Installing bead

bead is a tool for managing external data dependencies in reproducible research projects. Follow these instructions to install bead on your system.

Prerequisites

Python 3.7 or higher
pipx (recommended) or pip

Recommended: Installation via pipx

The recommended way to install bead is using pipx, which installs Python applications in isolated environments:

# Install pipx if you don't have it
python3 -m pip install --user pipx
python3 -m pipx ensurepath

# Install bead
pipx install https://github.com/e3krisztian/bead

This ensures bead is available globally without interfering with other Python packages.

Alternative: Installation via pip

If you prefer using pip directly:

pip install --user https://github.com/e3krisztian/bead

Note: Using --user is recommended to avoid conflicts with system packages.

Installation from source (for development)

To install the latest development version for contributing:

git clone https://github.com/e3krisztian/bead.git
cd bead
pip install -e .

Verify installation

After installation, verify that bead is working correctly:

bead version

This should display the installed version of bead.

Getting started

Once installed, you can initialize a new bead project in any directory:

bead new <project-name>

Or convert an existing project to use bead:

cd your-project-directory
bead init

Next steps

Read the Getting Started guide
Learn about core concepts
Explore examples

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues during installation:

Ensure Python and pip are up to date
Try installing in a virtual environment
Check the GitHub issues for known problems
Report new issues with detailed error messages

System requirements

bead works on:

Linux
macOS
Windows (with Python installed)

bead has minimal system requirements and should work on any system where Python runs.