# 5. Workflows¶

The aim of the last part of this tutorial is to introduce the concept of workflows in AiiDA.

In this section, we will ask you to:

1. Understand how to keep the provenance when running small python scripts to convert one data object into another (postprocessing, preparation of inputs, etc.)

2. Understand how to represent simple python functions in the AiiDA database

3. Learn how to write a simple workflow in AiiDA (without and with remote calculation submission)

4. Learn how to write a workflow with checkpoints: this means that, even if your workflow requires external calculations to start, they and their dependencies are managed through the daemon. While you are waiting for the calculations to complete, you can stop and even shutdown the computer in which AiiDA is running. When you restart, the workflow will continue from where it was.

5. (optional) Go a bit deeper in the syntax of workflows with checkpoints (WorkChain), e.g. implementing a convergence workflow using while loops.

Note

This is probably the most ‘complex’ part of the tutorial. We suggest that you try to understand the underlying logic behind the scripts, without focusing too much on the details of the workflows implementation or the syntax. If you want, you can then focus more on the technicalities in a second reading.

## 5.1. Introduction¶

The ultimate aim of this section is to create a workflow to calculate the equation of state of silicon. This is a very common task for an ab initio researcher. An equation of state consists in calculating the total energy (E) as a function of the unit cell volume (V). The minimal energy is reached at the equilibrium volume. Equivalently, the equilibrium is defined by a vanishing pressure (p=-dE/dV). In the vicinity of the minimum, the functional form of the equation of state can be approximated by a parabola. Such an approximation greatly simplifies the calculation of the bulk modulus, that is proportional to the second derivative of the energy (a more advanced treatment requires fitting the curve with, e.g., the Birch–Murnaghan expression).

The process of calculating an equation of state puts together several operations. First, we need to define and store in the AiiDA database the basic structure of, e.g., bulk Si. Next, one has to define several structures with different lattice parameters. Those structures must be connected between them in the database, in order to ensure that their provenance is recorded. In other words, we want to be sure that in the future we will know that if we find a bunch of rescaled structures in the database, they all descend from the same one. How to link two nodes in the database in an easy way is the subject of Process functions: a way to generalize provenance in AiiDA.

In the following sections, the newly created structures will then serve as an input for total energy calculations performed, in this tutorial, with Quantum ESPRESSO. This task is very similar to what you have done in the previous part of the tutorial. Finally, you will fit the resulting energies as a function of volume to get the bulk modulus. As the EOS task is very common, we will show how to automate its computation with workflows, and how to deal with both serial and parallel (i.e., independent) execution of multiple tasks. Finally, we will show how to introduce more complex logic in your workflows such as loops and conditional statements (see this section), with an example on a convergence loop to find iteratively the minimum of an EOS.

## 5.2. Process functions: a way to generalize provenance in AiiDA¶

Imagine having a function that takes as input a string of the name of a chemical element and generates the corresponding bulk structure as a StructureData object. The function might look like the following snippet:

from __future__ import absolute_import
def create_diamond_fcc(element):
"""Calculation function to create the crystal structure of a given element.

For simplicity, only Si and Ge are valid elements.

:param element: The element to create the structure with.
:return: The structure.
"""
from aiida import orm

import numpy as np
elem_alat = {
'Si': 5.431,  # Angstrom
'Ge': 5.658,  # Angstrom
}

# Validate input element
try:
symbol = element.value
except AttributeError:
symbol = str(element)

if symbol not in elem_alat:
raise ValueError('Valid elements are only Si and Ge')

# Create cell starting having lattice parameter alat corresponding to the element
alat = elem_alat[symbol]
cell = np.array([[0., 0.5, 0.5], [0.5, 0., 0.5], [0.5, 0.5, 0.]]) * alat

# Create a structure data object
structure = orm.StructureData(cell=cell)
structure.append_atom(position=(0., 0., 0.), symbols=symbol)
structure.append_atom(position=(0.25 * alat, 0.25 * alat, 0.25 * alat),
symbols=symbol)

return structure


For the equation of state you need another function that takes as input a StructureData object and a rescaling factor, and returns a StructureData object with the rescaled lattice parameter:

from __future__ import absolute_import
def rescale(structure, scale):
"""Calculation function to rescale a structure

:param structure: An AiiDA structure to rescale
:param scale: The scale factor (for the lattice constant)
:return: The rescaled structure
"""
from aiida import orm

ase = structure.get_ase()
ase.set_cell(ase.get_cell() * float(scale), scale_atoms=True)

return orm.StructureData(ase=ase)


In order to generate the rescaled starting structures, say for five different lattice parameters you would combine the two functions. Open a verdi shell, define the two functions from the previous snippets and enter the following commands:

initial_structure = create_diamond_fcc('Si')
rescaled_structures = [rescale(initial_structure, factor) for factor in (0.98, 0.99, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2)]


and store them in the database:

initial_structure.store()
for structure in rescaled_structures:
structure.store()


As expected, all the structures that you have created are not linked in any manner as you can verify via the get_incoming()/get_outgoing() methods of the StuctureData class. Instead, you would like these objects to be connected as sketched in Fig. 5.2.

Fig. 5.2 Typical graphs created by using calculation and work functions. (a) The calculation function create_structure takes a Str object as input and returns a single StructureData object which is used as input for the calculation function rescale together with a Float object. This latter calculation function returns another StructureData object, defining a crystal with a rescaled lattice constant. (b) Graph generated by a work function that calls two calculation functions. A wrapper work function create_rescaled calls serially the calculation functions create_structure and rescale. This relationship is stored via CALL links.

Now that you are familiar with AiiDA, you know that the way to connect two data nodes is through a calculation. In order to ‘wrap’ python functions and automate the generation of the needed links, in AiiDA we provide you with what we call ‘process functions’. There are two variants of process functions:

• calculation functions

• work functions

These operate mostly the same, but they should be used for different purposes, which will become clear later. A normal function can be converted to a calculation function by using the @calcfunction decorator 1 that takes care of storing the execution as a calculation and adding the links between the input and output data nodes.

To turn the original functions create_diamond_fcc and rescale into calculation functions, simply change the definition as follows:

# Add this import
from aiida.engine import calcfunction

@calcfunction
def create_diamond_fcc(element):
... (same as above)

@calcfunction
def rescale(structure, scale):
... (same as above)


Note that the only change is that the function definitions were ‘decorated’ with the @calcfunction line. This is the only thing that is necessary to transform the plain python functions magically into fully-fledged AiiDA process functions.

Note

The only additional change necessary, is that process function input and outputs need to be Data nodes, so that they can be stored in the database. AiiDA objects such as StructureData, Dict, etc. carry around information about their provenance as stored in the database. This is why we must use the special database-storable types Float, Str, etc. as shown in the snippet below.

Try now to run the following script:

from aiida.orm import Float, Str
initial_structure = create_diamond_fcc(Str('Si'))
rescaled_structures = [rescale(initial_structure, Float(factor)) for factor in (0.98, 0.99, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2)]


and check now that the output of initial_structure as well as the input of the rescaled structures point to an intermediate node, representing the execution of the calculation function, see Fig. 5.2. For instance, you can check that the output links of initial_structure are the five rescale calculations:

initial_structure.get_outgoing().all_nodes()


which outputs

[<CalcFunctionNode: uuid: 9bc5e0f5-fbe4-4fad-a0d1-cf5893dac132 (pk: 437) (abc.rescale)>,
<CalcFunctionNode: uuid: 338858ce-779b-455a-8fad-6ac71ba0d1e3 (pk: 434) (abc.rescale)>,
<CalcFunctionNode: uuid: 0c601f8c-aa49-4957-bea1-cd796de4a323 (pk: 431) (abc.rescale)>,
<CalcFunctionNode: uuid: bbe4fab4-6939-4f05-8bcd-5120e03ddade (pk: 428) (abc.rescale)>,
<CalcFunctionNode: uuid: d5e68e04-8ab7-4f3a-90ff-a61f7fd4c247 (pk: 425) (abc.rescale)>]


and the inputs of each CalcFunctionNode ‘rescale’ are obtained with:

for structure in initial_structure.get_outgoing().all_nodes():
print(structure.get_incoming().all_nodes())


that will return

[<StructureData: uuid: 65f50f4c-9925-4362-9c6e-f82eea83f6ce (pk: 423)>, <Float: uuid: 2adb3204-4686-4f6f-a1f5-dc2df7d4aff7 (pk: 436) value: 1.2>]
[<StructureData: uuid: 65f50f4c-9925-4362-9c6e-f82eea83f6ce (pk: 423)>, <Float: uuid: 047406f8-c72c-4e7f-8fb2-947b81a60652 (pk: 433) value: 1.1>]
[<StructureData: uuid: 65f50f4c-9925-4362-9c6e-f82eea83f6ce (pk: 423)>, <Float: uuid: 06c4a6d8-e1a2-4ddc-851d-0fe70860a96b (pk: 430) value: 1.0>]
[<StructureData: uuid: 65f50f4c-9925-4362-9c6e-f82eea83f6ce (pk: 423)>, <Float: uuid: 1e1a3af3-7c76-41ff-b002-2885121cbd9e (pk: 427) value: 0.99>]
[<StructureData: uuid: 65f50f4c-9925-4362-9c6e-f82eea83f6ce (pk: 423)>, <Float: uuid: 0f0cef0b-f1fd-4bf4-b264-78a84ebd5db8 (pk: 424) value: 0.98>]


### 5.2.1. Function nesting¶

Calculation functions can be ‘chained’ together by wrapping them together in a work function. The work function works almost exactly the same as a calculation function, except that it cannot ‘create’ data, but rather is used to ‘call’ calculation functions that do the calculations for it. The calculation functions that it calls will be automatically linked in the provenance graph through ‘call’ links. As an example, let us combine the two previously defined calculation functions by means of a wrapper work function called ‘create_rescaled’ that takes as input the element and the rescale factor.

Type in your shell (or modify the functions defined in create_rescale.py and then run):

from __future__ import absolute_import
from aiida.engine import workfunction

@workfunction
def create_rescaled(element, scale):
"""Workfunction to create and immediately rescale a crystal structure of a given element."""
structure = create_diamond_fcc(element)
rescaled = rescale(structure, scale)

return rescaled


and create an already rescaled structure by typing

rescaled = create_rescaled(element=Str('Si'), scale=Float(0.98))


Now inspect the input links of rescaled:

In [6]: rescaled.get_incoming().all_nodes()
Out[6]:
[<WorkFunctionNode: uuid: d6afac0e-d1b3-4d66-9689-8b3347e6e315 (pk: 441) (abc.create_rescaled)>,
<CalcFunctionNode: uuid: 83b94be8-ded5-4dcf-a929-3d57301d4dde (pk: 444) (abc.rescale)>]


The object rescaled has two incoming links, corresponding to two different calculations as input. These correspond to the calculations ‘create_rescaled’ and ‘rescale’ as shown in Fig. 5.2. To see the ‘call’ link, inspect now the outputs of the WorkFunctionNode which corresponds to the create_rescaled work function. Write down its <pk> (in general, it will be different from 441), then in the shell load the corresponding node and inspect the outputs:

In [12]: node = load_node(<pk>)
In [13]: node.get_outgoing().all()


You should be able to identify the two children calculations as well as the final structure (you will see the process nodes linked via CALL links: these are process-to-process links representing the fact that create_rescaled called two calculation functions). The graphical representation of what you have in the database should match Fig. 5.2.

## 5.3. Run a simple workflow¶

Let us now use the work and calculation functions that we have just created to build a simple workflow to calculate the equation of state of silicon. We will consider five different values of the lattice parameter obtained rescaling the experimental minimum, a=5.431, by a factor in [0.96, 0.98, 1.0, 1.02, 1.04]. We will write a simple script that runs a series of five calculations and at the end returns the volume and the total energy corresponding to each value of the lattice parameter. For your convenience, besides the functions that you have written so far in the file create_rescale.py, we provide you with some other utilities to get the correct pseudopotential and to generate a pw input file, in common_wf.py.

We have already created the following script, which you can download, but please go through the lines carefully and make sure you understand them. We suggest that you first have a careful look at it before running it:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""Simple workflow example"""
from __future__ import absolute_import
from __future__ import print_function
from six.moves import zip

from aiida.engine import run, Process, calcfunction, workfunction
from aiida.orm import load_code, Dict, Float, Str
from aiida.plugins import CalculationFactory

from create_rescale import create_diamond_fcc, rescale
from common_wf import generate_scf_input_params

# Load the calculation class 'PwCalculation' using its entry point 'quantumespresso.pw'
PwCalculation = CalculationFactory('quantumespresso.pw')

@calcfunction
def create_eos_dictionary(**kwargs):
"""Create a single Dict node from the Dict output parameters of completed PwCalculations.

The dictionary will contain a list of tuples, where each tuple contains the volume, total energy and its units
of the results of a calculation.

:return: Dict node with the equation of state results
"""
eos = [(result.dict.volume, result.dict.energy, result.dict.energy_units)
for label, result in kwargs.items()]
return Dict(dict={'eos': eos})

@workfunction
def run_eos_wf(code, pseudo_family, element):
"""Run an equation of state of a bulk crystal structure for the given element."""

# This will print the pk of the work function
print('Running run_eos_wf<{}>'.format(Process.current().pid))

scale_factors = (0.96, 0.98, 1.0, 1.02, 1.04)
labels = ['c1', 'c2', 'c3', 'c4', 'c5']

calculations = {}

# Create an initial bulk crystal structure for the given element, using the calculation function defined earlier
initial_structure = create_diamond_fcc(element)

# Loop over the label and scale_factor pairs
for label, factor in list(zip(labels, scale_factors)):

# Generated the scaled structure from the initial structure
structure = rescale(initial_structure, Float(factor))

# Generate the inputs for the PwCalculation
inputs = generate_scf_input_params(structure, code, pseudo_family)

# Launch a PwCalculation for each scaled structure
print('Running a scf for {} with scale factor {}'.format(
element, factor))
calculations[label] = run(PwCalculation, **inputs)

# Bundle the individual results from each PwCalculation in a single dictionary node.
# Note: since we are 'creating' new data from existing data, we *have* to go through a calcfunction, otherwise
# the provenance would be lost!
inputs = {
label: result['output_parameters']
for label, result in calculations.items()
}
eos = create_eos_dictionary(**inputs)

# Finally, return the results of this work function
result = {'initial_structure': initial_structure, 'eos': eos}

return result

pseudo_family='SSSP',
element='Si'):
"""Helper function to run EOS WorkChain."""
return run_eos_wf(code, Str(pseudo_family), Str(element))

if __name__ == '__main__':
run_eos()


If you look into the previous piece of code, you will notice that the way we submit a QE calculation is slightly different from what you have seen in the first part of the tutorial. The following:

calculations[label] = run(PwCalculation, **inputs)


runs in the current python session (without the daemon), waits for its completion and returns the output in the user-defined variable result. The latter is a dictionary whose values are the output nodes generated by the work function, with the link labels as keys. For example once the function is finished, in order to access the total energy, we need to access the Dict node which is linked via the ‘output_parameters’ link (see again Fig. 1 of Day 1 Tutorial, to see inputs and outputs of a Quantum ESPRESSO calculation). Once the right node is retrieved as result['output_parameters'], we need to get the energy attribute. The global operation is achieved by the command

result['output_parameters'].dict.energy


To collect these results from the various calculations into a single data node, we need one final calculation function to do so. Since the run_eos_wf is a ‘workflow’-like processes, which cannot create data, this operation cannot simply be done in the work function body itself. To keep the provenance we have to do this through a calculation function. This is done by the create_eos_dictionary calculation function, that receives as inputs, the output parameters nodes from the completed calculations:

@calcfunction
def create_eos_dictionary(**kwargs):
"""Create a single Dict node from the Dict output parameters of completed PwCalculations.

The dictionary will contain a list of tuples, where each tuple contains the volume, total energy and its units
of the results of a calculation.

:return: Dict node with the equation of state results
"""
eos = [(result.dict.volume, result.dict.energy, result.dict.energy_units) for label, result in kwargs.items()]
return Dict(dict={'eos': eos})


It constructs a new Dict node that contains a single value eos which is a list of tuples with the relevant data for each calculation. If you were to inspect the returned data node, with for example verdi data dict show you would see something like:

{
"eos": [
[
40.04786949775,
-308.193208771881,
"eV"
],
[
37.6927343883263,
-307.990673492459,
"eV"
],
[
35.4317918679613,
-307.666113525946,
"eV"
],
[
45.048406674717,
-308.308206255253,
"eV"
],
[
42.4991194939683,
-308.293522312459,
"eV"
]
]
}


As you see, the function run_eos_wf has been decorated as a work function to keep track of the provenance. To run the workflow it suffices to call the function run_eos_wf in a python script providing the required input parameters. For simplicity, we have included few lines at the end of the script that invoke the function with a static choice of parameters:

def run_eos(code=load_code('qe-6.4.1-pw@localhost'), pseudo_family='SSSP', element='Si'):
return run_eos_wf(code, Str(pseudo_family), Str(element))

if __name__ == '__main__':
run_eos()


To get a reference to the node that represents the function execution, we can ask the run function to return the node, in addition to the results. Instead of calling the work function to run it, we can use the method run_get_node:

results, node = run_eos_wf.run_get_node(code, Str(pseudo_family), Str(element))
print('run_eos_wf<{}> completed'.format(node.pk))


Run the workflow:

verdi run simple_sync_workflow.py


The command above locks the shell until the full workflow has completed (we will see in a moment how to avoid this). While the function is running, you can use (in a different shell) the command verdi process list to show ongoing and finished processes. You can ‘grep’ for the <pk> you are interested in. Additionally, you can use the command verdi process status <pk> to show the tree of the calculatino functions called by the root work function with a given <pk>.

Wait for the work function to finish, then call the function plot_eos(<pk>) that we provided in the file common_wf.py to plot the equation of state and fit it with a Birch–Murnaghan equation.

## 5.4. Run multiple calculations¶

You should have noticed that the calculations for different lattice parameters are executed serially, although they might perfectly be executed in parallel because their inputs and outputs are not connected in any way. In the language of workflows, these calculations are executed in a synchronous (or blocking) way, whereas we would like to have them running asynchronously (i.e., in a non-blocking way, to run them in parallel). One way to achieve this, is to submit the calculation to the daemon using the submit function. Make a copy of the script simple_sync_workflow.py that we worked on in the previous section and name it simple_submit_workflow.py. To make the new script work asynchronously, simply change the following subset of lines:

from aiida.engine import run

[...]

for label, factor in zip(labels, scale_factors):

[...]

calculations[label] = run(PwCalculation, **inputs)

[...]

inputs = {label: result['output_parameters'] for label, result in calculations.items()}
eos = create_eos_dictionary(**inputs)

[...]


replacing them with

from aiida.engine import submit
from time import sleep

[...]

for label, factor in zip(labels, scale_factors):
[...]

# Replace run with submit
calculations[label] = submit(PwCalculation, **inputs)

[...]

# Wait for the calculations to finish
for calculation in calculations.values():
while not calculation.is_finished:
sleep(1)

inputs = {label: node.get_outgoing().get_node_by_label('output_parameters') for label, node in calculations.items()}
eos = create_eos_dictionary(**inputs)


The main differences are:

• run is replaced by submit

• The return value of submit is not a dictionary describing the outputs of the calculation, but it is the node that represents the execution of that calculation.

• Each calculation starts in the background and calculation nodes are added to the calculations dictionary.

• At the end of the loop, when all calculations have been launched with submit, another loop is used to wait for all calculations to finish before gathering the results as the final step.

In the next section we will show you another way to achieve this, which has the added bonus that it introduces checkpoints in the work function, from which the process can be resumed should it be interrupted. After applying the modifications, run the script. You will see that all calculations start at the same time, without waiting for the previous ones to finish.

If in the meantime you run verdi process status <pk>, all five calculations are already shown as output. Also, if you run verdi process list, you will see how the calculations are submitted to the scheduler.

## 5.5. Workchains, or how not to get lost if your computer shuts down or crashes¶

The simple workflows that we have used so far have been launched by a python script that needs to be running for the whole time of the execution, namely the time in which the calculations are submitted, and the actual time needed by Quantum ESPRESSO to perform the calculation and the time taken to retrieve the results. If you had killed the main python process during this time, the workflow would not have terminated correctly. Perhaps you killed the calculation and you experienced the unpleasant consequences: intermediate calculation results are potentially lost and it is extremely difficult to restart a workflow from the exact place where it stopped.

In order to overcome this limitation, in AiiDA we have implemented a way to insert checkpoints, where the main code defining a workflow can be stopped (you can even shut down the machine on which AiiDA is running!). We call these work functions with checkpoints ‘work chains’ because, as you will see, they basically amount to splitting a work function in a chain of steps. Each step is then ran by the daemon, in a way similar to the remote calculations.

Here below you can find the basic rules that allow you to convert your workfunction-based script to a workchain-based one and a snippet example focusing on the code used to perform the calculation of an equation of state.

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""Equation of State WorkChain."""
from __future__ import absolute_import
from six.moves import zip

from aiida.engine import WorkChain, ToContext, calcfunction
from aiida.orm import Code, Dict, Float, Str, StructureData
from aiida.plugins import CalculationFactory

from create_rescale import create_diamond_fcc, rescale
from common_wf import generate_scf_input_params

PwCalculation = CalculationFactory('quantumespresso.pw')
scale_facs = (0.96, 0.98, 1.0, 1.02, 1.04)
labels = ['c1', 'c2', 'c3', 'c4', 'c5']

@calcfunction
def get_eos_data(**kwargs):
"""Store EOS data in Dict node."""
eos = [(result.dict.volume, result.dict.energy, result.dict.energy_units)
for label, result in kwargs.items()]
return Dict(dict={'eos': eos})

class EquationOfState(WorkChain):
"""WorkChain to compute Equation of State using Quantum Espresso."""

@classmethod
def define(cls, spec):
"""Specify inputs and outputs."""
super(EquationOfState, cls).define(spec)
spec.input('code', valid_type=Code)
spec.input('element', valid_type=Str)
spec.input('pseudo_family', valid_type=Str)
spec.output('initial_structure', valid_type=StructureData)
spec.output('eos', valid_type=Dict)
spec.outline(
cls.run_eos,
cls.results,
)

def run_eos(self):
"""Run calculations for equation of state."""
# Create basic structure and attach it as an output
initial_structure = create_diamond_fcc(self.inputs.element)
self.out('initial_structure', initial_structure)

calculations = {}

for label, factor in zip(labels, scale_facs):

structure = rescale(initial_structure, Float(factor))
inputs = generate_scf_input_params(structure, self.inputs.code,
self.inputs.pseudo_family)

self.report(
'Running an SCF calculation for {} with scale factor {}'.
format(self.inputs.element, factor))
future = self.submit(PwCalculation, **inputs)
calculations[label] = future

# Ask the workflow to continue when the results are ready and store them in the context

def results(self):
"""Process results."""
inputs = {
label: self.ctx[label].get_outgoing().get_node_by_label(
'output_parameters')
for label in labels
}
eos = get_eos_data(**inputs)

# Attach Equation of State results as output node to be able to plot the EOS later
self.out('eos', eos)


Warning

WorkChains need to be defined in a separate file from the script used to run them. E.g. save your WorkChain in workchains.py and use from workchains import MyWorkChain to import it in your script.

Furthermore, the directory containing the WorkChain definition needs to be in the PYTHONPATH in order for the AiiDA daemon to find it. If your workchains.py sits in /home/max/workchains, add a line export PYTHONPATH=\$PYTHONPATH:/home/max to the /home/max/.virtualenvs/aiida/bin/activate script, followed by verdi daemon restart.

• Instead of using decorated functions you need to define a class, inheriting from a prototype class called WorkChain that is provided by AiiDA in the aiida.engine module.

• Within your class you need to implement a define classmethod that always takes cls and spec as inputs. Here you specify the main information on the workchain, in particular:

• The inputs that the workchain expects. This is obtained by means of the spec.input() method, which provides as the key feature the automatic validation of the input types via the valid_type argument. The same holds true for outputs, as you can use the spec.output() method to state what output types are expected to be returned by the workchain.

• The outline consisting in a list of ‘steps’ that you want to run, put in the right sequence. This is obtained by means of the method spec.outline() which takes as input the steps. Note: in this example we just split the main execution in two sequential steps, that is, first run_eos then results. However, more complex logic is allowed, as will be explained in another section.

• You need to split your main code into methods, with the names you specified before into the outline (run_eos and results in this example). Where exactly should you split the code? Well, the splitting points should be put where you would normally block the execution of the script for collecting results in a standard work function, namely whenever you call the method .result(). Each method should accept only one parameter, self, e.g. def step_name(self).

• You will notice that the methods reference the attribute ctx through self.ctx, which is called the context and is inherited from the base class WorkChain. A python function or process function normally just stores variables in the local scope of the function. For instance, in the example of this subsection, you stored the completed calculations in the calculations dictionary, that was a local variable.

In work chains, instead, to preserve variables between different steps, you need to store them in a special dictionary called context. As explained above, the context variable ctx is inherited from the base class WorkChain, and at each step method you just need to update its content. AiiDA will take care of saving the context somewhere between workflow steps (on disk, in the database, depending on how AiiDA was configured). For your convenience, you can also access the value of a context variable as self.ctx.varname instead of self.ctx['varname'].

• Any submission within the workflow should not call the normal run or submit functions, but self.submit to which you have to pass the process class, and a dictionary of inputs.

• The submission in run_eos returns a future and not the actual calculation, because at that point in time we have only just launched the calculation to the daemon and it is not yet completed. Therefore it literally is a ‘future’ result. Yet we still need to add these futures to the context, so that in the next step of the workchain, when the calculations are in fact completed, we can access them and continue the work. To do this, we can use the ToContext class. This class takes a dictionary, where the values are the futures and the keys will be the names under which the corresponding calculations will be made available in the context when they are done. See how the ToContext object is created and returned in run_eos. By doing this, the workchain will implicitly wait for the results of all the futures you have specified, and then call the next step only when all futures have completed.

• Return values: While in normal process functions you attach output nodes to the node by invoking the return statement, in a workchain you need to call self.out(link_name, node) for each node you want to return. Of course, if you have already prepared a dictionary of outputs, you can just use the following syntax:

self.out_many(retdict)  # Keys are link names, value the nodes


The advantage of this different syntax is that you can start emitting output nodes already in the middle of the execution, and not necessarily at the very end as it happens for normal functions (return is always the last instruction executed in a function or method). Also, note that once you have called self.out(link_name, node) on a given link_name, you can no longer call self.out() on the same link_name: this will raise an exception.

Finally, the workflow has to be run. For this you have to use the function run passing as arguments the EquationOfState class and the inputs as key-value arguments. For example, you can execute:

from aiida.engine import run


While the workflow is running, you can check (in a different terminal) what is happening to the calculations using verdi process list. You will see that after a few seconds the calculations are all submitted to the scheduler and can potentially run at the same time.

Warning

The calculations launched by the work chain will now be submitted to the daemon, instead of run in the same interpreter However, by using run on the work chain itself, it will still not be able to restart. To make the work chain save its checkpoints, you should use the submit launcher instead.

As an additional exercise (optional), instead of running the main workflow EquationOfState, try to submit it. Note that the file where the work chains is defined will need to be globally importable (so the daemon knows how to load it) and you need to launch it (with submit) from a different python file. The easiest way to achieve this is typically to embed the workflow inside a python package.

Note

As good practice, you should try to keep the steps as short as possible in term of execution time. The reason is that the daemon can be stopped and restarted only between execution steps and not if a step is in the middle of a long execution.

Finally, as an optional exercise if you have time, you can jump to this appendix, which shows how to introduce more complex logic into your work chains (if conditionals, while loops etc.). The exercise will show how to realize a convergence loop to obtain the minimum-volume structure in a EOS using the Newton’s algorithm.

Note

You might see warnings that say Exception trying to save checkpoint, this means you will not be able to restart in case of a crash until the next successful checkpoint. These are generated by the PwCalculation which is unable to save a checkpoint because it is not in a so called ‘importable path’. Simply put, this means that if AiiDA were to try and reload the class it wouldn’t know which file to find it in. To get around this you could simply put the workchain in a different file that is in the ‘PYTHONPATH’ and then launch it by importing it in your launch file. In this way AiiDA knows where to find it next time it loads the checkpoint.

Footnotes

1

In simple words, a decorator is a function that modifies the behavior of another function. In python, a function can be decorated by adding a line of the form @decorating_function_name on the line just before the def line of the decorated function. If you want to know more, there are many online resources explaining python decorators.