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Create a project

MAX is available as a conda package and we recommend installing it into a virtual environment with the magic CLI. Magic handles your project-specific virtual environments, package dependencies, package lock files, and more. You can also use Magic to install different versions such as MAX nightly builds) for different projects.

note

You can also install MAX using conda.

If you don't have Magic, click here.

You can install Magic on macOS and Ubuntu Linux with this command:

curl -ssL https://magic.modular.com | bash

Then run the source command printed in your terminal.

Create a Python project with MAX​

You can create a new project with magic init. Each project has its own Python version and package dependencies.

Here's how to create a project that includes the MAX Python API:

  1. Create a project in a new path with magic init:

    magic init my-project

  2. Add the MAX Python package with magic add:

    cd my-project
    magic add max

    This ensures that you always have the latest version of MAX. You can instead specify the version using Python version operators. For example, here's how to use any version compatible with v24.4:

    magic add "max~=24.4"

That's it.

You can check the installed max version like this:

magic run python3 -c 'from max import engine; print(engine.__version__)'
24.4.0-59977802-release

To learn more, see the Magic documentation.

Create a project with MAX nightly​

Nightly builds let you try the latest APIs and bug fixes, but they can also include new bugs. However, you can safely use the nightly build in one project without affecting your other projects, because every project you create with magic has its own package dependencies.

  1. Create a new project and specify the max-nightly channel with the magic init -c option:

    magic init nightly-project \
      -c conda-forge -c https://conda.modular.com/max-nightly

    When you include the -c (--channel) option, you must specify all channels for your project. Be sure to include conda-forge (or another conda channel) to install packages other than MAX.

    Or, update an existing project to use nightlies by changing the conda.modular.com/max channel to max-nightly. For example:

    pixi.toml
    [project]
    channels = ["conda-forge", "https://conda.modular.com/max-nightly"]

  2. Add the MAX package with magic add:

    cd nightly-project
    magic add max

Now this project always has the latest nightly build.

GitHub nightly branch

If you clone the MAX repo or Mojo repo, make sure to checkout the nightly branch because the main branch might not be compatible with nightly builds:

git clone https://github.com/modularml/max.git
cd max && git checkout nightly

Next steps​

Learn more about Magic

Discover everything that the Magic CLI has to offer for project management.

Run an ONNX model with Python

Learn to run inference with MAX Engine and a HuggingFace model.

Deploy a model with AWS CloudFormation

Learn how to deploy a model using MAX Engine and AWS CloudFormation.

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