Start Your CLIF Project

Everything you need to turn your idea into a reproducible, consortium-ready CLIF project.

1. Code

2. Buddy test

3. Share

A CLIF project comes together in three phases:

Code: the creator builds the analysis from the template.
Buddy test: one other site runs it end to end and signs off.
Share: the PI releases it, every site runs it and returns aggregate results only.

Code

Start from the template. Click "Use this template" on the CLIF Project Template, or:

gh repo create my-clif-project \
  --template Common-Longitudinal-ICU-data-Format/CLIF-Project-Template --private

You get a ready structure:

my-clif-project/
├── README.md                     # the run-it-yourself guide each site reads
├── config/config_template.json   # site settings (copy to config.json)
├── code/templates/{Python,R}/    # numbered pipeline scripts
├── output/
│   ├── final_no_phi/             # aggregate, shareable results
│   └── intermediate_phi/         # patient-level working data, NEVER shared (gitignored)
├── utils/                        # config loaders for Python & R
└── guides/                       # creator guide, primer, buddy-testing guide

Full walkthrough: Creator Guide.

Buddy test

Reach out on #general on CLIF Slack to find a buddy site. Before consortium release, one other site clones the finished repo and runs it end to end on their own data, catching site-specific assumptions, setup gaps, and any data-security issues. They record the outcome in the Buddy Test Report. See the Buddy Testing Guide for what gets checked.

Once buddy testing passes, the PI releases the project for the consortium run. Release the project on the #run_requests channel on Slack. Each site clones it, points config.json at their data, runs it, and returns the contents of output/final_no_phi/: aggregate results only, never patient-level data.