Tool Registry Service (TRS)

Provides a standard mechanism to list, search, and retrieve tools and workflows across multiple registries

Researchers use genomics tools and workflows to conduct analyses in cloud computing environments. Tools and workflows, however, are often developed for a specific environment and are stored in a registry that services only associated platforms. Since each registry requires the tools and workflows it stores to meet a unique set of criteria, the contents of one registry are not guaranteed to work across multiple cloud environments. This lack of interoperability slows research and limits the variety of analyses that researchers can perform. Developed by the GA4GH Cloud Work Stream, the Tool Registry Service (TRS) API provides a standard mechanism to list, search, and register tools and workflows across multiple registries.

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Benefits

Allows for the exchange and discovery of tools and workflows that analyse, read, and manipulate genomic data
Enables interoperability of tools and workflows
Supports four of the most widely used workflow languages and is easily extendable to more

Target users

Researchers, and developers

Image summary: Learn how TRS helps researchers find data analysis tools from the community of tool developers. TRS encourages the development of portable and reproducible tools.

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THEME

Cloud genomics

Publications

Community resources

Dive deeper into this product! Interoperability among genomic tools and workflows is vital to conducting genomic analyses. Many challenges, however, persist. Genomic tools and workflows are often stored in a variety of different locations with incompatible metadata, are written in different workflow languages, and often do not have their dependencies documented in a consistent way. This makes it difficult for researchers from different groups — or even in some cases, for researchers from the same group at a different time — to re-run workflows. The TRS API provides an interoperable way to build and share workflows that function across different environments. TRS encourages the use of containerised tools and technologies, which allow researchers to package up tools and dependencies in an environment that moves easily and works on a wide variety of platforms.

Announcements