bio-biomart-queries

bio-biomart-queries is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from PKU-YuanGroup/OpenAI4S. It costs 142 tokens per session (3,525 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of bio-biomart-queries, MIT.

A bulk-query tool for Ensembl BioMart, a service that returns biological data in tables. It helps map gene and transcript IDs, retrieve genomic coordinates, and find equivalent genes in other species.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to convert Ensembl IDs to names used by databases such as HGNC, RefSeq, UniProt, or Entrez, and to build large gene, exon, coordinate, or ortholog tables.
Why use it?
It avoids making thousands of separate requests when a single table query can return the needed data. It also explains how to pin an Ensembl release so results can be reproduced later.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it to convert Ensembl IDs to names used by databases such as HGNC, RefSeq, UniProt, or Entrez, and to build large gene, exon, coordinate, or ortholog tables.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/pku-yuangroup/openai4s/bio-database-access-biomart-queries
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 PKU-YuanGroup/OpenAI4S --skill bio-database-access-biomart-queries
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PKU-YuanGroup/OpenAI4S

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

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 bio-biomart-queries

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/pku-yuangroup/openai4s/bio-database-access-biomart-queries/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/pku-yuangroup/openai4s/bio-database-access-biomart-queries)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/pku-yuangroup/openai4s/bio-database-access-biomart-queries"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/pku-yuangroup/openai4s/bio-database-access-biomart-queries/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 bio-biomart-queries

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/pku-yuangroup/openai4s/bio-database-access-biomart-queries"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/pku-yuangroup/openai4s/bio-database-access-biomart-queries.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 142 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,525 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. 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 $0.00142 $0.03525
Opus 5 $0.00071 $0.01762
Sonnet 5 $0.00028 $0.00705
Haiku 4.5 $0.00014 $0.00352

Measured 9d ago against content hash 49fc30f67f9b, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

bio-biomart-queries scanned grade A with 1 finding 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.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 3 executable files (scripts/bulk_id_mapping.py, scripts/coordinate_table.sh, scripts/ortholog_table.py), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

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.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

- CLI: `curl` against the XML endpoint works but is rarely used directly
Origin

This is a copy

97% identical to bio-biomart-queries — 12 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/bioskills/bio-database-access-biomart-queries/SKILL.md · 290 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 290 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Version Compatibility

Reference examples tested with: pybiomart 0.9+, R biomaRt 2.58+ (Bioconductor); Ensembl BioMart (release 110+)

Before using code patterns, verify installed versions match. If versions differ:

  • Python: pip show pybiomart
  • R: packageVersion('biomaRt')

The BioMart XML query format is stable across Ensembl releases; the underlying mart names and attribute IDs can change between Ensembl releases. For published work, pin the Ensembl release via useEnsembl(version=110).

BioMart Queries

"Bulk-convert IDs / pull coordinate tables / extract ortholog wide tables" -> BioMart is the right answer for any Ensembl-rooted query producing >5,000 rows. It is a separate service from the Ensembl REST API, with separate rate behavior and a different query model (XML-based, batch-oriented). For one-off lookups (<100 records), Ensembl REST is more convenient; for bulk anything, BioMart wins.

The single most important fact: BioMart returns a flat table from a single query. There is no per-record loop, no rate-limit cascade, no async polling. One XML query in; one TSV out.

  • Python: pybiomart (https://github.com/jrderuiter/pybiomart) is the lightest client
  • R: biomaRt Bioconductor (Durinck et al. 2009 Nat Protoc 4:1184) is the canonical client
  • CLI: curl against the XML endpoint works but is rarely used directly
  • Web: https://www.ensembl.org/biomart/martview for interactive query design

Installation

pip install pybiomart pandas
# R:
# BiocManager::install('biomaRt')

BioMart hierarchy

Level Examples
Mart ENSEMBL_MART_ENSEMBL (genes), ENSEMBL_MART_SNP (variants), ENSEMBL_MART_MOUSE (mouse-specific)
Dataset hsapiens_gene_ensembl, mmusculus_gene_ensembl, etc. (per species)
Attribute Fields to return: ensembl_gene_id, external_gene_name, chromosome_name, etc.
Filter Constraints on the query: chromosome_name = 17, biotype = protein_coding, etc.

A query is: pick a mart, pick a dataset, list attributes to return, list filters to constrain. BioMart returns a single TSV.

Read the full file on GitHub · 290 lines

Files

What ships with it

4 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 · 290 lines · 142 tokens per session scan A 49fc30f67f9b

Subscribe to this mod's changes

bio-biomart-queries is a skill published in the GitHub repository PKU-YuanGroup/OpenAI4S (407 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 142 tokens to every session and 3,525 once invoked, about $0.0007 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). It is 97% identical to bio-biomart-queries, differing in 12 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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