Tutorial

Adding a new MLIP

Integration of new MLIPs currently requires a corresponding ASE calculator.

The following steps can then be taken, using ORB as an example:

1. Add required dependencies

Dependencies for janus-core are specified through a pyproject.toml file, with syntax consistent with PEP 621.

New MLIPs should be added as optional dependencies under [project.optional-dependencies], both with its own label, and to all if it is compatible with existing MLIPs:

[project.optional-dependencies]
chgnet = [
    "chgnet == 0.4.0",
]
mace = [
    "mace-torch==0.3.10",
    "torch-dftd==0.4.0",
]

orb = [
    "orb-models == 0.4.2",
    "pynanoflann",
]

all = [
    "janus-core[chgnet]",
    "janus-core[mace]",
    "janus-core[orb]",
]

# MLIPs with dgl dependency
alignn = [
    "alignn == 2024.5.27",
    "torch == 2.2",
    "torchdata == 0.7.1",
]
m3gnet = [
    "matgl == 1.1.3",
    "torch == 2.2",
    "torchdata == 0.7.1",
]

[tool.uv.sources]
pynanoflann = { git = "https://github.com/dwastberg/pynanoflann", rev = "af434039ae14bedcbb838a7808924d6689274168" }

uv will automatically resolve dependencies of the MLIP, if present, to ensure consistency with existing dependencies.

Note

In most cases, sub-dependencies should automatically be included with the specified MLIP, but a few exceptions can be seen.

For example, orb requires pynanoflann, but does not list it as a dependency. pynanoflann requires a specific git commit, defined in [tool.uv.sources]. Similarly, torch-dftd is not listed as a dependency of mace, so has been manually included.

In the case of alignn and m3gnet, torch and torchdata are listed dependencies, but are pinned to ensure compatibility.

Extra dependencies can then be installed by running:

uv sync --extra mace --extra orb

or, for all compatible extras:

uv sync --extra all

If a new MLIP is not compatible with others, this must be declared as a conflict. For example:

conflicts = [
    [
        { extra = "chgnet" },
        { extra = "alignn" },
    ],
    [
        { extra = "chgnet" },
        { extra = "m3gnet" },
    ],
    [
        { extra = "all" },
        { extra = "alignn" },
    ],
    [
        { extra = "all" },
        { extra = "m3gnet" },
    ],
]

This states that m3gnet and alignn both conflict with chgnet, and by extension, all (due to different torch requirements).

2. Register MLIP architecture

In order to be able to select the appropriate MLIP when running calculations, it is first necessary to add a label for the architecture to Architectures in janus_core.helpers.janus_types.

In this case, we choose the label "orb":

Architectures = Literal[
    "mace",
    "mace_mp",
    "mace_off",
    "m3gnet",
    "chgnet",
    "alignn",
    "orb",
]

3. Add MLIP calculator

Next, we need to allow the ASE calculator corresponding to the MLIP label to be set.

This is done within the janus_core.helpers.mlip_calculators module, if arch matches the label defined above:

elif arch == "orb":
    from orb_models import __version__
    from orb_models.forcefield.calculator import ORBCalculator
    from orb_models.forcefield.graph_regressor import GraphRegressor
    import orb_models.forcefield.pretrained as orb_ff

    # Default model
    model_path = model_path if model_path else "orb_v2"

    if isinstance(model_path, GraphRegressor):
        model = model_path
        model_path = "loaded_GraphRegressor"
    else:
        try:
            model = getattr(orb_ff, model_path.replace("-", "_"))()
        except AttributeError as e:
            raise ValueError(
                "`model_path` must be a `GraphRegressor`, pre-trained model label "
                "(e.g. 'orb-v2'), or `None` (uses default, orb-v2)"
            ) from e

    calculator = ORBCalculator(model=model, device=device, **kwargs)

Most options are unique to the MLIP calculator, so are passed through kwargs.

However, device, referring to the device on which inference should be run, and model_path, referring to the path of an MLIP model, are parameters of choose_calculator, so must be handled explicitly.

In this case, device is also a parameter of ORBCalculator, so can be passed through immediately.

model_path requires more care, as ORBCalculator does not have a directly corresponding parameter, with model instead referring to the loaded GraphRegressor model.

Converting model_path into model is a minimum requirement, but we also aim to facilitate options native to the MLIP, including a default model, where possible:

  • If model_path is None, we use a default ORB model, orb_v2

  • If model_path is a loaded GraphRegressor, we pass it through to ORBCalculator, while renaming model_path for labelling purposes

  • If model_path refers to a model label, similar to the MACE "small" models, we try loading the model using ORB’s orb_ff load functions

Note

model_path will already be a pathlib.Path object, if the path exists. Some MLIPs do not support this, so you may be required to cast it back to a string (str(model_path)).

To ensure that the calculator does not receive multiple versions of keywords, it’s also necessary to set model_path = path, and remove path from kwargs.

If the keyword is used by other calculators, this should be done within the elif branch, but in most cases it can be done automatically by appending model_path_kwargs within _set_model_path:

model_path_kwargs = ("model", "model_paths", "potential", "path")

In addition to setting the calculator, __version__ must also imported here, providing a check on the package independent of the calculator itself.

Note

Unlike in other janus-core modules, any imports required should be contained within the elif branch, as these dependencies are optional.

4. Add tests

Tests must be added to ensure that, at a minimum, the new calculator allows an MLIP to be loaded correctly, and that an energy can be calculated.

This can be done by adding the appropriate data as tuples to the pytest.mark.parametrize lists in the tests.test_mlip_calculators and tests.test_single_point modules that reside in files tests/test_mlip_calculators.py and tests/test_single_point.py, respectively.

Skip tests

To allow arbitrary combinations of MLIPs to be installed, tests for non-MACE extras are designed to be skipped unless their module can be imported.

This is done using the skip_extras function, defined in tests/utils.py. This should be modified for new extras:

def skip_extras(arch: str):
    match arch:
        case "orb":
            pytest.importorskip("orb_models")

Load models - success

For tests.test_mlip_calculators, arch, device and accepted forms of model_path should be tested, ensuring that the calculator and its version are correctly set:

@pytest.mark.parametrize(
    "arch, device, kwargs",
    [
        ("orb", "cpu", {}),
        ("orb", "cpu", {"model": ORB_MODEL}),
    ],
)
def test_mlips(arch, device, kwargs):

Note

Not all models support an empty (default) model path, so the equivalent test to ("orb", "cpu", {}) may need to be removed, or moved to the tests described in Load models - failure.

Load models - failure

It is also useful to test that invalid model paths are handled as expected:

@pytest.mark.parametrize(
    "arch, model_path",
    [
        ("orb", "/invalid/path"),
    ],
)
def test_invalid_model_path(arch, model_path):

and that model_path, and model or the “standard” MLIP calculator parameter (path) cannot be defined simultaneously:

@pytest.mark.parametrize(
    "kwargs",
    [
        {"arch": "mace", "model": MACE_MP_PATH, "model_paths": MACE_MP_PATH},
        {"arch": "orb", "model_path": ORB_MODEL, "model": ORB_MODEL},
        {"arch": "orb", "model_path": ORB_MODEL, "path": ORB_MODEL},
    ],
)
def test_model_model_paths(kwargs):

Test correctness

For tests.test_single_point, arch, device, and the potential energy of a structure predicted by the MLIP should be defined, ensuring that calculations can be performed:

@pytest.mark.parametrize(
    "arch, device, expected_energy, struct, kwargs",
    [
        ("orb", "cpu", -27.088973999023438, "NaCl.cif", {}),
        ("orb", "cpu", -27.088973999023438, "NaCl.cif", {"model_path": "orb-v2"}),
    ],
)
def test_extras(arch, device, expected_energy, struct, kwargs):

Adding a new Observable

A janus_core.processing.observables.Observable abstracts obtaining a quantity derived from Atoms. They may be used as kernels for input into analysis such as a correlation.

Additional built-in observable quantities may be added for use by the janus_core.processing.correlator.Correlation class. These should extend janus_core.processing.observables.Observable and are implemented within the janus_core.processing.observables module.

The abstract method __call__ should be implemented to obtain the values of the observed quantity from an Atoms object. When used as part of a janus_core.processing.correlator.Correlation, each value will be correlated and the results averaged.

As an example of building a new Observable consider the janus_core.processing.observables.Stress built-in. The following steps may be taken:

1. Defining the observable.

The stress tensor may be computed on an atoms object using Atoms.get_stress. A user may wish to obtain a particular component, or perhaps only compute the stress on some subset of Atoms. For example during a janus_core.calculations.md.MolecularDynamics run a user may wish to correlate only the off-diagonal components (shear stress), computed across all atoms.

2. Writing the __call__ method.

In the call method we can use the base janus_core.processing.observables.Observable’s optional atom selector atoms_slice to first define the subset of atoms to compute the stress for:

def __call__(self, atoms: Atoms) -> list[float]:
    sliced_atoms = atoms[self.atoms_slice]
    # must be re-attached after slicing for get_stress
    sliced_atoms.calc = atoms.calc

Next the stresses may be obtained from:

stresses = (
        sliced_atoms.get_stress(
            include_ideal_gas=self.include_ideal_gas, voigt=True
        )
        / units.GPa
    )

Finally, to facilitate handling components in a symbolic way, janus_core.processing.observables.ComponentMixin exists to parse str symbolic components to int indices by defining a suitable mapping. For the stress tensor (and the format of Atoms.get_stress) a suitable mapping is defined in janus_core.processing.observables.Stress’s __init__ method:

ComponentMixin.__init__(
    self,
    components={
        "xx": 0,
        "yy": 1,
        "zz": 2,
        "yz": 3,
        "zy": 3,
        "xz": 4,
        "zx": 4,
        "xy": 5,
        "yx": 5,
    },
)

This then concludes the __call__ method for janus_core.processing.observables.Stress by using janus_core.processing.observables.ComponentMixin’s pre-calculated indices:

return stesses[self._indices]

The combination of the above means a user may obtain, say, the xy and zy stress tensor components over odd-indexed atoms by calling the following observable on an Atoms:

s = Stress(components=["xy", "zy"], atoms_slice=(0, None, 2))

Since usually total system stresses are required we can define two built-ins to handle the shear and hydrostatic stresses like so:

StressHydrostatic = Stress(components=["xx", "yy", "zz"])
StressShear = Stress(components=["xy", "yz", "zx"])

Where by default janus_core.processing.observables.Observable’s atoms_slice is slice(0, None, 1), which expands to all atoms in an Atoms.

For comparison the janus_core.processing.observables.Velocity built-in’s __call__ not only returns atom velocity for the requested components, but also returns them for every tracked atom i.e:

def __call__(self, atoms: Atoms) -> list[float]:
    return atoms.get_velocities()[self.atoms_slice, :][:, self._indices].flatten()