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Prerequisites & Installation

This page covers everything you need to install and configure before running CROWDio.

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Prerequisites

Requirement	Version / Notes
Python	3.10 or newer
Operating System	Windows, Linux, or macOS
Virtual Environment	Strongly recommended (.venv)
Android Studio (optional)	Required only for building the Android worker

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1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-org/CROWDio.git
cd CROWDio

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2. Create a Virtual Environment

=== “Windows” powershell python -m venv .venv .venv\Scripts\activate

=== “Linux / macOS” bash python -m venv .venv source .venv/bin/activate

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3. Install Dependencies

Option A — requirements.txt (Recommended)

python -m pip install --upgrade pip
pip install -r requirements.txt

Option B — Editable install via pyproject.toml

pip install -e .

!!! warning “Dependency Sources” requirements.txt and pyproject.toml are not fully aligned in all environments. Use one source consistently per environment. For development, requirements.txt is the safer choice.

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4. Verify Installation

Run a quick sanity check to confirm all core modules are importable:

python -c "import foreman; import pc_worker; import developer_sdk; print('OK')"

Expected output:

OK

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Project Layout

CROWDio/
├── foreman/               # Orchestration server, REST API, scheduler, DB layer
│   ├── main.py            # Foreman entry point
│   ├── core/              # ws_manager, job_manager, dispatcher, handlers
│   ├── db/                # SQLAlchemy models, migrations
│   └── api/               # FastAPI route definitions
├── pc_worker/             # Desktop worker runtime
│   └── main.py            # Worker entry point
├── developer_sdk/         # Client SDK
│   ├── api.py             # Public async API surface
│   ├── client.py          # CrowdComputeClient class
│   └── decorators.py      # @crowdio.task decorator
├── common/                # Protocol, serialization, utilities
│   └── protocol.py        # Message type constants
├── evaluation/            # Benchmarking and analysis
│   └── experiments/       # Experiment modules
├── tests/                 # Quick-start runners and sample clients
├── requirements.txt
└── pyproject.toml

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Default Service Ports

Service	Port	Protocol
Foreman REST API	8000	HTTP
Foreman WebSocket	9000	WS
Foreman Dashboard	8000	HTTP
Foreman API Docs	8000/docs	HTTP
Model/Artifact Transfer	8001	HTTP (optional)

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Next Step

Once dependencies are installed, head to Quick Start to run your first distributed job.