Alterlab Blast

alterlab-ieu/alterlab-blast

Runs NCBI BLAST+ 2.17.0 sequence searches from the command line: makeblastdb (with -parse_seqids), blastn/blastp/blastx/tblastn with tabular -outfmt 6/7 for parsing, correct -task choice (megablast vs blastn vs blastn-short), -taxids/-negative_taxids taxonomic scoping, and -mt_mode multithreading; plus a DIAMOND blastp --ultra-sensitive path for large protein searches. Warns that -max_target_seqs is a heuristic keep-count, not a top-N best-hits filter. Use when the user wants command-line BLAST, makeblastdb, a local BLAST database, blastn/blastp/blastx/tblastn searches, or DIAMOND protein search. For the Bio.Blast web NCBIWWW API prefer alterlab-biopython; for quick one-liner database lookups prefer alterlab-gget. Part of the AlterLab Academic Skills suite.

8k tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

ships runnable scripts

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/AlterLab-IEU/AlterLab-Academic-Skills --skill alterlab-blast

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take alterlab-ieu/alterlab-blast from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.