{"slug": "show-hn-hpc-hub-an-app-for-working-with-hpc-clusters", "title": "Show HN: HPC-Hub, an app for working with HPC clusters", "summary": "A developer released HPC-Hub, a desktop application for Linux, Windows and macOS that connects to high-performance computing clusters with one click, handling VPN, SSH and Duo authentication and opening VS Code, Claude or a terminal on a compute node. HPC-Hub ships preconfigured for NJIT Wulver, Yale Bouchet and SDSC Expanse, and adds job and usage monitoring, Globus transfers, tmux-backed terminals, and the ability to run Claude, Codex, Antigravity or Cursor agents on a compute node with command restrictions. The installers are unsigned, so systems warn on first launch, and credentials are stored in the OS keyring rather than in the ~/.config/hpc-hub settings, with the exception of VS Code's GitHub sign-in, which stays unencrypted in the cluster home folder.", "body_md": "An app for working on HPC clusters from Linux, Windows and macOS (Android is on the way). One click connects you (VPN, SSH, Duo or a code from your authenticator app), gets you a compute node, and opens VS Code, Claude or a terminal there. Files, jobs, Globus transfers and LaTeX are in the same window.\n\nIt comes set up for NJIT Wulver, Yale Bouchet and SDSC Expanse. You can add other clusters in Settings.\n\n| Projects | Jobs | \n|---|---|\n\n- **Clusters** : connect with one button. VPN, SSH and Duo push are handled for you. Ask for a compute node with the\ncores, memory and time you saved for that cluster.\n- **Jobs and usage** : your jobs, your history or everyone's, with filters, details and cancel. Service units per\nperson and storage quotas.\n- **Projects** : name a folder on a cluster and open it in VS Code, Claude, Files or LaTeX in one click. Copy or sync a\nproject, with its Claude chats, to another cluster.\n- **Terminals** : tmux sessions on the cluster, so VS Code tunnels and agents keep running when you close the laptop.\n- **Agents** : run Claude, Codex, Antigravity or Cursor on a compute node, and choose which commands they may run.\n- **Files** : browse, preview PDFs and images, edit, zip, upload and download. Copy between clusters directly or with\nGlobus, with live progress.\n- **Globus** : sign in once. The app finds each cluster's collection by itself and asks only for the permissions\nGlobus needs.\n\nExperimental, off until you turn them on in Settings:\n\n- **LaTeX** : an Overleaf-like editor for projects on the cluster. Build with latexmk, jump between source and PDF,\nsee git history, pull and push.\n- **Skills** : add skills to Claude and Codex on each cluster, from HPC Hub's set or any git repository.\n- **Scheduled agents** : an agent runs a task on its own, for example every night at 02:00.\n\n- Usernames and passwords are typed into the app and kept in your system's keyring (GNOME Keyring, macOS Keychain,\nWindows Credential Manager; on Android an encrypted file whose key stays in the phone's Keystore), never in plain\ntext and never hardcoded. Settings in `~/.config/hpc-hub` hold no secrets.\n- Globus sign-in uses OAuth with PKCE in your own browser. Tokens are kept in the keyring.\n- Your saved VPN password is typed only into sign-in pages of your university's own site or a known sign-in provider, over https.\n- One exception, on the cluster: VS Code keeps its GitHub sign-in in your home folder there, unencrypted, so a\ntunnel on a new node does not ask you again. Sign out with `code tunnel user logout` if you don't want that.\n\nDownload the file for your system from [Releases](https://github.com/bavanDA/hpc-hub/releases). The installers are not signed yet, so your\nsystem warns you the first time.\n\n1. Run the `-setup.exe` (or the`.msi` ). If Windows says \"Windows protected your PC\", click**More info** , then**Run anyway** .\n2. Open HPC Hub from the Start menu.\n3. The first time you connect a cluster with a VPN (Wulver, Yale), HPC Hub asks to set up its VPN helper. Click\n**Set up** and approve the Windows prompt. This happens once.\n\n1. Open the `.dmg` and drag HPC Hub to Applications.\n2. Open it. macOS says it can't check the app: go to **System Settings, Privacy & Security** , scroll down and click**Open Anyway** . This happens once.\n3. The first time you connect a cluster with a VPN, approve \"Set up the VPN helper\" and type your Mac password once.\n\nOn Windows and macOS the VPN sends all your DNS through the university while it is up, and Disconnect on Windows doesn't sign you out on the VPN server (it ends by itself).\n\n- Ubuntu, Debian: `sudo apt install ./HPC-Hub_*_linux_amd64.deb`\n- Fedora, RHEL: `sudo dnf install ./HPC-Hub_*_linux_x86_64.rpm`\n- Any other: `chmod +x HPC-Hub_*.AppImage` and run it.\n\nThe VPN needs `openconnect` from your distribution. A VPN that signs in on the university's web page (Yale's)\nalso needs PyGObject with GTK 4 and WebKitGTK 6: `python3-gi gir1.2-webkit-6.0` on Ubuntu and Debian,\n`python3-gobject webkitgtk6.0` on Fedora.\n\nNot released yet. To try it, build it yourself (see [docs/design/android.md](https://github.com/bavanDA/hpc-hub/blob/main/docs/design/android.md)). It will come\nto Google Play and F-Droid. To log in, open HPC Hub's menu on your computer, then Set up the phone app, and scan the\nQR code with the phone.\n\nGlobus copies need a free Globus app id. Make one at app.globus.org/settings/developers (choose a native app, name it\nHPC Hub, redirect URL `https://auth.globus.org/v2/web/auth-code`) and paste it on the Globus page.\n\n```\napp/          desktop app: Tauri (src-tauri, Rust) and React (src)\nmobile/       Android app; reuses app/src\nhpc_hub/      Python backend the apps talk to over JSON-RPC\n  api/        the RPC server and one module per feature in methods/\n  core/       config, keyring, SSH: used by every feature\n  connect/    VPN, sign-in, Duo\n  compute/    Slurm, compute nodes, jobs, usage\n  files/      browse, edit and copy files on the clusters\n  globus/     Globus sign-in, collections and transfers\n  agents/     Claude and other agents, chats, skills, permissions\n  latex/      LaTeX editor, build, SyncTeX, git\n  pdf/        PDF tools and read aloud\n  projects/   named project folders and copying them across clusters\n  terminals/  tmux sessions\n  backup/     backups of cluster folders\nbin/          helpers ssh and openconnect call (askpass, SSO)\npackaging/    the frozen backend and release settings\ntests/        same folders as hpc_hub/\npython3 -m venv .venv\n.venv/bin/pip install pytest ruff -r packaging/requirements-backend.txt\n.venv/bin/python -m pytest -q\n.venv/bin/ruff check hpc_hub tests packaging\n\ncd app && npm ci\nnpm run tauri dev      # the desktop app\nnpx tsc -b && npm test # types and frontend tests\n```\n\nGuidelines:\n\n- Each feature has its own folder in `hpc_hub/` and in`app/src/components/` . Logic that parses output or builds\nshell commands has tests. Shared test fakes are in`tests/helpers.py` .\n- One job per file. A file over about 300 lines should be split.\n- Remote commands go through `SshMaster.run` . Quote paths with`shlex.quote` .\n- Never hardcode usernames, passwords or personal paths, including in tests. Use made-up names like `jdoe` .\n- Few comments, and only ones that say why. Lines up to 120 characters.\n- UI text: plain and short, no em or en dashes.\n- Commits: atomic, `type(scope): short msg` .\n\nMIT, see [LICENSE](https://github.com/bavanDA/hpc-hub/blob/main/LICENSE).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-hpc-hub-an-app-for-working-with-hpc-clusters", "canonical_source": "https://github.com/bavanDA/hpc-hub", "published_at": "2026-11-12 22:09:02+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-11-12 22:21:48.974648+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-tools", "developer-tools", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["HPC-Hub", "NJIT Wulver", "Yale Bouchet", "SDSC Expanse", "Claude", "Codex", "Antigravity", "Cursor"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-hpc-hub-an-app-for-working-with-hpc-clusters", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-hpc-hub-an-app-for-working-with-hpc-clusters.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-hpc-hub-an-app-for-working-with-hpc-clusters.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-hpc-hub-an-app-for-working-with-hpc-clusters.jsonld"}}