Coffea-casa: an analysis facility prototype

Abstract

Data analysis in HEP has often relied on batch systems and event loops; users are given a non-interactive interface to computing resources and consider data event-by-event. The “Coffea-casa” prototype analysis facility is an effort to provide users with alternate mechanisms to access computing resources and enable new programming paradigms. Instead of the command-line interface and asynchronous batch access, a notebook-based web interface and interactive computing is provided. Instead of writing event loops, the columnbased Coffea library is used. In this paper, we describe the architectural components of the facility, the services offered to end users, and how it integrates into a larger ecosystem for data access and authentication.