Repository: SpikeInterface/spikeinterface

Issue:
Running into errors while trying to sort tetrode data by group
Hello, we are a new lab and are just starting our first few recordings. I wanted to get used to the spikeinterface environment, and so have been using it to load our data and attempt to sort it. However, I have been facing this issue which I could not really trace back:
```
recording = se.read_openephys(data_path, stream_name = 'Record Node 101#OE_FPGA_Acquisition_Board-100.Rhythm Data')
events = se.read_openephys_event(data_path)
print(recording)
# select ephys channels only
selection = ['CH'+str(i) for i in np.arange(1,65)]
ephys_recording = recording.select_channels(selection)

# make a channel map 
channelmapoe = [40, 38, 36, 34,
                48, 46, 44, 42,
                56, 54, 52, 50,
                58, 64, 62, 60,
                63, 61, 59, 57,
                55, 53, 51, 49,
                47, 45, 43, 41,
                39, 37, 35, 33,
                25, 27, 29, 31,
                17, 19, 21, 23,
                9, 11, 13, 15,
                1, 3, 5, 7,
                4, 6, 8, 2,
                10, 12, 14, 16,
                18, 20, 22, 24,
                26, 28, 30, 32]

# subtract 1 to fit python indexing
channelmappythonic = np.array(channelmapoe) - 1

# create probegroup and set channel locations for sorting purposes
probegroup = ProbeGroup()
for i in range(16): # we have 16 tetrodes
    tetrode = generate_tetrode()
    tetrode.move([i * 300, 0]) # make lots of space between tetrodes
    probegroup.add_probe(tetrode)

probegroup.set_global_device_channel_indices(channelmappythonic) # tetrodes arranged based on channelmap
ephys_recording = ephys_recording.set_probegroup(probegroup, group_mode='by_probe')

# remove all bad channels
bad_channel_ids = [48, 39, 33, 21, 12, 13, 15, 3, 5, 7]
bad_channel_ids = ['CH'+str(i) for i in bad_channel_ids]
ephys_recording = ephys_recording.remove_channels(remove_channel_ids=bad_channel_ids)
# group-wise preprocessinga

from spikeinterface import aggregate_channels
# bad_channel_ids, info = spre.detect_bad_channels(ephys_recording)
# print(bad_channel_ids, info)
# ephys_recording = ephys_recording.remove_channels(bad_channel_ids)

split_recording_dict = ephys_recording.split_by("group")

preprocessed_recordings = []

# loop over the recordings contained in the dictionary
for chan_group_rec in split_recording_dict.values():

    # Apply the preprocessing steps to the channel group in isolation
    filtered_recording = spre.bandpass_filter(chan_group_rec, freq_min=300, freq_max=6000)

    referenced_recording = spre.common_reference(filtered_recording, operator='median')

    preprocessed_recordings.append(referenced_recording)

 # Combine our preprocessed channel groups back together
combined_preprocessed_recording = aggregate_channels(preprocessed_recordings)

aggregate_sorting = ss.run_sorter_by_property(
    sorter_name = 'tridesclous2',
    recording = combined_preprocessed_recording,
    grouping_property = "group",
    folder = fr'L:\4portProb_ephys\Box1_ephys\Bayleef\sorted\{folder_name}_sorted_by_group_1',
    engine = "joblib",
    verbose = True, 
    engine_kwargs = {"n_jobs": 1}
)
```

But I keep getting the following error:
```
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SpikeSortingError                         Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[11], line 26
     23 combined_preprocessed_recording = aggregate_channels(preprocessed_recordings)
     25 # only for si.__version__ == 0.102.0
---> 26 aggregate_sorting = ss.run_sorter_by_property(
     27     sorter_name = 'tridesclous2',
     28     recording = combined_preprocessed_recording,
     29     grouping_property = "group",
     30     folder = fr'L:\4portProb_ephys\Box1_ephys\Bayleef\sorted\{folder_name}_sorted_by_group_1',
     31     engine = "joblib",
     32     verbose = True, 
     33     engine_kwargs = {"n_jobs": 1}
     34 )
     35 # sorting = ss.run_sorter(
     36 #     sorter_name = 'mountainsort5',
     37 #     filter = True,
   (...)     41 #     folder = f'{folder_name}_sorted6'
     42 # )

File c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\sorters\launcher.py:308, in run_sorter_by_property(sorter_name, recording, grouping_property, folder, mode_if_folder_exists, engine, engine_kwargs, verbose, docker_image, singularity_image, working_folder, **sorter_params)
    297     job = dict(
    298         sorter_name=sorter_name,
    299         recording=rec,
   (...)    304         **sorter_params,
    305     )
    306     job_list.append(job)
--> 308 sorting_list = run_sorter_jobs(job_list, engine=engine, engine_kwargs=engine_kwargs, return_output=True)
    310 unit_groups = []
    311 for sorting, group in zip(sorting_list, recording_dict.keys()):

File c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\sorters\launcher.py:115, in run_sorter_jobs(job_list, engine, engine_kwargs, return_output)
    113 n_jobs = engine_kwargs["n_jobs"]
    114 backend = engine_kwargs["backend"]
--> 115 sortings = Parallel(n_jobs=n_jobs, backend=backend)(delayed(run_sorter)(**kwargs) for kwargs in job_list)
    116 if return_output:
    117     out.extend(sortings)

File c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\joblib\parallel.py:1918, in Parallel.__call__(self, iterable)
   1916     output = self._get_sequential_output(iterable)
   1917     next(output)
-> 1918     return output if self.return_generator else list(output)
   1920 # Let's create an ID that uniquely identifies the current call. If the
   1921 # call is interrupted early and that the same instance is immediately
   1922 # re-used, this id will be used to prevent workers that were
   1923 # concurrently finalizing a task from the previous call to run the
   1924 # callback.
   1925 with self._lock:

File c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\joblib\parallel.py:1847, in Parallel._get_sequential_output(self, iterable)
   1845 self.n_dispatched_batches += 1
   1846 self.n_dispatched_tasks += 1
-> 1847 res = func(*args, **kwargs)
   1848 self.n_completed_tasks += 1
   1849 self.print_progress()

File c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\sorters\runsorter.py:199, in run_sorter(sorter_name, recording, folder, remove_existing_folder, delete_output_folder, verbose, raise_error, docker_image, singularity_image, delete_container_files, with_output, output_folder, **sorter_params)
    188             raise RuntimeError(
    189                 "The python `spython` package must be installed to "
    190                 "run singularity. Install with `pip install spython`"
    191             )
    193     return run_sorter_container(
    194         container_image=container_image,
    195         mode=mode,
    196         **common_kwargs,
    197     )
--> 199 return run_sorter_local(**common_kwargs)

File c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\sorters\runsorter.py:261, in run_sorter_local(sorter_name, recording, folder, remove_existing_folder, delete_output_folder, verbose, raise_error, with_output, output_folder, **sorter_params)
    259 SorterClass.setup_recording(recording, folder, verbose=verbose)
    260 # This NEEDS to happen in the docker because of dependencies
--> 261 SorterClass.run_from_folder(folder, raise_error, verbose)
    262 if with_output:
    263     sorting = SorterClass.get_result_from_folder(folder, register_recording=True, sorting_info=True)

File c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\sorters\basesorter.py:310, in BaseSorter.run_from_folder(cls, output_folder, raise_error, verbose)
    307         print(f"{sorter_name} run time {run_time:0.2f}s")
    309 if has_error and raise_error:
--> 310     raise SpikeSortingError(
    311         f"Spike sorting error trace:\n{error_log_to_display}\n"
    312         f"Spike sorting failed. You can inspect the runtime trace in {output_folder}/spikeinterface_log.json."
    313     )
    315 return run_time

SpikeSortingError: Spike sorting error trace:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\sorters\basesorter.py", line 270, in run_from_folder
    SorterClass._run_from_folder(sorter_output_folder, sorter_params, verbose)
  File "c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\sorters\internal\tridesclous2.py", line 107, in _run_from_folder
    recording_raw = cls.load_recording_from_folder(sorter_output_folder.parent, with_warnings=False)
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\sorters\basesorter.py", line 221, in load_recording_from_folder
    recording = load(json_file, base_folder=output_folder)
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\core\loading.py", line 100, in load
    return _load_object_from_dict(d, object_type, base_folder=base_folder)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\core\loading.py", line 175, in _load_object_from_dict
    return BaseExtractor.from_dict(d, base_folder=base_folder)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\core\base.py", line 571, in from_dict
    extractor = _load_extractor_from_dict(dictionary)
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\core\base.py", line 1108, in _load_extractor_from_dict
    new_kwargs[name] = _load_extractor_from_dict(value)
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "c:\Users\dlab\miniforge3\envs\si_env_rolling_new\Lib\site-packages\spikeinterface\core\base.py", line 1127, in _load_extractor_from_dict
    extractor = extractor_class(**new_kwargs)
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
TypeError: ChannelsAggregationRecording.__init__() got an unexpected keyword argument 'recording_list'

Spike sorting failed. You can inspect the runtime trace in L:\4portProb_ephys\Box1_ephys\Bayleef\sorted\Bayleef_2025-01-30_11-53-57_010_sorted_by_group_1\0/spikeinterface_log.json.
```


If anyone can help me out on this I'll be really grateful. Thanks!!

Hints from issue comments:
@nightshade2303: I think (please correct me if I am wrong) that because I am trying to preprocess the recordings by group and then combine them into one, run_sorter_by_property isn't too happy about it @alejoe91: Hi @nightshade2303 

The error suggests that you're just missing the spython package. 
Try to `pip install spython` and to run it again!@chrishalcrow: @alejoe91 I don't think so, the error is a few lines down from that.

This must be related to #3767, where we changed the argument name in `ChannelsAggregationRecording` from `recording_list` to `recording_list_or_dict`. My bad! I'll try and get a fix now.

@nightshade2303 you can either wait for me to get a bug fix, or if you run the release version of spikeinterface, that version should work (that is, use `pip install spikeinterface` instead of cloning the github repo and installing locally) since this is a very new bug@nightshade2303: Hi @alejoe91 and @chrishalcrow, thank you for your quick replies!
About the package installation, I had used `full_spikeinterface_environment_rolling_updates.yml` for creating my conda environment, so if the package is required and missing, you could add it there. 

Until the bug is fixed, here's what I did to temporarily not use `aggregate_channels`:

... (continued from previous)

```
split_recording_dict = ephys_recording.split_by("group")

preprocessed_recordings = []

sortings = {}
# loop over the recordings contained in the dictionary
for grouper, chan_group_rec in split_recording_dict.items():

    # Apply the preprocessing steps to the channel group in isolation
    filtered_recording = spre.bandpass_filter(chan_group_rec, freq_min=300, freq_max=6000)

    referenced_recording = spre.common_reference(filtered_recording, operator='median')

    preprocessed_recordings.append(referenced_recording)

    sorting = ss.run_sorter(
        sorter_name='mountainsort5',
        recording=referenced_recording,
        folder=fr'L:\4portProb_ephys\Box1_ephys\Bayleef\sorted\{folder_name}_sorted_by_group\{grouper}',
        filter = False,
        verbose = True,
        detect_threshold = 4
        )

    sortings[grouper] = sorting
    print('Sorting done for group', grouper)
```
I'll keep this issue open until the fix is up. Thanks!@chrishalcrow: Glad you've got something working :) Soon we're going to have a really nice new way to deal with grouped recordings, I'll ping you when it's ready!

I can't reproduce the bug, could you please share which verison of spikeinterface is installed by running `pip list` in your conda enviroment, or running
```
import spikeinterface
spikeinterface.__version__
``` 
Thanks!

Just to note: `tridesclous2` is still in activate development (by the wonderful @samuelgarcia) and hasn't been published yet. So you should consider it "experimental" for now! Mountainsort is a great tried and tested sorter, especially for tetrode data.@nightshade2303: Sounds awesome, thanks! 

SI version is 0.102.2. (I set up this environment today using `conda env create --file full_spikeinterface_environment_rolling_updates.yml`)

Yes, I was trying mountainsort5 initially, but then wanted to see if it was a sorter dependent issue so switched to the internal one. 

@paolahydra: Hi @alejoe91 and @chrishalcrow ,
I am having the same issue described here. I am also running spikeinterface 0.102.2.
Should I go around it as @nightshade2303 did? 
Sorry if I am a bit lost here, and thank you for any clarification.
Paola@chrishalcrow: Hi @paolahydra , this bug should be fixed in the "dev" version of spikeinterface, which you can access by installing spikeinterface from source https://spikeinterface.readthedocs.io/en/stable/get_started/installation.html#from-source
And when 0.102.3 gets released (hopefully soon!), it will be fixed in the "release" version too.
Sorry for the inconvenience!@unaialduntzin: Hi @chrishalcrow,

I am having a similar issue described here, but I have updated my spikeinterface version to 0.102.3 and I am still getting a similar error. Is there something I have not done properly? Thanks!

```
spikeinterface.sorters.utils.misc.SpikeSortingError: Spike sorting in docker failed with the following error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/abrah/Data/Ephys/Chronic_recordings/sorted/2025-04-04_09-36-47_sorted_by_group/in_container_sorter_script.py", line 13, in <module>
    recording = load(json_rec)
  File "/root/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/spikeinterface/core/loading.py", line 100, in load
    return _load_object_from_dict(d, object_type, base_folder=base_folder)
  File "/root/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/spikeinterface/core/loading.py", line 175, in _load_object_from_dict
    return BaseExtractor.from_dict(d, base_folder=base_folder)
  File "/root/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/spikeinterface/core/base.py", line 571, in from_dict
    extractor = _load_extractor_from_dict(dictionary)
  File "/root/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/spikeinterface/core/base.py", line 1108, in _load_extractor_from_dict
    new_kwargs[name] = _load_extractor_from_dict(value)
  File "/root/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/spikeinterface/core/base.py", line 1127, in _load_extractor_from_dict
    extractor = extractor_class(**new_kwargs)
TypeError: __init__() got an unexpected keyword argument 'recording_list'`
```

@chrishalcrow: Oh no, that doesn't sound good. Could you please post your script from reading in your recording to sorting please? Thanks!@unaialduntzin: > Oh no, that doesn't sound good. Could you please post your script from reading in your recording to sorting please? Thanks!

Sorry @chrishalcrow, I had installed the latest version of spikeinterface but I forgot to restart the program. No errors now, sorry for the confusion. It's working fine now.
@chrishalcrow: That's great!!

Solution patch:
diff --git a/src/spikeinterface/core/channelsaggregationrecording.py b/src/spikeinterface/core/channelsaggregationrecording.py
index 3947a0dec..079731379 100644
--- a/src/spikeinterface/core/channelsaggregationrecording.py
+++ b/src/spikeinterface/core/channelsaggregationrecording.py
@@ -14,7 +14,15 @@ class ChannelsAggregationRecording(BaseRecording):
 
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, recording_list_or_dict, renamed_channel_ids=None):
+    def __init__(self, recording_list_or_dict=None, renamed_channel_ids=None, recording_list=None):
+
+        if recording_list is not None:
+            warnings.warn(
+                "`recording_list` is deprecated and will be removed in 0.105.0. Please use `recording_list_or_dict` instead.",
+                category=DeprecationWarning,
+                stacklevel=2,
+            )
+            recording_list_or_dict = recording_list
 
         if isinstance(recording_list_or_dict, dict):
             recording_list = list(recording_list_or_dict.values())
@@ -258,12 +266,4 @@ def aggregate_channels(
         The aggregated recording object
     """
 
-    if recording_list is not None:
-        warnings.warn(
-            "`recording_list` is deprecated and will be removed in 0.105.0. Please use `recording_list_or_dict` instead.",
-            category=DeprecationWarning,
-            stacklevel=2,
-        )
-        recording_list_or_dict = recording_list
-
-    return ChannelsAggregationRecording(recording_list_or_dict, renamed_channel_ids)
+    return ChannelsAggregationRecording(recording_list_or_dict, renamed_channel_ids, recording_list)


Test patch:
diff --git a/src/spikeinterface/core/tests/test_loading.py b/src/spikeinterface/core/tests/test_loading.py
index d9c20aa50..bfaf97ec4 100644
--- a/src/spikeinterface/core/tests/test_loading.py
+++ b/src/spikeinterface/core/tests/test_loading.py
@@ -1,7 +1,14 @@
 import pytest
 
 import numpy as np
-from spikeinterface import generate_ground_truth_recording, create_sorting_analyzer, load, SortingAnalyzer, Templates
+from spikeinterface import (
+    generate_ground_truth_recording,
+    create_sorting_analyzer,
+    load,
+    SortingAnalyzer,
+    Templates,
+    aggregate_channels,
+)
 from spikeinterface.core.motion import Motion
 from spikeinterface.core.generate import generate_unit_locations, generate_templates
 from spikeinterface.core.testing import check_recordings_equal, check_sortings_equal
@@ -176,6 +183,24 @@ def test_load_motion(tmp_path, generate_motion_object):
     assert motion == motion_loaded
 
 
+def test_load_aggregate_recording_from_json(generate_recording_sorting, tmp_path):
+    """
+    Save, then load an aggregated recording using its provenance.json file.
+    """
+
+    recording, _ = generate_recording_sorting
+
+    recording.set_property("group", [0, 0, 1, 1])
+    list_of_recs = list(recording.split_by("group").values())
+    aggregated_rec = aggregate_channels(list_of_recs)
+
+    recording_path = tmp_path / "aggregated_recording"
+    aggregated_rec.save_to_folder(folder=recording_path)
+    loaded_rec = load(recording_path / "provenance.json", base_folder=recording_path)
+
+    assert np.all(loaded_rec.get_property("group") == recording.get_property("group"))
+
+
 @pytest.mark.streaming_extractors
 @pytest.mark.skipif(not HAVE_S3, reason="s3fs not installed")
 def test_remote_recording():