Download the full dataset

Use plinder_download when you need a local copy, for example on a compute node without internet access.

Choose a local directory

Files are cached in ~/.local/share/plinder/<release-month> by default. Set PLINDER_MOUNT before importing PLINDER to choose another location. Inspect the configured directory with:

from plinder.core import get_config

cfg = get_config()
print(cfg.data.plinder_dir)

/home/runner/micromamba/envs/plinder/lib/python3.12/site-packages/vcs_versioning/_backends/_git.py:709: UserWarning: "/home/runner/work/plinder/plinder" is shallow and may cause errors
  pre_parse(wd)

/home/runner/.local/share/plinder/2026-09

Download release files

plinder_download downloads the index and representative-cover tables, then asks which larger groups to include. The dataset reference lists these groups.

!plinder_download --help

/home/runner/micromamba/envs/plinder/lib/python3.12/site-packages/vcs_versioning/_backends/_git.py:709: UserWarning: "/home/runner/work/plinder/plinder" is shallow and may cause errors
  pre_parse(wd)

usage: 
    Download published PLINDER release artifacts for the current configuration.

    Source PDB mmCIFs are not included. They are fetched and cached per PDB
    entry when reconstruction needs them.

    Note that even though this is wrapped in a progress bar, the estimated
    completion time can vary wildly as it iterates over larger files vs.
    smaller ones.
    

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --release RELEASE     ingest month for the PLINDER release (YYYY-MM)
  --release-number RELEASE_NUMBER
                        numbered release within the ingest month
  -y, --yes             skip confirmation

Run this in a terminal to include every group without confirmation:

plinder_download --yes

Rerun the same command after an interruption; completed files are reused. Source PDB mmCIFs are fetched separately when reconstructing structures. For offline reconstruction, first cache the entries you need with download_pdb_mmcifs(), described in the structure reference.

Work offline

After the files you need are available locally, set this before starting Python:

export PLINDER_OFFLINE=true