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CLI vs the web

NEMAR has two surfaces: the web app (nemar.org) and the CLI. They share the same backend, the same accounts, and the same datasets. The difference is workflow style, not capability.

What the web is best for

Section titled “What the web is best for”
  • Signing up. Sign in with ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) or a one-time email code at nemar.org/login; a first ORCID sign-in creates your account as part of that flow, no separate form and no admin review. ORCID is the one identity root for both surfaces: the CLI’s nemar auth login / nemar auth signup open a browser to the same ORCID sign-in, at app.nemar.org/cli/authorize, and land on the same account either way. See Getting started on the web.
  • Browsing and exploring. Discover, dataset detail pages, READMEs, and the citation dashboard live there.
  • One-off uploads. Drop a folder, walk through validation, request publication. No tooling to install.
  • Collaborator management. Inviting and removing collaborators happens on the dataset’s collaborators page.
  • Admin review. The publication-request queue is web-only.

What the CLI is best for

Section titled “What the CLI is best for”
  • Scripted publishes. CI pipelines that publish a dataset version when a tag is pushed.
  • Large / parallel uploads. The CLI uses git-annex parallel transfers for very large datasets that would be tedious to drop in a browser.
  • Server-side workflows. Running on a compute node or a shared lab server where the web UI isn’t convenient.
  • Inspection and version checks. Comparing local vs remote, viewing manifests, and so on.
  • Bulk operations. Managing many datasets where shell scripting wins.

You don’t have to pick one

Section titled “You don’t have to pick one”

Most researchers use the web for sign-in, discovery, and publication review, and reach for the CLI when they need to script something. Same account, same datasets, same permissions; switching back and forth is fine.

Accounts and permissions

Section titled “Accounts and permissions”

The CLI and the web share state through the same backend. Signing in on the web issues a cookie-backed session; signing in on the CLI opens a browser to that same sign-in and, once you confirm, issues an API key instead, named for the machine it was minted on. A laptop and a compute cluster can each hold their own live key for the same account at once; manage the whole set with nemar auth keys (see Authentication). Both surfaces honor the same admin role, dataset ownership, and collaborator permissions.

Terminal window
# Quick start with the CLI (see the full guide under CLI > Getting Started)
nemar auth login          # sign in with your browser
nemar dataset list --mine # show your datasets
nemar dataset upload ./my-dataset

See Installation for the full CLI setup.