This documentation is intended for administrators and researchers setting up and managing an OSP deployment or applications. If you are a user accessing an existing OSP deployment, refer to the help resources provided within your deployment.

Guides and tutorials are hosted on OSP's live tutorial environment; the links below will take you to a separate site.

Core Concepts

Understanding these four building blocks will help you configure and use OSP effectively.

App — A structured, versioned definition of a computational tool or workflow. An app encapsulates everything needed to run a job: execution commands, input/output specifications, runtime environment, and system requirements. Apps can be shared across users, published as citable objects, and restarted with their original parameters.

System — An integrated computing or storage resource connected to OSP. A system may be an HPC cluster, a single host, or a cloud instance — on-premises or remote. Users interact with systems through OSP's web interface to run jobs, store data, and manage files.

Data — Files and folders extended with metadata, comments, and sharing controls. Custom viewers and visualization plugins can be added for non-standard file types.

Publication — A structured, versioned record for sharing scholarly content in compliance with FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Publications can be assigned persistent identifiers (DOI, Handle, or ARK) and optionally go through an editorial review workflow before release.

Tutorial Recording and Slides

The 2025 Science Gateways Conference tutorial provides a comprehensive, hands-on introduction to OSP, covering application deployment, UI development, compute integration, publishing, and access management. No programming experience required.

Configuration Guides

Step-by-step guides for administrators to set up and manage an OSP deployment.

  1. Systems - Create a system — connect a compute or storage resource to your OSP instance
  2. Applications - Create an app — define and configure an application for browser-based delivery
  3. Running jobs - Run a job — submit and monitor a job through the OSP interface
  4. Publishing - Create a publication — publish a dataset, notebook, or workflow with metadata and a persistent identifier
  5. User Management - User role management — configure roles and permissions for your deployment 

Sample apps

Identity and Access

OSP supports campus LDAP, SSO systems (Shibboleth, SAML, CAS), and federated identity providers, including CILogon and Globus Auth. Role-based access control (RBAC) is configured per tenant. For detailed guidance on identity and access configuration, contact the OSP team.

Questions or Support

Documentation is actively expanding. If you need guidance not yet covered here, the OSP team is available to help. Contact the OSP team