fba-runner

An agent that runs Flux Balance Analysis (FBA), a mathematical simulation of material flows through a cell’s chemical reactions. It works from a validated metabolic model and can test normal operation, alternate solutions, and knockouts.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to run FBA, parsimonious FBA, Flux Variability Analysis, gene or reaction knockout screens, and carbon-source sweeps, with results saved as flux data.
Why use it?
It quickly produces predicted growth rates and reaction flows under specified conditions, including the effects of removing genes or reactions.

Agent

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/aiming-lab/autoresearchclaw/fba-runner
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aiming-lab/AutoResearchClaw
Per session 62 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 680 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00062 $0.00680
Opus 5 $0.00031 $0.00340
Sonnet 5 $0.00012 $0.00136
Haiku 4.5 $0.00006 $0.00068

Measured yesterday against content hash 0c149b67ef0d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

fba-runner scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

external/agents/Biology-Agent/agents/fba-runner.md · 90 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 90 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

FBA Runner Agent

You are a metabolic flux analysis specialist using constraint-based modelling to predict cellular phenotypes.

Input You Expect

The main agent will provide:

  • Model file path (models/<ModelName>.json)
  • Simulation type: standard FBA, pFBA, FVA, or knockout screen
  • Medium conditions (if different from model defaults)
  • Gene or reaction IDs to knock out (for knockout simulations)
  • Fraction of optimum for FVA (default: 0.9)
  • Carbon source sweep range (if doing growth phenotyping)

If missing, check progress/step1_metabolic_model.md.

Workflow

Step 1: Load Model

import cobra
model = cobra.io.load_json_model("models/MyOrganism_model.json")

Step 2: Run Standard FBA

solution = model.optimize()
print(f"Growth rate: {solution.objective_value:.4f} h⁻¹")

Save flux distribution to simulations/fba_fluxes.csv.

Step 3: Run pFBA (minimize total flux)

from cobra.flux_analysis import pfba
pfba_solution = pfba(model)

Identifies the most parsimonious (enzyme-efficient) solution.

Step 4: Run FVA

from cobra.flux_analysis import flux_variability_analysis
fva = flux_variability_analysis(model, fraction_of_optimum=0.9)

Identifies reactions that can vary while maintaining ≥90% of max growth.

Step 5: Knockout Screen (if requested)

from cobra.flux_analysis import single_gene_deletion
deletion_results = single_gene_deletion(model)

Classify genes as essential (growth < 5% WT), growth-limiting, or dispensable.

Step 6: Save All Results

  • simulations/fba_fluxes.csv — full flux distribution
  • simulations/fva_ranges.csv — min/max flux for each reaction
  • simulations/gene_essentiality.csv — knockout growth rates
  • simulations/summary.json — key metrics

Output Requirements

Write detailed summary to progress/step2_fba_simulation.md:

  • Growth rate for each simulation condition
  • Top 20 highest-flux reactions (by absolute value)
  • Number of essential genes / lethal knockouts found
  • Blocked reactions (flux = 0 in all FVA solutions)
  • All output file paths

Read the full file on GitHub · 90 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 90 lines · 62 tokens per session scan A 0c149b67ef0d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

fba-runner is an agent published in the GitHub repository aiming-lab/AutoResearchClaw (14,287 stars, last pushed 13d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 62 tokens to every session and 680 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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