BioContainers Registry: Searching Bioinformatics and Proteomics Tools, Packages, and Containers

BioContainers is an open-source project that aims to create, store, and distribute bioinformatics software containers and packages. The BioContainers community has developed a set of guidelines to standardize software containers including the metadata, versions, licenses, and software dependencies. Bio-Containers supports multiple packaging and container technologies such as Conda, Docker, and Singularity. The BioContainers provide over 9000 bioinformatics tools, including more than 200 proteomics and mass spectrometry tools. Here we introduce the BioContainers Registry and Restful API to make containerized bioinformatics tools more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). The BioContainers Registry provides a fast and convenient way to find and retrieve bioinformatics tool packages and containers. By doing so, it will increase the use of bioinformatics packages and containers while promoting replicability and reproducibility in research.

Automated summary

BioContainers is an open-source project that provides over 9000 bioinformatics tools, including more than 200 proteomics and mass spectrometry tools. The project aims to standardize software containers and support multiple packaging and container technologies. The BioContainers Registry and Restful API are designed to make containerized bioinformatics tools more discoverable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.