ANP Studio

Analytic Network Process modeling for research and education

For everyone: User guide · Glossary
For developers: Studio GUI API · ANP library (libanpcpp)

ANP Studio is a cross-platform desktop application for modeling, editing, calculating, and studying Analytic Network Process (ANP) decision models.

Download

Get the latest prebuilt binaries from the Releases page.

Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper may warn because builds are not code-signed. Intel Mac builds are not published yet.

To build from source instead, see Build the GUI below.

Learn

The computational library (matrices, networks, pairwise judgments, limit matrix, synthesis, JSON I/O) lives in a separate repository: libanpcpp (CMake target anpcpp::anpcpp, C++ namespace anpcpp). Model files use JSON format anpcpp (v1/v2) with the default extension .anpstudio (.json still opens and saves).

This application is inspired by the workflow of SuperDecisions. Numerical behavior is cross-checked against concepts from pyanp (reference only).

Sample models

Ready-to-open .anpstudio models live in samples/. Release builds ship this directory with the app; use File → Open Sample… in ANP Studio (or File → Open on a .anpstudio / .json file). See samples/README.md for the catalog (Hamburger market share, classic AHP hierarchies, BCR/BOCR subnetworks, ratings examples, and more). Regenerate with libanpcpp’s export_sample_models example.

Under Judgments → Ratings, pick a scale preset (built-in or My scales), cast votes with label dropdowns, and use Advanced to customize; changes apply when Advanced closes.

Architecture

libanpcpp (anpcpp::anpcpp)   Toolkit-independent ANP library
anpstudio                    Qt 6 Widgets desktop application (this repo)

Dependencies

Build the GUI

Requires a C++20 compiler, CMake, and Qt 6 Widgets (e.g. qt6-base-dev and libgl-dev on Ubuntu/Pop!_OS).

Sibling checkout (local development)

Place libanpcpp next to this repo:

Documents/github/libanpcpp/
Documents/github/anp-studio/

Then:

cmake -S . -B build -DANPSTUDIO_BUILD_GUI=ON
cmake --build build --target anpstudio
./build/gui/anpstudio

Command line

./build/gui/anpstudio                          # new empty model
./build/gui/anpstudio path/to/model.anpstudio  # open a file
./build/gui/anpstudio --stage judgments model.json
./build/gui/anpstudio --help
./build/gui/anpstudio --version

--stage accepts structure, judgments, analysis, or researcher (case-insensitive). --new starts empty and cannot be combined with a file path.

Use build/ as the only default binary directory (see AGENTS.md). Avoid parallel trees like build-anpstudio2 unless you need a separate config.

CMake automatically uses ../libanpcpp when that tree exists. Override with -DANPCPP_SOURCE_DIR=/path/to/libanpcpp if needed.

FetchContent from GitHub

If there is no sibling checkout, CMake fetches libanpcpp from GitHub (GIT_TAG v0.4.0).

GUI features

Qt 6 Widgets application (SuperDecisions-style canvas + docks) for creating networks/subnetworks, editing connections and pairwise judgments, calculating matrices/priorities, choosing synthesis formulas, and saving/loading JSON — with full undo/redo via QUndoStack.

Library development

Build, test, and examples for the ANP library belong in libanpcpp:

cd ../libanpcpp
cmake -S . -B build -DANPCPP_BUILD_TESTS=ON -DANPCPP_BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON
cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

See that repository’s README for FetchContent / find_package consumer docs.

Documentation

User guide

User guide — Structure, connections, judgments, ratings, and calculations.

Glossary — Short definitions of ANP and Studio terms.

Site home: https://bamath.org/anp-studio/ (built from main via GitHub Actions).

Developers

Studio GUI API (Qt classes): https://bamath.org/anp-studio/api/

ANP library (libanpcpp): https://bamath.org/libanpcpp/ · API

Local Doxygen (this repo) requires Doxygen (sudo apt install doxygen on Ubuntu). With the default ANPSTUDIO_BUILD_DOCS=ON, cmake --build build runs the same Doxygen pass as CI (WARN_AS_ERROR). Docs-only:

cmake -S . -B build -DANPSTUDIO_BUILD_DOCS=ON -DANPSTUDIO_BUILD_GUI=OFF
cmake --build build --target anpstudio_docs

Open build/docs/html/index.html.

For libanpcpp docs with a sibling checkout:

cd ../libanpcpp
cmake -S . -B build -DANPCPP_BUILD_DOCS=ON -DANPCPP_BUILD_TESTS=OFF -DANPCPP_BUILD_EXAMPLES=OFF
cmake --build build --target anpcpp_docs

Open ../libanpcpp/build/docs/html/index.html.

Local full site preview (README landing + guide + API under /api/):

cmake -S . -B build -DANPSTUDIO_BUILD_DOCS=ON -DANPSTUDIO_BUILD_GUI=OFF
cmake --build build --target anpstudio_docs
cp -a build/docs/html docs/site/api
python3 - <<'PY'
from pathlib import Path
import re
src = Path("README.md").read_text(encoding="utf-8")
src = re.sub(r"^# ANP Studio\n+", "", src, count=1)
src = re.sub(
    r"<p align=\"center\">\s*<img[^>]*>\s*</p>\n*",
    "",
    src,
    count=1,
    flags=re.IGNORECASE,
)
Path("docs/site/README.content.md").write_text(src.lstrip(), encoding="utf-8")
PY
cd docs/site && bundle install && bundle exec jekyll serve --baseurl /anp-studio

Enable Pages with Settings → Pages → Source: GitHub Actions; see .github/workflows/docs.yml.

Publishing releases (maintainers)

End users should use Download above. This section is for cutting a new GitHub Release so CI attaches binaries.

GitHub Actions builds portable binaries for each published release:

1. Merge the changes you want on main.
2. On GitHub open the repo → Releases → Draft a new release.
3. Under Choose a tag, create a new tag such as v0.4.0 (target: main). Use the v prefix (same as libanpcpp). Older releases 0.1.0–0.3.0 lacked it; new tags should not.
4. Set the release title (e.g. ANP Studio 0.4.0) and optional notes.
5. Click Publish release (not “Save draft”—drafts do not start the build).
6. Open the Actions tab and watch Release builds (Windows, macOS, Linux).
7. When the jobs finish, refresh the Release page; the three assets appear under the release (filenames include the full tag, e.g. anpstudio-v0.4.0-windows-x64.zip).

Test a build without publishing: Actions → Release builds → Run workflow. Download artifacts from the workflow run page; nothing is attached to a Release.

Status / remaining work

• Multi-user judgments (core): Scope bar + Judgments Scope rail, roster, samples 18–21
• Consensus / Variance Analysis (Analysis pane): disagreement alignment + vote range (green min–max, mean tick, hybrid stacked dots), coverage, cohort compare
• Still open: harden Google token storage (see docs/google-oauth.md)
• Available: Collect judgments hub (Participants → Collect judgments… / Scope → Collect…) for Excel templates, Google Forms, and CSV; hidden _meta round-trip; structure fingerprinting on Forms
• Rating/Direct prioritizers, SuperDecisions .sdmod import
• Contribution guidelines

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.