Fig 2. Schematic of software layers.

PyRates is separated into frontend, intermediate representation (IR) and backend. The frontend features a set of interfaces to define network models. These are then translated into a standardized structure, called the IR. Simulations are realized via the backend, which transforms the high-level IR into lower-level representations for efficient computations. The frontend can easily be extended with new interfaces, while the backend can be swapped out to target a different computation framework.