What is MorphoCloud: MorphoCloud provides on-demand cloud instances to support computational morphology, 3D morphometrics, and biomedical imaging research. It allows researchers and educators to launch powerful JetStream2 virtual machines — preloaded with 3D Slicer and SlicerMorph — by simply opening and commenting on GitHub issues.

• Run Slicer in your browser: GPU-enabled remote desktops with up to 40GB GPUs and 1TB RAM.
• Request and manage instances with GitHub Issues: no portals, no manual provisioning.
• Automated lifecycle management: Create, shelve, unshelve, renew, or delete instances via simple /commands.
• Support research and teaching: Ideal for occasional high-performance computing needs in morphology and imaging. Support for short-courses and workshops. Try AI assisted segmentation tools easily (often already come preconfigured).

*g3.l is the default instance.
Check real-time JetStream2 resource availability →

Once approved, you can control your instance from the issue itself:

• For Researchers / Educators: 👉 Request an instance via MorphoCloudInstances issue templates. Approval typically takes <24h.

• Important Usage note: Instance creation after the approval is not automatic. After the approval is granted, you need to create your instance by entering the /create command on your GH issue page. When the instance becomes online you will receive an email from the MorphoCloudPortal that will provide the access credentails (see below). After becoming online an instance stays online only for 4 hours (unless you choose to extend your session, by clicking the icon on the desktop). After 4 hours, the instance shelves (suspends) itself. The next time you want to use it, you don't need to create the instance, but simply type /unshelve on your issue page to make it available online again. Each time your instance becomes online, MorphoCloudPortal will send you a new email with access credential, as those may change from time to time.

MorphoCloud instances provide graphical user interface (GUI) as well as command line interface (ssh).

• Side toolbar (Ctrl/Cmd + Alt + Shift) for file transfers & clipboard.
• Shortcuts for Slicer, SlicerMorph, and MyData storage.
• Right-click menu to adjust resolution and display settings.
• Extend session with one click (resets your 4 hour countdown).

1. Connect via web browser by clicking the Web connect link in the email. This interface is called Guacamole and provides additional conveniences such as the side bar that allows for file transfers and clipboard functionality. The downside of the guacamole interface is that is doesn't handle the font and display scaling very well, and the clipboard functionality is cumbersome to use.

2. You can also use the TurboVNC application, which you can download and install for your computer from https://github.com/TurboVNC/turbovnc/releases/tag/3.2.1 (Expand the Assets tab, and find the correct package for your computer). The benefit of TurboVNC is that it provides a much more realistic desktop experience with improved image quality and scaling, as well as copy/paste buffer that works natively. However, you cannot do file transfers from the TurboVNC connection. The access address for TurboVNC connection is also provided in the credentials email sent to you. The passphrase is the same whether you use the web browser (guacamole interface) or TurbovVNC.

You probably want to use both access methods in tandem (e.g., use Guacamole for easy file transfer to and from), and TurboVNC for nice visualizations.

1. Getting started on MorphoCloud is a two-step procedure. First, you make the request and get approved, and then you need to create your instance to start using MorphoCloud by entering the /create command.
2. You cannot change instance types after you created the issue and it is approved. If you need to switch to a different instance type, you will need to open a new issue.
3. Whether an instance can be created, or a created instance can become online after /unshelve command depends on the resource availability on the JetStream at the time. Because JetStream can be heavily used at times, we advise checking the availability of a specific instance type before creating or unshelving an instance. https://docs.jetstream-cloud.org/overview/status/#availability-of-scarce-resources.
4. Your instance (and the data on it the root disk) is considered ephemeral. Make sure your important documents and datasets are always saved to your persistent storage volume, which is located at /media/volumes/MyData. That way when you (or us) have to delete and recreate your instance, you will not loose any data.
5. On GPU instances (g3.l and g3.xl) the interactivity and performance of 3D Slicer greatly diminishes (almost to the point of not being able to use the instance), when you volume render a 3D volume with any dimension equal to (or larger than) 4096 voxels. If you have to work with such large volumes, consider using other instance types.