diff --git a/cluster_configs/example-slurm.yaml b/cluster_configs/example-slurm.yaml
index ed5973f5c9..99fcb6789d 100644
--- a/cluster_configs/example-slurm.yaml
+++ b/cluster_configs/example-slurm.yaml
@@ -33,6 +33,10 @@ job_name_prefix: "nemo_skills:"
 #   identity: <can specify ssh key to avoid entering password>
 
 
+# if you're running directly from cluster, you only need to define job_dir and shouldn't use ssh_tunnel
+# job_dir: <some location on slurm cluster to keep job metadata, uploaded code and generated sbatch files>
+
+
 # define your account/partition here
 # account: <slurm account>
 # partition: <slurm partition>
@@ -47,6 +51,8 @@ job_name_prefix: "nemo_skills:"
 #   e.g.
 #   - <path on slurm>/trt_models:/trt_models
 #   - <path on slurm>/data:/data
+#   you can also override container libraries by directly mounting over them. E.g. to override NeMo-Aligner do
+#   - <path on slurm>/NeMo-Aligner:/opt/NeMo-Aligner
 
 
 # can use this section to set timeouts for different partitions
diff --git a/docs/basics/prerequisites.md b/docs/basics/prerequisites.md
index 3d45835405..bf1579a3ec 100644
--- a/docs/basics/prerequisites.md
+++ b/docs/basics/prerequisites.md
@@ -58,6 +58,10 @@ You can also use `NEMO_SKILLS_CONFIG` env variable instead of the `--cluster` pa
 The cluster config defines an executor (local or slurm), mounts for data/model access and (slurm-only) various parameters
 such as account, partition, ssh-tunnel arguments and so on.
 
+The recommended way to launch jobs on slurm is by running all commands locally and specifying `ssh_tunnel` portion in cluster config
+to let NeMo-Run know how to connect there. But if you prefer to run from the cluster directly, you can instal NeMo-Skills there
+and then only specify `job_dir` parameter without using `ssh_tunnel` section in the config.
+
 ### Environment variables
 
 You can define environment variables in the cluster config file, which will be set inside the container.
diff --git a/nemo_skills/pipeline/utils.py b/nemo_skills/pipeline/utils.py
index 4bd8d1980c..64a6085d50 100644
--- a/nemo_skills/pipeline/utils.py
+++ b/nemo_skills/pipeline/utils.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 import yaml
 from huggingface_hub import get_token
 from invoke import StreamWatcher
+from nemo_run.config import set_nemorun_home
 from nemo_run.core.execution.docker import DockerExecutor
 from nemo_run.core.execution.slurm import SlurmJobDetails
 from nemo_run.core.tunnel import SSHTunnel
@@ -471,7 +472,14 @@ def get_cluster_config(cluster=None, config_dir=None):
     if not Path(config_file).exists():
         raise ValueError(f"Cluster config {config_file} not found.")
 
-    return read_config(config_file)
+    cluster_config = read_config(config_file)
+
+    if cluster_config['executor'] == 'slurm' and "ssh_tunnel" not in cluster_config:
+        if "job_dir" not in cluster_config:
+            raise ValueError("job_dir must be provided in the cluster config if ssh_tunnel is not provided.")
+        set_nemorun_home(cluster_config["job_dir"])
+
+    return cluster_config
 
 
 @lru_cache
@@ -498,6 +506,9 @@ def tunnel_hash(tunnel):
 
 
 def get_tunnel(cluster_config):
+    if "ssh_tunnel" not in cluster_config:
+        LOG.info("No ssh_tunnel configuration found, assuming we are running from the cluster already.")
+        return run.LocalTunnel(job_dir="")
     return _get_tunnel_cached(**cluster_config["ssh_tunnel"])
 
 
@@ -1146,7 +1157,7 @@ def add_task(
 
     if cluster_config["executor"] != "local":
         tunnel = get_tunnel(cluster_config)
-        if reuse_code:
+        if isinstance(tunnel, run.SSHTunnel) and reuse_code:
             reuse_code_exp = reuse_code_exp or REUSE_CODE_EXP.get(tunnel_hash(tunnel))
             if reuse_code_exp is not None:
                 if isinstance(reuse_code_exp, run.Experiment):
@@ -1158,7 +1169,8 @@ def add_task(
                         reuse_dir = reuse_exp.tunnels[tunnel.key].packaging_jobs['nemo-run'].dst_path
                 for executor in executors:
                     executor.packager.symlink_from_remote_dir = reuse_dir
-        else:  # if current is not reused, we are refreshing the cache as there is a reason to believe it's outdated
+        # if current is not reused, we are refreshing the cache as there is a reason to believe it's outdated
+        elif isinstance(tunnel, run.SSHTunnel):
             REUSE_CODE_EXP.pop(tunnel_hash(tunnel), None)
 
     if len(commands) == 1:
@@ -1191,6 +1203,8 @@ def run_exp(exp, cluster_config, sequential=None):
         exp.run(detach=True, sequential=False if sequential is None else sequential)
 
         # caching the experiment code for reuse
-        ssh_hash = tunnel_hash(get_tunnel(cluster_config))
-        if ssh_hash not in REUSE_CODE_EXP:
-            REUSE_CODE_EXP[ssh_hash] = exp
+        tunnel = get_tunnel(cluster_config)
+        if isinstance(tunnel, run.SSHTunnel):
+            ssh_hash = tunnel_hash(tunnel)
+            if ssh_hash not in REUSE_CODE_EXP:
+                REUSE_CODE_EXP[ssh_hash] = exp