R Interface to CmdStan • cmdstanr
Description: A lightweight interface to Stan <https://mc-stan.org>. The CmdStanR interface is an alternative to RStan that calls the command line interface for compilation and running algorithms instead of interfacing with C++ via Rcpp. This has many benefits including always being compatible with the latest version of Stan, fewer installation errors, fewer unexpected crashes in RStudio, and a more permissive license.

# CmdStanR

### Overview

CmdStanR is a lightweight interface to Stan for R users (see CmdStanPy for Python).

If you are new to CmdStanR we recommend starting with these vignettes:

- Getting started with CmdStanR

- How does CmdStanR work?

### Goals

- A clean interface to Stan services so that CmdStanR can keep up with Stan releases.

- R code that doesn’t interface directly with C++, only calls compiled executables.

- Modularity: CmdStanR runs Stan’s algorithms and lets downstream modules do the analysis.

- Flexible BSD-3 license.

### Installation

#### Installing the R package

You can install the latest beta release of the cmdstanr R package with

    # we recommend running this is a fresh R session or restarting your current session
    install.packages("cmdstanr", repos = c("https://mc-stan.org/r-packages/", getOption("repos")))

This does not install the vignettes, which take a long time to build, but they are always available online at https://mc-stan.org/cmdstanr/articles/.

To instead install the latest development version of the package from GitHub use

    # install.packages("remotes")
    remotes::install_github("stan-dev/cmdstanr")

#### Installing CmdStan

If you don’t already have CmdStan installed then, in addition to installing the R package, it is also necessary to install CmdStan using CmdStanR’s `install_cmdstan()` function. A suitable C++ toolchain is also required. Instructions are provided in the Getting started with CmdStanR vignette.

### Contributing

There is a lot of work still to be done and contributions are very welcome! If you are interested in contributing please comment on an open issue or open a new one if none are applicable.

### License

CmdStanR, like CmdStan and the core Stan C++ code, is licensed under the following licenses:

- Code: BSD 3-clause (https://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause)
- Documentation: CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)