psyexp-core

Task-agnostic harness for PsychoPy experiments, shared across the lab's task repos (heat-task, mid-task, mid-task-deterministic). It owns the plumbing that every task duplicates; each task repo keeps only its own stimuli, trial logic, and record schemas.

What's in here

Module	Responsibility
screen	setup_screen() — open a fullscreen PsychoPy window, enable VSYNC, run a frame-timing calibration, and return a ScreenDiagnostics.
diagnostics	The ScreenDiagnostics dataclass (import-light; no PsychoPy).
rundir	make_run_dir(data_dir, label, session_started_at) — timestamped output directory.
manifest	write_manifest(...) + system_info() — JSON run manifest with system/display/process diagnostics and the resolved psyexp_core_version. App-specific fields are injected via header / study_params.
recording	CsvWriter base class (maps a dataclass record onto a fixed column schema).
wizard	questionary / prompt_toolkit setup-wizard primitives: shared styles, ask_text / ask_select / ask_confirm, PosFloatValidator, prompt_unique_name, quit_app.
instructions	page_through(...) — a self-paced, keypress-driven instruction pager.
keyboard	PTB / PsychoPy-event keyboard abstraction: build_keyboard / get_keys / wait_for_keys / clear_events, plus the timed-press API for response windows — get_presses (name + rt), reset_clock_on_flip / reset_clock / clock_time.

Install

psyexp-core is published on PyPI, so the released harness installs like any other dependency:

uv add psyexp-core          # or: pip install psyexp-core

# your-task/pyproject.toml
dependencies = ["psyexp-core>=0.5"]

Requires Python 3.11+. On macOS the pyobjc-framework-quartz dependency is pulled in automatically for display diagnostics.

Use from a task repo

You can keep the plain PyPI dependency above, or override the source while developing. For day-to-day work, point at a local checkout so edits are live without reinstalling:

# your-task/pyproject.toml
dependencies = ["psyexp-core"]

[tool.uv.sources]
psyexp-core = { path = "../psyexp-core", editable = true }

For a reproducible build pinned ahead of (or instead of) a PyPI release, pin a tagged git ref instead:

[tool.uv.sources]
psyexp-core = { git = "ssh://git@github.com/HAPNlab/psyexp-core.git", tag = "v0.5.1" }

write_manifest records the resolved psyexp_core_version so each run is traceable back to a core version.

Co-developing core while a task repo keeps the git pin

Lab task repos (e.g. heat-task) commit the git-tag source above so clones reproduce exactly, then overlay a local editable install for development:

uv pip install -e ../psyexp-core

Gotcha: uv run re-syncs the task venv from its uv.lock on every launch, which reverts that editable install straight back to the pinned tag (symptoms: your local core edits silently don't take effect). Set UV_NO_SYNC=1 in the task repo (export it in your shell, or use uv run --no-sync) so the editable overlay sticks; run a manual uv sync only when you change other deps, then re-run the editable install. See heat-task's README ("Co-developing psyexp-core locally") for the full workflow.

Releasing

Tagging and the PyPI upload are deliberately separate, so tags stay cheap to iterate on:

1. Bump + lock + changelog, then tag vX.Y.Z. The tag runs release.yml: the checks, a published GitHub Release, and a built wheel — but it does not upload to PyPI on its own.
2. The same run pauses on the pypi environment for reviewer approval. Approve it to upload to PyPI via Trusted Publishing (OIDC; no API token stored), or reject to abort.

PyPI versions are immutable, so retagging never republishes; bump the version to ship new code. See docs/releasing.md for the full process, SemVer policy, pre-releases, retag semantics, and the one-time PyPI setup.