diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index 667be1b..c3b3e88 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Required environment (see `src/lib/config.py`):
 - `PSC_PLOT_FFMPEG_BIN` — optional, falls back to `which ffmpeg`; needed for saving animations
 - `PSC_PLOT_DASK_NUM_WORKERS` — optional, defaults to `os.cpu_count()`
 - `PSC_PLOT_DASK_CHUNK_SIZE` — optional, rows per dask partition for particle loads (default 1_000_000); reduce to bound peak memory on large files
-- `PSC_PLOT_DASK_SCHEDULER` — optional; if set to `"processes"`, uses dask's processes scheduler; if `"distributed"`, spins up a `dask.distributed.LocalCluster` with `n_workers=dask_num_workers, threads_per_worker=1, processes=True`. Unset = dask default (threads).
+- `PSC_PLOT_DASK_SCHEDULER` — optional; if set to `"processes"`, uses dask's processes scheduler; if `"distributed"`, spins up a `dask.distributed.LocalCluster` with `n_workers=dask_num_workers, threads_per_worker=1, processes=True`; if `"mpi"`, calls `dask_mpi.initialize(nthreads=1)` — requires the `[mpi]` extra (`pip install -e ".[mpi]"`) and launch under `mpirun`/`srun` with `-np >= 3` (rank 0 = scheduler, rank 1 = client, rest = workers; only rank 1 reaches the rest of `main()`). Unset = dask default (threads).
 
 `PSC_PLOT_DATA_DIR` is read at module-import time (`CONFIG = PscPlotConfig._load()` in `src/lib/config.py`), so it must be set in the environment before any `lib.*` import. In tests, `tests/conftest.py` sets it before importing `lib`.
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 00f4ecb..afb1b84 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ dependencies = [
 test = ["pytest>=8.0", "pytest-mpl>=0.17"]
 dev = ["ruff>=0.6"]
 dask-graph = ["graphviz>=0.20"]
+mpi = ["dask-mpi>=2022.4", "mpi4py>=3.1"]
 
 [project.scripts]
 psc-plot = "lib.cli:main"
diff --git a/src/lib/cli.py b/src/lib/cli.py
index 52ece0b..2258e6f 100644
--- a/src/lib/cli.py
+++ b/src/lib/cli.py
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ def _run_dask_graph(args: Args) -> None:
         sys.exit(1)
 
     save_dir = args.save or Path.cwd()
-    save_dir.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
+    save_dir.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)
     path = save_dir / f"{args.get_save_file_stem()}.daskgraph.svg"
     # dask.visualize's optimize_graph flag only lowers legacy HLG collections
     # (e.g. dask Arrays), not new-style Expr ones (dask DataFrames) — without
@@ -72,9 +72,26 @@ def _run_dask_graph(args: Args) -> None:
         webbrowser.open(path.absolute().as_uri())
 
 
+def _init_mpi_scheduler() -> None:
+    try:
+        from dask_mpi import initialize
+    except ImportError:
+        print(
+            "error: PSC_PLOT_DASK_SCHEDULER=mpi requires dask-mpi; install with 'pip install -e \".[mpi]\"'",
+            file=sys.stderr,
+        )
+        sys.exit(1)
+    from dask.distributed import Client
+
+    initialize(nthreads=1)
+    Client()
+
+
 def main():
     dask.config.set(num_workers=CONFIG.dask_num_workers)
-    if CONFIG.dask_scheduler == "distributed":
+    if CONFIG.dask_scheduler == "mpi":
+        _init_mpi_scheduler()
+    elif CONFIG.dask_scheduler == "distributed":
         from dask.distributed import Client, LocalCluster
 
         cluster = LocalCluster(n_workers=CONFIG.dask_num_workers, threads_per_worker=1, processes=True)
@@ -101,7 +118,7 @@ def main():
     if args.show:
         plot.show()
     if args.save is not None:
-        args.save.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
+        args.save.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)
 
         if format not in plot.allowed_save_formats():
             if format == args.save_format:  # user actually specified this format