Installation

Get PRISM Studio running in 5 minutes.

Quick Start

macOS / Linux

# Clone and setup
git clone https://github.com/MRI-Lab-Graz/prism-studio.git
cd prism-studio
./setup.sh

# Launch PRISM Studio
python prism-studio.py

Your browser will open automatically at http://localhost:5001

Windows

# Clone and setup
git clone https://github.com/MRI-Lab-Graz/prism-studio.git
cd prism-studio
.\setup.ps1

# Launch PRISM Studio
python prism-studio.py

Tip

If the browser doesn’t open automatically on Windows, manually navigate to http://localhost:5001

Requirements

Requirement

Version

Notes

Python

3.9+

Download

Git

Any

Download

Deno

Optional

For BIDS validation (auto-installed by setup)

Windows-Specific Notes

When installing Python on Windows, make sure to:

  • ✅ Check “Add Python to PATH”

  • ✅ Check “tcl/tk and IDLE” (required for folder picker)

Installation Options

Option 2: Command Line (CLI)

For scripting and batch processing:

# Validate a dataset
python prism.py /path/to/dataset

# Run recipes
python prism_tools.py recipes survey --prism /path/to/dataset

See the CLI Reference for all commands.

Option 3: Standalone Executable (Windows)

For users who don’t want to install Python:

  1. Download PrismValidator.exe from GitHub Releases

  2. Extract and run

Note

The standalone version includes validation only. For the full PRISM Studio experience with conversion and scoring, use the Python installation.

Verify Installation

# Check version
python prism.py --version

# Run a test validation
python prism.py examples/workshop/exercise_1_raw_data

Expected output:

PRISM v1.9.1
Validating: examples/workshop/exercise_1_raw_data
...

Daily Health Checks (Run-First)

In repo root:

# quick local sanity
bash scripts/ci/run_local_smoke.sh

# full required gate
bash scripts/ci/run_runtime_gate.sh

Windows:

scripts\ci\run_local_smoke.bat
scripts\ci\run_runtime_gate.bat

Updating PRISM

cd prism-studio
git pull
pip install -r requirements.txt

Troubleshooting

“Python not found”

Make sure Python is in your PATH:

# Check Python version
python --version
# or
python3 --version

“Module not found” errors

Activate the virtual environment first:

# macOS/Linux
source .venv/bin/activate

# Windows
.venv\Scripts\activate

Windows SmartScreen Warning

The standalone .exe may trigger SmartScreen warnings. This is normal for open-source software. See Windows Setup for details.

Folder Picker Not Working

On Linux, install tkinter:

sudo apt-get install python3-tk

EDF/EDF+ Support (Optional)

PRISM can extract metadata from EDF files if pyedflib is installed. This is optional – PRISM works fine without it.

Most users: pyedflib installs automatically via setup.sh/setup.ps1

Windows users without C++ compiler: Pre-compiled pyedflib is bundled in vendor/. Test it:

scripts\test_pyedflib.bat

If you see “✓ SUCCESS”, EDF support is working. If not, you can:

  • Use the bundled version (no action needed – it’s automatic)

  • Or install manually: pip install pyedflib (requires Visual C++ compiler)

See vendor/BUNDLE_GUIDE.md for details.

Next Steps