# Run path-integral MD with i-PI

:::{note}
See [Environment variables](../env.md) for the runtime environment variables.
:::

The i-PI works in a client-server model. The i-PI provides the server for integrating the replica positions of atoms, while the DeePMD-kit provides a client named `dp_ipi` that computes the interactions (including energy, forces and virials). The server and client communicate via the Unix domain socket or the Internet socket. Installation instructions for i-PI can be found [here](../install/install-ipi.md). The client can be started by

```bash
i-pi input.xml &
dp_ipi water.json
```

It is noted that multiple instances of the client allow for computing, in parallel, the interactions of multiple replicas of the path-integral MD.

`water.json` is the parameter file for the client `dp_ipi`, and an example is provided:

```json
{
  "verbose": false,
  "use_unix": true,
  "port": 31415,
  "host": "localhost",
  "graph_file": "graph.pb",
  "coord_file": "conf.xyz",
  "atom_type": {
    "OW": 0,
    "HW1": 1,
    "HW2": 1
  }
}
```

The option **`use_unix`** is set to `true` to activate the Unix domain socket, otherwise, the Internet socket is used.

The option **`port`** should be the same as that in input.xml:

```xml
<port>31415</port>
```

The option **`graph_file`** provides the file name of the frozen model. The model can have either double or single float precision interface.

The `dp_ipi` gets the atom names from an [XYZ file](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XYZ_file_format) provided by **`coord_file`** (meanwhile ignores all coordinates in it) and translates the names to atom types by rules provided by **`atom_type`**.