cmdstan

Install CmdStan (Stan probabilistic programming system)

Install CmdStan, the command-line interface to Stan — a state-of-the-art platform for Bayesian probabilistic programming and statistical inference.

The feature downloads the official CmdStan release tarball, pre-compiles the Stan C++ toolchain during the image build, and configures the CMDSTAN environment variable system-wide so that the installation survives container rebuilds without requiring any per-session setup.

Example Usage

{
  "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:ubuntu",
  "features": {
    "ghcr.io/MiguelRodo/DevContainerFeatures/cmdstan:1": {}
  }
}

With a specific version and R integration disabled:

{
  "features": {
    "ghcr.io/MiguelRodo/DevContainerFeatures/cmdstan:1": {
      "version": "2.36.0",
      "installRPackage": false
    }
  }
}

With Python integration disabled:

{
  "features": {
    "ghcr.io/MiguelRodo/DevContainerFeatures/cmdstan:1": {
      "installPythonPackage": false
    }
  }
}

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
`version`	string	`"latest"`	CmdStan version to install (e.g. `"2.36.0"`). Use `"latest"` to always pull the newest release.
`installDir`	string	`"/opt/cmdstan"`	Base directory under which the versioned CmdStan folder is created (e.g. `/opt/cmdstan/cmdstan-2.36.0`).
`installRPackage`	boolean	`true`	When `true` and R is present in the image, install the `cmdstanr` R package and configure it to use the system CmdStan installation.
`installPythonPackage`	boolean	`true`	When `true` and Python/pip is present in the image, install the `cmdstanpy` Python package and configure it to use the system CmdStan installation.

Notes

How the installation survives image builds

Standard Stan/R workflows (e.g. cmdstanr::install_cmdstan()) download CmdStan into the user’s home directory (~/.cmdstan/), which is often not included in the container image or is overwritten on rebuild. This feature instead:

Installs CmdStan to <installDir>/cmdstan-<version>/ — a system-wide, persistent location.
Creates a stable symlink at <installDir>/current for tooling that needs a version-independent path.
Exports CMDSTAN and updates PATH via /etc/profile.d/cmdstan.sh and /etc/environment, so every shell session automatically sees the correct path.
If R is available, writes CMDSTAN=<path> to R’s Renviron.site so that cmdstanr picks up the system installation without any runtime configuration.

Compilation time

make build compiles the Stan Math library and several C++ utilities. Expect this step to take 3–10 minutes depending on the number of CPU cores available during the build.

Using CmdStan with R (`cmdstanr`)

When installRPackage is true and R is present, the feature installs cmdstanr from the Stan universe and persists the path via Renviron.site. No additional R-side configuration is needed:

library(cmdstanr)
cmdstan_path()   # returns /opt/cmdstan/cmdstan-<version>

Using CmdStan with Python (`cmdstanpy`)

When installPythonPackage is true and Python/pip is present, the feature installs cmdstanpy via pip. Because the CMDSTAN environment variable is set system-wide, cmdstanpy automatically picks up the system installation:

import cmdstanpy
cmdstanpy.cmdstan_path()   # returns /opt/cmdstan/cmdstan-<version>

Using CmdStan directly

After the container starts, the stanc compiler and stansummary utility are on PATH:

stanc --version
stansummary --help

Source

src/cmdstan