Renku Release | October 2025 • Sessions on CSCS + Private Docker Images
New in Renku this month: We've combined Renku's super-simple sessions with the power of supercomputing!
🚀 Launch Renku Interactive Sessions on CSCS
You can now launch Renku sessions directly on the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS)! This feature was broadly requested by our community via the SDSC Call for Collaborations in 2024 to help lower the barrier to entry to using Switzerland's state of the art computing infrastructure.
No SSH, no SLURM, no container headaches. Starting a Renku session on CSCS is exactly as easy as starting a regular Renku session: just click launch! Renku handles all the complexity— including managing job submissions and building CSCS-compatible containers for your project environment— so you can focus on your research.
Get Started with Renku on CSCS
This is an MVP release with limited access. If you'd like to get started, register for access to the Renku:CSCS Integration!
First, connect your existing CSCS account to RenkuLab via the Renku Integrations page.
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Create launchers that use CSCS resources by selecting a Renku CSCS resource class (access to these resource classes requires registration). Then, simply click 'launch' and jump into sessions that look and feel exactly like regular Renku sessions, but with access to your CSCS compute resources and data!
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Sessions consume your own CSCS account resources, not a shared Renku resource pool.
To learn more about how the Renku:CSCS integration works and what you can do with it, check out our RenkuLab:CSCS Integration info page.
What's next? We're continuing to develop this integration, with our next goal being simplified support for CSCS's ARM clusters, including Daint.
🔐 Private Docker Images in Sessions
You can now use docker images from private code repositories in your Renku sessions! Previously, the "External Environment" launcher type only supported public images. Now you can connect private images from GitHub or GitLab container registries.
To get started, create a Session Launcher in External Environment mode and enter your image reference. Renku will let you know if you need to activate any additional integrations to connect to the image.
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Access control stays where it belongs. Each person's ability to launch the session depends on their access rights to the image in the source system— connecting a private image to a Renku project doesn't grant anyone new access.
Note that configuring custom images requires some setup. Check out our detailed documentation guide for help getting your image configured correctly.
…and more!
This blog post covers the highlights from releases 2.7.1 to 2.9.0. For detailed technical
release notes and the complete feature list, check out our releases
on GitHub.
Image courtesy of CSCS, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
🐸 Ready to get started? Hop into renkulab.io and get a jumpstart with our documentation.
💬 We love to hear your feedback! Share questions, ideas, and suggestions with us on our forum.
🚀 Curious about what's coming next? Check out our roadmap to see what new features we're working on.