Lobster AI Usage Guide

Lobster AI is a multi-agent bioinformatics platform. You interact via natural language or slash commands — Lobster routes to specialist agents automatically.

Installation

If Lobster is not installed, guide the user to the right command for their platform:

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://install.lobsterbio.com | bash

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://install.lobsterbio.com/windows | iex

Manual install (any platform)

uv tool install 'lobster-ai[full,anthropic]' && lobster init
# or: pip install 'lobster-ai[full]' && lobster init

After install, lobster init configures API keys and selects agent packages.

Upgrading

• uv tool: uv tool upgrade lobster-ai
• pip: pip install --upgrade lobster-ai

Adding Agents (uv tool installs)

Users with uv tool installs add agents via: uv tool install lobster-ai --with lobster-transcriptomics --with lobster-proteomics Running lobster init will guide this process and generate the command.

Quick Reference

Task	Reference
CLI commands	references/cli-commands.md
Single-cell analysis	references/single-cell-workflow.md
Bulk RNA-seq analysis	references/bulk-rnaseq-workflow.md
Literature & datasets	references/research-workflow.md
Visualization	references/visualization.md
Available agents	references/agents.md

Interaction Modes

Interactive Chat

lobster chat                          # Start interactive session
lobster chat --workspace ./myproject  # Custom workspace
lobster chat --reasoning              # Enable detailed reasoning

Single Query

lobster query "Your request"
lobster query --session-id latest "Follow-up request"

Core Patterns

Natural Language (Primary)

Just describe what you want:

"Download GSE109564 and run quality control"
"Cluster the cells and find marker genes"
"Compare hepatocytes vs stellate cells"

Slash Commands (System Operations)

/data                    # Show loaded data info
/files                   # List workspace files
/workspace list          # List available datasets
/workspace load 1        # Load dataset by index
/plots                   # Show generated visualizations
/save                    # Save current session
/status                  # Show system status
/help                    # All commands

Session Continuity

# Start named session
lobster query --session-id "my_analysis" "Load GSE109564"

# Continue with context
lobster query --session-id latest "Now cluster the cells"
lobster query --session-id latest "Find markers for cluster 3"

Agent System

Lobster routes to specialist agents automatically:

Agent	Handles
Supervisor	Routes queries, coordinates agents
Research Agent	PubMed search, GEO discovery, paper extraction
Data Expert	File loading, format conversion, downloads
Transcriptomics Expert	scRNA-seq: QC, clustering, markers
DE Analysis Expert	Differential expression, statistical testing
Annotation Expert	Cell type annotation, gene set enrichment
Visualization Expert	UMAP, heatmaps, volcano plots
Proteomics Expert	Mass spec analysis [alpha]
Genomics Expert	VCF, GWAS, variant analysis [alpha]
ML Expert	Embeddings, classification [alpha]

Workspace & Outputs

Default workspace: .lobster_workspace/

Output files: | Extension | Content | |-----------|---------| | .h5ad | Processed AnnData objects | | .html | Interactive visualizations | | .png | Publication-ready plots | | .csv | Exported tables | | .json | Metadata, provenance |

Managing outputs:

/files              # List all outputs
/plots              # View visualizations
/open results.html  # Open in browser
/read summary.csv   # Preview file contents

Typical Workflow

# 1. Start session
lobster chat --workspace ./my_analysis

# 2. Load or download data
"Download GSE109564 from GEO"
# or
/workspace load my_data.h5ad

# 3. Quality control
"Run quality control and show me the metrics"

# 4. Analysis
"Filter low-quality cells, normalize, and cluster"

# 5. Interpretation
"Identify cell types and find marker genes"

# 6. Visualization
"Create UMAP colored by cell type"
/plots

# 7. Export
"Export marker genes to CSV"
/save

Troubleshooting Quick Reference

Issue	Check
Lobster not responding	lobster config-test
No data loaded	/data to verify, /workspace list to see available
Analysis fails	Try with --reasoning flag
Missing outputs	Check /files and workspace directory

Documentation

Online docs: docs.omics-os.com

Key sections: - Guides → CLI Commands - Guides → Data Analysis Workflows - Tutorials → Single-Cell RNA-seq - Agents → Package documentation