alterlab-biopython

alterlab-biopython is a skill for Claude Code from AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills. It costs 113 tokens per session (3,658 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of biopython, MIT.

A collection of Python tools for working with biological data such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and molecular structures. Biopython can read common biology file formats and connect to NCBI databases, which store public biological records and research information.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps convert and process FASTA, GenBank, FASTQ, PDB, and related files; retrieve records from NCBI; run BLAST searches; compare sequences; and perform phylogenetic or structural analysis.
Why use it?
It avoids writing separate code for common sequence, database, structure, and analysis tasks.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter.

Part of the alterlab-bioinformatics plugin — 38 skills shipped together

Good fit It helps convert and process FASTA, GenBank, FASTQ, PDB, and related files; retrieve records from NCBI; run BLAST searches; compare sequences; and perform phylogenetic or structural analysis.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/alterlab-biopython
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.

Any agent
npx skills add AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills --skill alterlab-biopython
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install alterlab-bioinformatics, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 38 skills.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for alterlab-biopython

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/alterlab-biopython/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/alterlab-biopython)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/alterlab-biopython"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/alterlab-biopython/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for alterlab-biopython

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/alterlab-biopython"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/alterlab-ieu/alterlab-academic-skills/alterlab-biopython.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 113 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,658 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin 97% copy Near-identical to another mod 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 5.1 $0.00113 $0.03658
Opus 5 $0.00056 $0.01829
Sonnet 5 $0.00023 $0.00732
Haiku 4.5 $0.00011 $0.00366

Measured 9d ago against content hash 4b046ce5cf55, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

alterlab-biopython 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 9d ago.

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.

Origin

This is a copy

97% identical to biopython — 30 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

skills/bioinformatics/alterlab-biopython/SKILL.md · 451 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 451 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Biopython: Computational Molecular Biology in Python

Overview

Biopython is a comprehensive set of freely available Python tools for biological computation. It provides functionality for sequence manipulation, file I/O, database access, structural bioinformatics, phylogenetics, and many other bioinformatics tasks. The current version is Biopython 1.87, which supports Python 3 and requires NumPy.

Version note (1.78+): The command-line application wrappers in Bio.Blast.Applications (Ncbiblastn/p/x...Commandline, NcbimakeblastdbCommandline) and Bio.Align.Applications (ClustalOmegaCommandline, MuscleCommandline) were deprecated in 1.78 and removed — they no longer import. Call BLAST+/aligner executables via subprocess instead (see references/blast.md and references/alignment.md). Bio.pairwise2 is deprecated; use Bio.Align.PairwiseAligner.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

  • Working with biological sequences (DNA, RNA, or protein)
  • Reading, writing, or converting biological file formats (FASTA, GenBank, FASTQ, PDB, mmCIF, etc.)
  • Accessing NCBI databases (GenBank, PubMed, Protein, Gene, etc.) via Entrez
  • Running BLAST searches or parsing BLAST results
  • Performing sequence alignments (pairwise or multiple sequence alignments)
  • Analyzing protein structures from PDB files
  • Creating, manipulating, or visualizing phylogenetic trees
  • Finding sequence motifs or analyzing motif patterns
  • Calculating sequence statistics (GC content, molecular weight, melting temperature, etc.)
  • Performing structural bioinformatics tasks
  • Working with population genetics data
  • Any other computational molecular biology task

Core Capabilities

Biopython is organized into modular sub-packages, each addressing specific bioinformatics domains:

  1. Sequence Handling - Bio.Seq and Bio.SeqIO for sequence manipulation and file I/O
  2. Alignment Analysis - Bio.Align and Bio.AlignIO for pairwise and multiple sequence alignments
  3. Database Access - Bio.Entrez for programmatic access to NCBI databases
  4. BLAST Operations - Bio.Blast for running and parsing BLAST searches
  5. Structural Bioinformatics - Bio.PDB for working with 3D protein structures
  6. Phylogenetics - Bio.Phylo for phylogenetic tree manipulation and visualization
  7. Advanced Features - Motifs, population genetics, sequence utilities, and more

Read the full file on GitHub · 451 lines

Files

What ships with it

8 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 9d ago First seen · 451 lines · 113 tokens per session scan A 4b046ce5cf55

Subscribe to this mod's changes

alterlab-biopython is a skill published in the GitHub repository AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills (66 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 113 tokens to every session and 3,658 once invoked, about $0.0006 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 97% identical to biopython, differing in 30 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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