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Quick Start Guide (5 Minutes)

Get up and running with CRML in just 5 minutes!

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.8 or higher
  • pip package manager

Step 1: Install CRML (30 seconds)

pip install crml-lang

Verify installation: 

crml --version

Step 2: Create Your First Model (2 minutes)

Create a file called my-first-model.yaml:

crml: "1.1"
meta:
  name: "my-first-risk-model"
  description: "A simple phishing risk model"

model:
  assets:
    cardinality: 100  # 100 employees

  frequency:
    model: poisson
    parameters:
      lambda: 0.10  # 10% chance per employee per year

  severity:
    model: lognormal
    parameters:
      median: "22 000"  # $22K median loss
      currency: USD
      sigma: 1.0        # Moderate variability

What this models: - 100 employees, each with 10% chance of clicking a phishing link - Expected ~10 incidents per year - Each incident costs ~$22K on average

Step 3: Validate Your Model (30 seconds)

crml validate my-first-model.yaml

You should see: 

✓ CRML model is valid

Step 4: Run Simulation (1 minute)

crml simulate my-first-model.yaml --runs 10000

You'll see results like: 

📊 Simulation Results
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Expected Annual Loss (EAL): $220,000
VaR 95%: $450,000
VaR 99%: $650,000

Simulation completed in 1.2s

Step 5: Try the Web Platform (1 minute)

Want a visual interface? Try the interactive simulation page:

# Clone the repo (if you haven't)
git clone https://github.com/Faux16/crml.git
cd crml/web

# Install and run
npm install
npm run dev

Visit http://localhost:3000/simulation

What You Just Did

✅ Installed CRML
✅ Created a risk model
✅ Validated it
✅ Ran a Monte Carlo simulation
✅ Got risk metrics (EAL, VaR)

Next Steps

Learn More

Try Different Scenarios

  • Modify lambda to see how frequency affects risk
  • Change median to model different loss amounts
  • Increase cardinality for larger organizations

Advanced Features

  • Export results: crml simulate model.yaml --format json > results.json
  • Use in Python: from crml import CRMLModel
  • Build complex models with mixture distributions

Common Issues

"Command not found: crml" - Make sure Python's bin directory is in your PATH - Try: python -m crml.cli --help

"Invalid YAML" - Check indentation (use spaces, not tabs) - Run crml validate to see specific errors

"Simulation takes too long" - Reduce --runs to 1000 for faster results - Default 10,000 runs is recommended for accuracy

Get Help

Ready to build real risk models? Check out the Writing CRML guide!