De novo antibody and nanobody (VHH) design with Germinal. An agent skill from adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills.

MITAuto-check passedResearch & Science

Install Germinal

skills CLI
$ npx skills add adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills --skill germinal -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills germinal --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/germinal .claude/skills/germinal && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
germinal
GitHub stars
163
Used in
2 other repos
Token cost
~739 tokens
SKILL.md length
206 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
24
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

De novo antibody and nanobody (VHH) design with Germinal. An agent skill from adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills.

  • Designing epitope-targeted nanobodies
  • SKILL.md covers Prerequisites, How to run, Key parameters and Target YAML, plus 3 more sections
  • Calls git and uv; reaches github.com
  • Needing CDR design on a fixed framework

What it does

Germinal is an agent skill from adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills. De novo antibody and nanobody (VHH) design with Germinal. Use this skill when: (1) Designing epitope-targeted nanobodies or scFvs, (2) Needing CDR design on a fixed framework, (3) Working on antibody-format binders rather than miniproteins. For miniprotein binders, use binder-design (BoltzGen, BindCraft, RFdiffusion, Mosaic). For structure validation, use boltz or chai.

Its SKILL.md is about 740 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Research & Science. The repository describes itself as: Claude Code skills for protein design. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Designing epitope-targeted nanobodies
  • Needing CDR design on a fixed framework
  • Working on antibody-format binders rather than miniproteins

Example prompts

  • “/germinal”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 59dd633. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • git
    • uv

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

    • github.com

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Germinal loads about 739 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 95 tokens; SKILL.md has 206 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~95
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~739

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills at commit 59dd633, republished under its MIT licence (© adaptyvbio). 206 words, ~739 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/germinal/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
germinal
description
De novo antibody and nanobody (VHH) design with Germinal. Use this skill when: (1) Designing epitope-targeted nanobodies or scFvs, (2) Needing CDR design on a fixed framework, (3) Working on antibody-format binders rather than miniproteins. For miniprotein binders, use binder-design (BoltzGen, BindCraft, RFdiffusion, Mosaic). For structure validation, use boltz or chai.
license
MIT
category
design-tools
tags
antibody, nanobody, vhh, scfv, binder
biomodals_script
modal_germinal.py

Germinal Antibody and Nanobody Design

Germinal is an open pipeline for epitope-targeted de novo antibody and nanobody design. It hallucinates CDRs on a fixed framework, designs sequences with AbMPNN, and cofolds with a structure predictor (it downloads AlphaFold-Multimer params). Runnable through biomodals.

The biomodals author notes Germinal is finicky and suggests BoltzGen for general binder design; treat Germinal as the antibody-format option, not a default.

Prerequisites

RequirementValue
RunnerModal (biomodals)
GPUH100 (default; GPU env var)
SetupSee Getting started

How to run

bash
git clone https://github.com/hgbrian/biomodals && cd biomodals

uv run --with modal --with PyYAML modal run modal_germinal.py \
  --target-yaml target_example.yaml \
  --max-trajectories 1 \
  --max-passing-designs 1

Key parameters

ParameterDefaultDescription
--target-yamlrequiredTarget config (target_name, target_pdb_path, target_chain, binder_chain, target_hotspots, length)
--run-typevhhvhh (nanobody) or scfv
--max-trajectories100Trajectories to run
--max-passing-designs10Stop after this many passing designs
--out-dir./out/germinalOutput directory

Target YAML

yaml
target_name: PDL1
target_pdb_path: target.pdb
target_chain: A
binder_chain: B
target_hotspots: "45,67,89"
length: 120

Decision tree

Antibody-format binder?
│
├─ Nanobody / VHH → germinal (run-type vhh) or mber
├─ scFv → germinal (run-type scfv)
└─ Miniprotein (not antibody) → binder-design (boltzgen, bindcraft, mosaic)

For VHH nanobodies, biomodals also has modal_mber.py (mBER) and modal_iggm.py (IgGM) as alternatives.

Cost

Adaptyv's own tests of these models showed Germinal costing about $1.60 per accepted design, averaged across 7 targets.

Troubleshooting

IssueCauseFix
Pipeline fails earlyMissing PyYAMLAdd --with PyYAML to the invocation
No passing designsHard epitope or low budgetRaise --max-trajectories
OOMLarge targetUse the default H100 or trim the target

Next: Validate with boltz or chai, rank with ipsae, filter with protein-qc.

© adaptyvbio, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/germinal of adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 59dd633

Used in 2 other repositories

We found 3 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 2 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Germinal next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Germinal compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Germinal this skilladaptyvbio/protein-design-skills1632 repos~739Automated safety check: PassMIT
Hypothesis Generationspacering-net/codeg3.8k15 repos~3.6kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
GitHub Deep Researchbytedance/deer-flow83k5 repos~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Nature Paper CardYuan1z0825/nature-skills46k2 repos~2.1kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Read arXiv Paperkarpathy/nanochat58k2 repos~494Automated safety check: PassMIT
Content Research Writerweapp-tailwindcss/weapp-tailwindcss1.9k25 repos~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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All 24 skills in this repo
  • Alphafold

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  • Boltzgen

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  • Chai

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  • Protein Design Workflow

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    End-to-end guidance for protein design pipelines. An agent skill from adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills.

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  • Protein Qc

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Questions about Germinal

What does Germinal do?

De novo antibody and nanobody (VHH) design with Germinal. An agent skill from adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills. Germinal is an agent skill from adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills. De novo antibody and nanobody (VHH) design with Germinal.

When should I use Germinal?

Germinal fits situations like: designing epitope-targeted nanobodies; needing CDR design on a fixed framework; working on antibody-format binders rather than miniproteins.

How do I install Germinal in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills --skill germinal -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/germinal in adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills) into .claude/skills/germinal in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Germinal in Codex?

Run `npx skills add adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills --skill germinal -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/germinal in adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills) into .agents/skills/germinal in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Germinal in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills --skill germinal -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/germinal, .gemini/skills/germinal, .github/skills/germinal and .opencode/skills/germinal in your project.

What does Germinal need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Germinal needs the command-line tools its instructions call (git and uv).

Does Germinal access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. In commands or code: github.com; the agent is likely to contact it when it follows the instructions. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Germinal safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Germinal use?

Germinal is published under the MIT licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Germinal use?

About 739 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Germinal?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Germinal: Hypothesis Generation (spacering-net/codeg, 3.8k stars), GitHub Deep Research (bytedance/deer-flow, 83k stars), Nature Paper Card (Yuan1z0825/nature-skills, 46k stars) and Read arXiv Paper (karpathy/nanochat, 58k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Germinal?

adaptyvbio (a GitHub organization) maintains it in adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills, which has 163 GitHub stars. The repository holds 24 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on June 11, 2026.

Source: adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.