Get Started

Contents

Get Started#

brainpy.state is the point-neuron modeling layer of the BrainX ecosystem: one differentiable substrate that serves two audiences from the same code.

  • If you come from computational neuroscience, you build biophysical spiking networks, run them efficiently, and analyze their dynamics.

  • If you come from brain-inspired computing / SNN-ML, the very same models are differentiable — you train them with surrogate gradients and scale them with linear-memory online learning.

These three pages take you from a clean install to a running network to the mental model that makes the rest of the documentation click.

1 · Install

Get a working install for CPU, GPU (CUDA), or TPU — or pull the whole BrainX ecosystem in one command.

Installation
2 · 5-minute tour

Build and run an excitatory–inhibitory balanced network, then plot a spike raster. The fastest way to feel what brainpy.state does.

5-minute tour
3 · Mental model

The four big ideas — state, units, composition, and transform — plus the “two worlds, one substrate” framing that runs through the whole site.

The mental model

Where to go next#

After Get Started, the Core Concepts spine explains why the pieces fit together — most importantly the keystone AlignPre / AlignPost — the keystone design. From there, pick your track: BrainPy-style Modeling for native modeling and training, or the API Reference to look up a specific model.