OpenHCS

Inspect, author, validate, and run high-content microscopy workflows.

Quick Install

Automated & IDE Setup

Copy the AI prompt to install this server into Claude Code, Cursor, or another agent — or use 1-click editor setup below.

One-click editor setup isn’t available for this listing yet — we don’t have a confirmed install command, and we’d rather show nothing than point your editor at the wrong package or host. Follow the project’s own setup instructions, linked above.

Manual Client & Custom JSON ConfigExpand JSON ▾

No confirmed setup config for this listing yet. We only publish a config block when the install details come from the project itself — its README, its docs, or a verified owner. We haven’t found those for OpenHCS, and we’d rather show nothing than a guess you’d paste into your client. Follow the project’s own setup instructions for the current steps.

Documentation Overview

OpenHCS

Turn high-content microscopy images into reproducible measurements
One reviewable workflow across the GUI, Python, CellProfiler, and local agents

OpenHCS is designed for imaging scientists and research software teams running high-content studies where many wells, sites, channels, Z planes, or time points must be analysed consistently. Source selection, processing steps, and result definitions stay together in one validated pipeline instead of being split across interface-only state, scripts, and automation.

It is a good fit when a workflow must remain reviewable across visual editing, code, and automation. The same pipeline can be edited in the desktop GUI or as Python, imported from supported CellProfiler .cppipe files, and built or reviewed through the local MCP surface.

Install

Windows installer · macOS installer · Installation options

The graphical installers set up an isolated CPU-safe desktop environment with the OpenHCS GUI, CellProfiler compatibility, local MCP server, Napari, Fiji/ImageJ, and Bio-Formats. GPU libraries remain optional.

See OpenHCS in use

Browse the UI and viewer gallery · Watch an agent build, debug, run, and inspect a workflow

OpenHCS processes large microscopy datasets with a compile-then-execute architecture. Pipelines are validated across the selected execution axes before processing starts, preventing late failures after expensive work. Design pipelines in the GUI, export to Python, edit as code, and re-import — switching between visual and programmatic workflows. The local MCP exposes that same workflow model to supported agents, so agent-authored pipelines remain visible, editable, and reviewable in the GUI and generated Python.

mermaid

graph LR
    subgraph Sources
        IX[ImageXpress]
        OP[Opera Phenix]
        BF[Bio-Formats]
        OM[OMERO]
    end

    subgraph OpenHCS Platform
        PD["Pipeline Designer<br/>(GUI ⇄ Code ⇄ Agent)"]
        CO["Typed Compiler<br/>(resolve + validate)"]
        EX["Bounded Worker Executor<br/>(well scheduling · multi-GPU)"]
        FN["Registry-Discovered Functions<br/>scikit-image · CuPy · pyclesperanto<br/>PyTorch · JAX · TF · CuCIM · custom"]
        PS["PolyStore<br/>(Memory ↔ Disk ↔ Zarr ↔ Stream)"]
    end

    subgraph Viewers
        NA[Napari]
        FJ[Fiji/ImageJ]
    end

    IX --> PD
    OP --> PD
    BF --> PD
    OM --> PD
    PD --> CO --> EX
    EX --> FN --> PS
    PS --> NA
    PS --> FJ

⚡ Key Capabilities

🛡️ Compile-Time Validation

Configuration is resolved once into step snapshots and a compilation session. Typed plans then validate sources, artifacts, materialization, memory contracts, and worker requirements before execution begins. Errors surface immediately, not after hours of processing.

🔄 Bidirectional GUI ↔ Code

Design pipelines visually, export as executable Python, edit in your IDE, re-import to the GUI. Code generation works at any scope level — function patterns, individual steps, pipeline configs, full orchestrator scripts — any window holding objects can generate and re-import code.

🧠 Agent-Assisted Workflows

Give a supported MCP client a microscopy folder or plate and an analysis goal. It can inspect the connected execution server's functions, build and validate a typed pipeline, run it, inspect results in OpenHCS or a viewer, and revise the generated Python.

⚡ Multiprocessing & GPU Acceleration

Bounded worker lanes use ProcessPoolExecutor by default, with deterministic well assignment and sequential processing inside each lane. Compiled callable contracts select framework-local GPU devices independently; single-worker and debugging configurations can use inline or threaded execution.

🔌 Any Python Function

Register any Python function by decorating it with @numpy, @cupy, @pyclesperanto, @torch, or another memory-type decorator. Custom functions receive contract validation, UI integration, multiprocessing-safe import identity, and the same server-owned catalog projection as built-in functions. Persisted functions live in the platform-specific OpenHCS user-data directory.

📊 Results Materialization

Callable and module artifact contracts declare semantic outputs independently of Python argument names. The artifact graph and materialization plans route images, measurements, object labels, relationships, tables, and files to their configured stores and exporters.

🔬 Process-Isolated Napari & Fiji

Stream images to Napari and Fiji/ImageJ in real time during pipeline execution. OpenHCS StreamingConfig declarations and viewer adapters own identity, display, and persistence policy. PolyStore builds generic storage and streaming payloads; ZMQRuntime supplies process-isolated transport, readiness, acknowledgments, and lifecycle.

🪟 Live Cross-Window Updates

Edit a value in GlobalPipelineConfig — watch it propagate in real-time to PipelineConfig and StepConfig windows. Dual-axis resolution (context hierarchy × class MRO) with scope isolation per orchestrator.

🧬 CellProfiler Pipeline Import

Open .cppipe files in the desktop application or lower them from Python into ordinary PipelineConfig and FunctionStep declarations. Named images, objects, measurements, relationships, and exports use the same typed compiler and runtime as native OpenHCS pipelines. The source-backed Official30 suite continuously exercises 30 pipelines from CellProfiler examples, tutorials, and benchmark supplements under explicit equivalence policies.

🤖 MCP Agent Automation

Use the local stdio MCP server with ChatGPT desktop, Codex, Claude Desktop, and other supported clients, or deploy the separately secured HTTP surface. The graphical installers register detected local clients automatically. Capability profiles, schemas, knowledge, UI attachment, authoring, execution, runtime inspection, viewer review, and governed custom-function registration are projected from typed authorities rather than duplicated tool lists.

🧩 The OpenHCS Ecosystem

OpenHCS is built on 8 purpose-extracted, separately published libraries — each solving a general problem and all composed into one platform:

mermaid

graph TD
    OH["OpenHCS Platform<br/>(domain wiring + pipelines)"]

    OH --> OS["ObjectState<br/>(config)"]
    OH --> AB["ArrayBridge<br/>(arrays)"]
    OH --> PS["PolyStore<br/>(I/O + streaming)"]
    OH --> ZR["ZMQRuntime<br/>(exec)"]
    OH --> QR["PyQT-reactive<br/>(forms)"]

    OS --> PI["python-introspect<br/>(signatures)"]
    OH --> MR["metaclass-registry<br/>(plugins)"]
    OH --> PC["pycodify<br/>(serialization)"]

Read the full README →View source on GitHub →

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Last commit

2d ago

Most recent push to the default branch.

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Frequently Asked Questions about OpenHCS

We don't have a confirmed install command for OpenHCS yet, so we don't publish a generated one — a guessed package name would point at the wrong package or none at all. Follow the project's own README or setup instructions (https://github.com/OpenHCSDev/OpenHCS) for the current steps.

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Technical Specs & Signals

CategoryDeveloper Tools

6/10 checks healthy over the last 45d

35Quality signal: Fair · 35/100How this signal is calculated ▾

Server availabilityNot measured

Not scored for repo-hosted servers — we can't reach the running server, only its GitHub page. Hosted MCP endpoints are health-checked live.

Verified ownership10/20

Documentation & tools11/30

Adoption & activity5/15

Community engagement0/10

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Documentation Overview

OpenHCS

Turn high-content microscopy images into reproducible measurements
One reviewable workflow across the GUI, Python, CellProfiler, and local agents

Install

Windows installer · macOS installer · Installation options

See OpenHCS in use

Browse the UI and viewer gallery · Watch an agent build, debug, run, and inspect a workflow

mermaid

graph LR
    subgraph Sources
        IX[ImageXpress]
        OP[Opera Phenix]
        BF[Bio-Formats]
        OM[OMERO]
    end

    subgraph OpenHCS Platform
        PD["Pipeline Designer<br/>(GUI ⇄ Code ⇄ Agent)"]
        CO["Typed Compiler<br/>(resolve + validate)"]
        EX["Bounded Worker Executor<br/>(well scheduling · multi-GPU)"]
        FN["Registry-Discovered Functions<br/>scikit-image · CuPy · pyclesperanto<br/>PyTorch · JAX · TF · CuCIM · custom"]
        PS["PolyStore<br/>(Memory ↔ Disk ↔ Zarr ↔ Stream)"]
    end

    subgraph Viewers
        NA[Napari]
        FJ[Fiji/ImageJ]
    end

    IX --> PD
    OP --> PD
    BF --> PD
    OM --> PD
    PD --> CO --> EX
    EX --> FN --> PS
    PS --> NA
    PS --> FJ

⚡ Key Capabilities

🛡️ Compile-Time Validation

🔄 Bidirectional GUI ↔ Code

🧠 Agent-Assisted Workflows

⚡ Multiprocessing & GPU Acceleration

🔌 Any Python Function

📊 Results Materialization

🔬 Process-Isolated Napari & Fiji

🪟 Live Cross-Window Updates

🧬 CellProfiler Pipeline Import

🤖 MCP Agent Automation

🧩 The OpenHCS Ecosystem

OpenHCS is built on 8 purpose-extracted, separately published libraries — each solving a general problem and all composed into one platform:

mermaid

graph TD
    OH["OpenHCS Platform<br/>(domain wiring + pipelines)"]

    OH --> OS["ObjectState<br/>(config)"]
    OH --> AB["ArrayBridge<br/>(arrays)"]
    OH --> PS["PolyStore<br/>(I/O + streaming)"]
    OH --> ZR["ZMQRuntime<br/>(exec)"]
    OH --> QR["PyQT-reactive<br/>(forms)"]

    OS --> PI["python-introspect<br/>(signatures)"]
    OH --> MR["metaclass-registry<br/>(plugins)"]
    OH --> PC["pycodify<br/>(serialization)"]

Frequently Asked Questions about OpenHCS