# 5. Monitor it
nucl ps --platform all
nucl log <job-id> -f
nucl pull <job-id> ./outputs

For admins: set up a team

You need az and/or gcloud CLI installed and authenticated.

# 1. Log in
nucl auth login

# 2. Pick your team
nucl team list
nucl team set <org-id>

# 3. Run the interactive setup wizard
nucl team setup

The wizard will:

• List your Azure subscriptions and ML workspaces (or GCP projects)
• Create a service principal (Azure) or service account (Vertex) for NUCL
• If you lack Owner permissions for role assignment, it prints the exact command for an admin to run
• Save encrypted credentials to NUCL (they never touch anyone's local machine)

Cloud permissions

NUCL's cloud identities must be able to submit jobs, not just read config.

• Azure ML: the NUCL service principal must be able to create jobs on the target workspace. In practice, if submissions fail with AuthorizationFailed on .../workspaces/jobs/write, grant the principal Contributor on the Azure ML workspace or the containing resource group.
• Vertex AI: the NUCL service account must be allowed to create CustomJob resources in the target project and region. If your org requires an explicit staging bucket, configure one during team setup or manual configuration and make sure the service account can write to it.

You can also configure credentials manually:

nucl team config azure
nucl team config vertex

Running a sample job

Create a train.py:

import time

print("Starting training...")
for epoch in range(5):
    loss = 1.0 / (epoch + 1)
    print(f"Epoch {epoch}: loss={loss:.4f}")
    time.sleep(1)
print("Done!")

Run it on Sandbox (no GPU, no cloud account needed):

nucl run --name "test/hello-world" --script train.py
nucl ps --platform sandbox
nucl log <job-id> -f

Run it on Azure ML with a T4 GPU:

nucl run --name "test/gpu-test" --script train.py --gpu-type t4

Experiment naming

Use / to organize experiments into folders:

lung-cancer/detection/yolov9-baseline
lung-cancer/detection/yolov9-augmented
breast-cancer/screening/resnet-50

Filter by prefix: nucl ps lung-cancer/detection/

You can also filter by platform:

nucl ps --platform all
nucl ps --platform sandbox
nucl ps --platform vertex
nucl ps --platform azure

The web dashboard lists all experiments by default. Use the CLI --platform flag when you want to narrow the view to a specific backend.

In-job logging

NUCL does not ship a custom SDK. Use MLflow directly:

import mlflow

mlflow.log_param("learning_rate", 0.001)
mlflow.log_metric("accuracy", 0.95)
mlflow.log_artifact("model.pth")

Both Azure ML and Vertex AI natively support MLflow.

CLI Reference

nucl auth login|logout|status       Auth
nucl team list|show|set|setup       Teams
nucl team config azure|vertex       Manual credential entry
nucl run --name --script [--gpu-type]  Submit job
nucl ps [prefix] [--platform ...]   List jobs
nucl log <id> [-f]                  Stream logs
nucl stop <id>                      Cancel job
nucl pull <id> [target]             Download outputs
nucl mcp serve                      MCP server for AI agents

MCP Server for AI Agents

NUCL ships an MCP server so AI agents (Claude, Cursor, etc.) can submit jobs, check status, and pull results.

Quick setup

bunx add-mcp "nucl mcp serve" --name nucl

This detects your installed agents (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) and registers NUCL as an MCP server. Make sure you're logged in (nucl auth login) and have a team set (nucl team set <org-id>) first.

Available tools

The MCP server exposes all CLI operations: nucl_auth_status, nucl_team_list, nucl_team_show, nucl_team_set, nucl_run, nucl_ps, nucl_log, nucl_stop, nucl_pull, and team config tools.

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
CLI	Python 3.11+, Click, httpx
Web	Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript 6
UI	shadcn, Tailwind CSS 4, TanStack Table
Data fetching	TanStack Query 5
Auth	Clerk 7 (Organizations, API keys)
Job submission	Vercel Sandbox (Python 3.13)
Encryption	AES-256-GCM
Package management	uv (Python), Bun (JS)

Deploying the Web Dashboard

cd web
bun install
bun dev

Environment variables (set in Vercel):

NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_...
CLERK_SECRET_KEY=sk_...
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_IN_URL=/sign-in
NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_SIGN_UP_URL=/sign-up
ENCRYPTION_KEY=<openssl rand -hex 32>
VERCEL_TOKEN=...

License

Internal use only.