ISSUE 534: Deprecate conda environment.yml / move to pip

[HundredBillion]

This PR is meant to resolve Issue 534.

Since PyTorch is no longer shipping conda packages, I updated this repo to remove the conda environment .yml files and switch the installation docs over to a pip / virtualenv-based setup.

For GPU installs, PyTorch’s commands depend on the user’s OS and CUDA version, so instead of hardcoding those here, the docs now point to the official PyTorch install page:

https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/

After PyTorch is installed, NAM can be installed with pip.

Summary of changes

• removed environments/environment_cpu_apple.yml
• removed environments/environment_gpu.yml
• removed requirements-gpu.txt
• updated docs/source/installation.rst to describe a pip/venv-based install flow

[sdatkinson]

Thanks for the PR, @HundredBillion!

This doesn't resolve #534 because installing still uses conda .yml files.

I'll give comments inline presently

[HundredBillion]

@sdatkinson - I noticed your PR to change the url for installing Pytorch.

I updated this PR in case you still want to use update the docs to install via requirements-gpu.txt

[sdatkinson]

I'm sorry, but this still isn't what I want. There are yml files still in the repo. Moving to pip should see them gone.

[HundredBillion]

I'm sorry, but this still isn't what I want. There are yml files still in the repo. Moving to pip should see them gone.

Got it — I misunderstood the issue. I treated it as “use pip inside the conda env files,” but what you want is to remove the conda env approach entirely. I’ll update the PR to delete the environment .yml files and switch the installation docs to a pip/venv-based flow.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR updates the project’s installation guidance to move away from conda-based environment setup and toward pip/venv-based installation, addressing Issue #534 about PyTorch no longer being available via conda.

Changes:

• Removed conda environment definitions for CPU (Apple) and GPU setups.
• Rewrote the installation docs to use Python + venv + python -m pip.
• Updated local development setup instructions to use editable installs and manual dev tooling installation.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

File	Description
environments/environment_gpu.yml	Removes the GPU conda environment definition.
environments/environment_cpu_apple.yml	Removes the Apple/CPU conda environment definition.
docs/source/installation.rst	Updates installation and development instructions to use venv + pip and points users to PyTorch’s install selector.

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