# What is AiiDA?

AiiDA is designed to meet the challenges of high-throughput computational materials science, by providing a framework for the automation of workflows, the management of complex data, and the integration of external codes.

Workflow design
: AiiDA provides a powerful scripting API for the composition of workflows, potentially integrating multiple external code computations with advanced error handling capabilities.
: ![Graph illustration](_static/aiida/illustration_graph.png){height=150px align=center}

Workflow execution
: AiiDA provides a scalable workflow engine, which can execute thousands of workflows in parallel and interface with remote high-performance computing clusters.
: ![LUMI hero run](_static/aiida/graph_lumi_her_run.png "55704 Quantum ESPRESSO calculations run on LUMI-C"){height=150px align=center}

Data management
: Data is stored reliably and efficiently, with a focus on the flow of data (its provenance), and searchability.
: ![Data illustration](_static/aiida/illustration_aiida_database.jpg){height=150px align=center}

Extensibility
: AiiDA provides a flexible plugin system to extend the core functionality, with support for external codes, databases, and other features.
: Plugins are available for many quantum chemical codes:
: :::{subfigure} 4
  :gap: 20px
  :layout-sm: 3
  :layout-lg: 6
  :align: center
  ![Abinit](_static/software_logos/abinit.svg)
  ![BigDFT](_static/software_logos/bigdft.png)
  ![Castep](_static/software_logos/castep.png)
  ![CP2K](_static/software_logos/cp2k.png)
  ![Fleur](_static/software_logos/fleur.png)
  ![Gaussian](_static/software_logos/gaussian.jpg)
  ![NWChem](_static/software_logos/nwchem.png)
  ![Orca](_static/software_logos/orca.png)
  ![Quantum ESPRESSO](_static/software_logos/quantumespresso.png)
  ![Siesta](_static/software_logos/siesta.png)
  ![VASP](_static/software_logos/vasp.png)
  ![yambo](_static/software_logos/yambo.png)
  :::

Reproducibility
: With the defined workflows and stored data, it is possible to reproduce the results of a calculation, or to continue a workflow from a previous state.

Shareability
: AiiDA workflows and data can be shared with others, by exporting them to a portable archive format.
: This can be used to share workflows with collaborators, or to publish workflows and data on to cloud archives such as [Materials Cloud](https://www.materialscloud.org/).
: ![Materials Cloud](_static/aiida/mat_cloud_circle.png){height=200px align=center}