# Get Started

From zero to your first autonomous research paper in minutes.

### 0 Prerequisites

- ☑ Python 3.10+
- ☑ Docker with NVIDIA Container Toolkit (for GPU experiments)
- ☑ An OpenAI-compatible API key (Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, or local LLM)
- ☑ NVIDIA GPU with 8GB+ VRAM (optional, for Docker sandbox)

### 1 Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/aiming-lab/AutoResearchClaw.git
cd AutoResearchClaw

### 2 Install Dependencies

pip install -e .

This installs the `researchclaw` package and all required dependencies.

### 3 Configure Your LLM

Create a YAML config file (e.g., `config.yaml`) with your LLM settings:

# config.yaml
project:
name: "my-first-paper"
mode: "docs-first"
research:
topic: "Your research topic here"
llm:
provider: "openai-compatible"
base_url: "https://api.openai.com/v1"
api_key_env: "OPENAI_API_KEY"
experiment:
backend: "docker" # or "subprocess" for local
timeout_sec: 1800

### 4 Set Your API Key

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here"

### 5 Build the Docker Image (Optional)

If using the Docker sandbox backend for GPU-accelerated experiments:

docker build -t researchclaw-sandbox -f researchclaw/docker/Dockerfile .

### 6 Run Your First Paper

python -m researchclaw run --config config.yaml

The pipeline will execute all 23 stages autonomously. Output will be saved to the `output/` directory including the paper PDF, LaTeX source, experiment code, and charts.

### 7 Review Your Paper

After the pipeline completes, find your generated paper at:

output/<run-id>/
paper.pdf # Final PDF
paper.tex # LaTeX source
references.bib # Bibliography
code/main.py # Experiment code
charts/ # Generated figures
results.json # Experiment metrics

### Tips

- Use GPT-4.1 or newer for best paper quality
- Set `timeout_sec: 3600` for complex experiments
- For Azure OpenAI, set `provider: "azure_openai"` and configure your endpoint
- The pipeline caches literature results, so re-runs with the same topic are faster
- Run `python -m pytest tests/ -v` to verify your installation

View Full Documentation on GitHub