Installing the Algorithm Viewer on your Computer

Audience: Anyone who wants to run the Algorithm Viewer on their own computer.

Prerequisites: R version 4.1 or newer. You do not need to install any R package dependencies by hand — they are installed automatically in the steps below.

What you will have at the end: the algorithm.viewer package installed and ready to launch.

1. Check your R version

Open R (or RStudio) and run:

R.version.string

You should see version 4.1.0 or higher. If R is older than 4.1, or you do not have R at all, download the latest version from the R Project website and install it before continuing.

2. Install the `remotes` package

The Algorithm Viewer is distributed on GitHub rather than CRAN, so you install it with the remotes package. Install remotes first (you only ever need to do this once):

install.packages("remotes")

3. Install the Algorithm Viewer

Install the package straight from GitHub:

remotes::install_github("Big-Life-Lab/algorithm-viewer")

This downloads the Algorithm Viewer and every R package it depends on, including the Model Parameters Pipeline that evaluates the algorithms. The first install can take several minutes while those dependencies compile — this is normal.

If you are prompted to update other packages during installation, updating is usually the safest choice, but you can skip the updates if you prefer to keep your current versions.

4. Confirm the installation

Load the package to confirm it installed correctly:

library(algorithm.viewer)

If the command returns without an error, the Algorithm Viewer is installed.

Installing from a local copy (optional)

If you have already cloned or downloaded the repository — for example, because you want to view an algorithm whose data files live inside that repository — you can install from the local folder instead of from GitHub:

install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_local("path/to/algorithm-viewer")

Replace path/to/algorithm-viewer with the path to your local copy.

Next steps