Requirements
UCSF ChimeraX
UCSF ChimeraX must be installed on your system. echidna auto-detects ChimeraX on all supported platforms.
Supported Platforms
| Platform | Auto-detected Paths |
|---|---|
| macOS | /Applications/ChimeraX.app, ~/Applications/ChimeraX.app |
| Linux (DEB) | /usr/bin/chimerax, /usr/lib/ucsf-chimerax/bin/ChimeraX |
| Linux (RPM) | /usr/bin/chimerax, /usr/libexec/UCSF-ChimeraX/bin/ChimeraX |
| Linux (local) | /usr/local/bin/chimerax, ~/.local/bin/chimerax |
| Windows | C:\Program Files\ChimeraX\bin\ChimeraX-console.exe |
| Windows (legacy) | C:\Program Files\ChimeraX 1.x\bin\ChimeraX-console.exe |
If ChimeraX is installed in a non-standard location, see ChimeraX Detection for how to configure the path manually.
Flatpak
Flatpak installations (flatpak run edu.ucsf.rbvi.ChimeraX) are not auto-detected because they require a different invocation method. To use a Flatpak installation:
- Create a wrapper script that calls
flatpak run edu.ucsf.rbvi.ChimeraX "$@" - Place it on your PATH as
chimerax - Or set the
CHIMERAX_PATHenvironment variable to point to the wrapper
Optional Tools
uv (Recommended)
echidna uses uv for faster package operations when available. If uv is not installed, echidna falls back to pip automatically.
Install uv:
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh