# Checkpointing

```{eval-rst}
.. currentmodule:: activitysim.core.workflow.checkpoint
```

ActivitySim provides a checkpointing mechanism, whereby the content of data tables
can be stored to disk in an intermediate state.  This intermediate state can
subsequently be restored from disk, setting up the data tables to resume
simulation from that point forward.

There are currently two data file formats available for checkpointing:

- [HDF5](https://www.hdfgroup.org/solutions/hdf5/), the longstanding default
  format for ActivitySim checkpointing, and
- [Apache Parquet](https://parquet.apache.org/), added as an option as of
  ActivitySim version 1.3.

## Usage

The operation of automatic checkpointing during an ActivitySim run is controlled
via a few values in the top-level settings:

- [`checkpoint_format`](activitysim.core.configuration.Settings.checkpoint_format)
  controls which checkpoint data file format is used.
- [`checkpoints`](activitysim.core.configuration.Settings.checkpoints)
  controls how frequently checkpoints are written (after every component, after
  only certain components, or not at all).

For code developers wanting to integrate some aspect of checkpointing into
a manual workflow or a new component, the
[`State.checkpoint`](activitysim.core.workflow.State.checkpoint)
accessor has most of the relevant methods.

## API

```{eval-rst}
.. autosummary::
    :toctree: _generated
    :recursive:

    GenericCheckpointStore
    HdfStore
    ParquetStore
```