---
description: Short, task-focused recipes for the things you do repeatedly — checking a machine, diagnosing a failure, pausing a run, exporting results, updating.
---

# How-to guides

Each page here answers one question and assumes you have MatMelt working. If you
are still setting up, start with {doc}`../getting-started/index`; if you want to
be walked through a whole workflow, use the {doc}`tutorials <../tutorials/index>`.

```{toctree}
:maxdepth: 1

doctor
diagnose-a-failure
stop-and-resume
export-results
remote-backend
read-the-monitor
view-a-structure
configure-calculate
update
```

| Guide | Use it when |
|---|---|
| {doc}`doctor` | Before a long run, or when something will not start |
| {doc}`diagnose-a-failure` | Materials are `FAILED` and you need to know whether that is your fault or the science |
| {doc}`stop-and-resume` | You want to pause, interrupt, or continue a run without losing work |
| {doc}`export-results` | You need the finished records out of MatMelt and into your own analysis |
| {doc}`remote-backend` | One stage should run on a bigger machine |
| {doc}`read-the-monitor` | A run is going and you want to see what it is doing |
| {doc}`view-a-structure` | You want to look at a crystal, not a number |
| {doc}`configure-calculate` | You want DFTB+ fidelity through your own AiiDA |
| {doc}`update` | A new version is out |

The outputs on these pages were captured from real runs while writing them, on a
two-element `[Na, Cl]` workspace small enough to reproduce in a couple of
minutes. Only absolute paths have been shortened.

Two pages need hardware that cannot be reproduced while writing — a second
machine, and a working DFTB+ installation behind AiiDA. {doc}`remote-backend`
and {doc}`configure-calculate` draw their end-to-end results from recorded runs
and say so where it matters; the `doctor` output on both **is** live.
