Agent skill

Bio Duplicate Handling

by GPTomics in GPTomics/bioSkills

Mark and remove PCR/optical duplicates using samtools fixmate and markdup.

MITAuto-check passedResearch & Science

Install Bio Duplicate Handling

skills CLI
$ npx skills add GPTomics/bioSkills --skill bio-duplicate-handling -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install GPTomics/bioSkills bio-duplicate-handling --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/GPTomics/bioSkills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/alignment-files/duplicate-handling .claude/skills/bio-duplicate-handling && 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
bio-duplicate-handling
GitHub stars
1.2k
Used in
2 other repos
Token cost
~3.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,257 words
Files
3
Skills in repo
559
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Mark and remove PCR/optical duplicates using samtools fixmate and markdup.

  • Preparing alignments for variant calling
  • SKILL.md covers Version Compatibility, Why Remove Duplicates?, When to Mark Duplicates -- and… and Tool Selection: markdup vs…, plus 7 more sections
  • Runs Shell scripts from its folder; calls java and pip
  • Duplicate reads would bias analysis

What it does

Bio Duplicate Handling is an agent skill from GPTomics/bioSkills. Mark and remove PCR/optical duplicates using samtools fixmate and markdup. Use when preparing alignments for variant calling or when duplicate reads would bias analysis.

Its SKILL.md is about 3.7k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 3 other files (for example `examples/markdup_pipeline.sh` and `usage-guide.md`).

It sits in Research & Science, covering Bioinformatics. It works with pysam. The repository describes itself as: a set of SKILLS.md for doing bioinformatics with agents like claude code. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Preparing alignments for variant calling
  • Duplicate reads would bias analysis

Example prompts

  • “/bio-duplicate-handling”

Requirements

  • Python 3
  • A Bash shell

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit d91ed3d. 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

    Ships script files (Shell), which the agent can run.

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • java
    • pip

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use pip, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    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

Bio Duplicate Handling loads about 3.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 48 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,257 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~48
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~3.7k

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 GPTomics/bioSkills at commit d91ed3d, republished under its MIT licence (© GPTomics). 1,257 words, ~3,702 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/bio-duplicate-handling/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 2 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
bio-duplicate-handling
description
Mark and remove PCR/optical duplicates using samtools fixmate and markdup. Use when preparing alignments for variant calling or when duplicate reads would bias analysis.
tool_type
cli
primary_tool
samtools

Version Compatibility

Reference examples tested with: picard 3.1+, pysam 0.22+, samtools 1.19+

Before using code patterns, verify installed versions match. If versions differ:

  • Python: pip show <package> then help(module.function) to check signatures
  • CLI: <tool> --version then <tool> --help to confirm flags

If code throws ImportError, AttributeError, or TypeError, introspect the installed package and adapt the example to match the actual API rather than retrying.

Duplicate Handling

"Remove PCR duplicates from my BAM file" -> Mark or remove duplicate reads using the fixmate-sort-markdup pipeline to prevent duplicate bias in variant calling.

  • CLI: samtools fixmate, samtools markdup (samtools)
  • Python: pysam.fixmate(), pysam.markdup() (pysam)

Mark and remove PCR/optical duplicates using samtools.

Why Remove Duplicates?

PCR duplicates are identical copies of the same original molecule, created during library preparation. They inflate coverage, bias allele frequencies, and create false positive variant calls. Optical duplicates are flowcell-proximity artifacts: on unpatterned flowcells they arise when the imaging software splits one cluster into two adjacent calls; on patterned flowcells (NovaSeq, NovaSeq X, NextSeq 1000/2000, HiSeq X/4000) the dominant source is ExAmp (exclusion-amplification) "pad-hopping", where a library molecule re-seeds a nearby nanowell.

When to Mark Duplicates -- and When NOT To

Standard samtools markdup is the right tool for some assays and actively harmful for others. The decision is assay-driven:

AssayStandard markdup?Recommended approach
Germline WGS / WES (PCR or PCR-free)YESsamtools markdup (PCR-free still has ~0.5% optical duplicates on patterned flowcells)
Somatic tumor/normal (no UMI)YESSame
Exome / target captureYES (20-50% expected)samtools markdup
ChIP-seqMARK, do not removeThen use peak caller's auto-dup logic (macs3 --keep-dup auto)
CUT&RUN / CUT&TagMARK, do not removeSame
ATAC-seqYES, BEFORE Tn5 +4/-5 shiftThen shift coords for footprinting
Bulk RNA-seq (no UMIs)NODuplicates are biological at highly-expressed loci; removing them biases DE proportional to expression
Bulk RNA-seq (with UMIs)NOumi_tools dedup
scRNA (10x, STARsolo, drop-seq)NOumi_tools dedup with CB+UB tags, or rely on Cell Ranger UMI counts
ctDNA / liquid biopsy / deep panel (UMI)NOfgbio GroupReadsByUmi -> CallDuplexConsensusReads
Twist / IDT / Roche UMI captureNOfgbio or Picard UmiAwareMarkDuplicatesWithMateCigar
Amplicon / hotspot panel (no UMI)NOEvery read is a "duplicate" by coordinate; markdup erases the dataset. Use samtools ampliconclip instead -- see alignment-amplicon-clipping.
Amplicon / hotspot panel (UMI)NOfgbio consensus
Long-read native (ONT, PacBio HiFi unamplified)NONo PCR step; markdup is meaningless
PacBio HiFi ampliconYES (rare)pbmarkdup
Ancient DNA (aDNA)YES + mapDamageRun markdup, then mapDamage --rescale before variant calling
Microbiome 16S/ITSNORead counts encode community structure

If the BAM came from 10x Cell Ranger / STARsolo and samtools markdup produces a 50-95% duplicate rate, it is the wrong tool, not a bug.

Tool Selection: markdup vs Picard vs UMI-aware

ToolSpeedThreadingOpticalUMINotes
samtools markdupFastYesYes (-d)Limited (--barcode-tag exact-match)Fast production choice (nf-core/sarek defaults to GATK MarkDuplicates)
picard MarkDuplicatesSlowNoYesUmiAware variant (BETA, transcriptome bug)GATK Best Practices reference
biobambam2 bammarkduplicates2FastestYesYesNoSanger / 1KGP pipelines
samblasterStreaming, fastNoOptionalNoPipe directly from aligner; no name sort
sambamba markdupFastYesYesNoLess actively maintained
fgbio GroupReadsByUmi + CallMolecularConsensusReadsFastYesn/aBest UMI toolGraph-based; supports duplex
umi_tools dedupSlowNon/aYes (mature)Reference for scRNA / bulk UMI
pbmarkdupFastYesn/an/aPacBio HiFi amplicons only

Picard UmiAwareMarkDuplicatesWithMateCigar is BETA and has known bugs on transcriptome-aligned BAMs (silently keeps duplicates). Avoid for RNA-seq UMIs.

Optical Distance Is Platform-Specific

samtools markdup default is -d 0, meaning optical-duplicate detection is disabled by default. Set explicitly per platform:

Platform-d valueRationale
HiSeq 2000/2500 (random)100Picard historic default
HiSeq 3000/4000/X (patterned)2500Patterned tile size larger
NovaSeq 6000 (patterned)2500Same as HiSeq X
NovaSeq X (10B)2500Patterned; same starting point as NovaSeq 6000
NextSeq 1000/2000 (patterned)2500ExAmp duplicates span larger pixel distances
MiSeq, NextSeq 500/550100Smaller / unpatterned
Element AVITI, MGI / DNBseqCustom regexDifferent read-name format -- supply via --read-coords
bash
samtools markdup -d 2500 -f stats.txt input.bam marked.bam

# Count optical (SQ) vs library/PCR (LB) duplicates. The dt:Z:SQ/LB tag is
# emitted automatically because -d is set (it is not produced by -t, which
# instead adds a 'do' tag carrying the original read's name).
samtools view -f 1024 marked.bam | grep -o 'dt:Z:[A-Z][A-Z]' | sort | uniq -c

Setting -d 2500 on a HiSeq run does no harm. Forgetting -d 2500 on NovaSeq systematically under-marks optical duplicates and overestimates library complexity.

Multi-Library Pooled Marking

Without --use-read-groups, multi-library BAMs systematically over-mark: independent molecules from different libraries with the same coordinates get wrongly flagged as PCR duplicates. With --use-read-groups, RG tags must also match for two reads to be a duplicate (verify availability with samtools markdup --help):

bash
samtools markdup --use-read-groups -d 2500 in.bam out.bam

samtools --use-read-groups keys on RG ID; Picard's library-aware behavior keys on the LB tag (allowing dedup across multiple lanes of the same library). For multi-lane single-library BAMs, Picard MarkDuplicates with READ_NAME_REGEX is closer to canonical.

Show full SKILL.md (508 more words)Show less

Duplicate Marking Workflow

Goal: Mark PCR/optical duplicates so they can be excluded from downstream variant calling and coverage analysis.

Approach: Name-sort, add mate tags with fixmate, coordinate-sort, then run markdup. The pipeline version avoids intermediate files.

Reference (samtools 1.19+):

bash
# 1. Sort by name (required for fixmate)
samtools sort -n -o namesort.bam input.bam

# 2. Add mate information with fixmate
samtools fixmate -m namesort.bam fixmate.bam

# 3. Sort by coordinate (required for markdup)
samtools sort -o coordsort.bam fixmate.bam

# 4. Mark duplicates
samtools markdup coordsort.bam marked.bam

# 5. Index result
samtools index marked.bam
Pipeline Version (Optimized)
bash
# collate is faster than sort -n; -u/-O between piped tools skips BGZF round-trips
samtools collate -O -u input.bam tmpdir/collate | \
    samtools fixmate -m -u - - | \
    samtools sort -u -@ 4 -T tmpdir/sort - | \
    samtools markdup -@ 4 -d 2500 --use-read-groups \
        -f markdup_stats.txt - marked.bam

samtools index marked.bam

This is ~30% faster than sort -n | fixmate | sort | markdup on typical 30x WGS.

Critical pitfall: samtools markdup requires ms (mate score, lowercase) and MC (mate CIGAR) tags from fixmate -m. A re-sort that loses aux tags via Python round-trip silently produces a markdup output that marks almost nothing. If duplicate counts look implausibly low, verify MC:Z: is present in the input to markdup.

samtools fixmate

Adds mate information required by markdup. Must be run on name-sorted BAM.

Basic Usage
bash
samtools fixmate namesorted.bam fixmate.bam
Add Mate Score Tag (-m)
bash
# Required for markdup to work correctly
samtools fixmate -m namesorted.bam fixmate.bam
Multi-threaded
bash
samtools fixmate -m -@ 4 namesorted.bam fixmate.bam
Remove Secondary/Unmapped
bash
samtools fixmate -r -m namesorted.bam fixmate.bam

samtools markdup

Marks or removes duplicate alignments. Requires coordinate-sorted BAM with mate tags from fixmate.

Mark Duplicates (Keep in File)
bash
samtools markdup input.bam marked.bam
Remove Duplicates
bash
samtools markdup -r input.bam deduped.bam
Output Statistics
bash
samtools markdup -s input.bam marked.bam 2> markdup_stats.txt
Optical Duplicate Distance
bash
# Default -d 0 disables optical detection. Set per platform; see decision table above.
samtools markdup -d 2500 input.bam marked.bam   # NovaSeq / patterned
samtools markdup -d 100 input.bam marked.bam    # HiSeq / random
Multi-threaded
bash
samtools markdup -@ 4 input.bam marked.bam
Write Stats to File
bash
samtools markdup -f stats.txt input.bam marked.bam

Duplicate Statistics

Check Duplicate Rate
bash
samtools flagstat marked.bam
# Look for "duplicates" line
Count Duplicates
bash
# Count reads with duplicate flag
samtools view -c -f 1024 marked.bam
Percentage Duplicates
bash
total=$(samtools view -c marked.bam)
dups=$(samtools view -c -f 1024 marked.bam)
echo "scale=2; $dups * 100 / $total" | bc

pysam Python Alternative

Full Pipeline
python
import pysam

# Sort by name
pysam.sort('-n', '-o', 'namesort.bam', 'input.bam')

# Fixmate
pysam.fixmate('-m', 'namesort.bam', 'fixmate.bam')

# Sort by coordinate
pysam.sort('-o', 'coordsort.bam', 'fixmate.bam')

# Mark duplicates
pysam.markdup('coordsort.bam', 'marked.bam')

# Index
pysam.index('marked.bam')
Check Duplicate Flag
python
import pysam

with pysam.AlignmentFile('marked.bam', 'rb') as bam:
    total = 0
    duplicates = 0
    for read in bam:
        total += 1
        if read.is_duplicate:
            duplicates += 1

    print(f'Total: {total}')
    print(f'Duplicates: {duplicates}')
    print(f'Rate: {duplicates/total*100:.2f}%')
Filter Out Duplicates
python
import pysam

with pysam.AlignmentFile('marked.bam', 'rb') as infile:
    with pysam.AlignmentFile('nodup.bam', 'wb', header=infile.header) as outfile:
        for read in infile:
            if not read.is_duplicate:
                outfile.write(read)
Production Tools, Not Hand-Rolled

For real BAMs, always use a production marker. A naive Python implementation keyed on (chrom, pos, strand) ignores 5' position correction for soft clips, ignores library/RG, treats optical = PCR, and mis-handles supplementary alignments. The result is silently wrong duplicate marks. Use samtools markdup, Picard, or fgbio depending on assay (see decision tables above).

Alternative: From Aligner

Some aligners can mark duplicates directly during streaming:

BWA-MEM2 with samblaster
bash
bwa-mem2 mem ref.fa R1.fq R2.fq | \
    samblaster | \
    samtools sort -o marked.bam
Picard MarkDuplicates
bash
java -jar picard.jar MarkDuplicates \
    I=input.bam \
    O=marked.bam \
    M=metrics.txt \
    OPTICAL_DUPLICATE_PIXEL_DISTANCE=2500

UMI-Aware Deduplication

For UMI libraries (10x scRNA, ctDNA panels, Twist/IDT/Roche UMI capture), naive markdup destroys information. Use UMI-aware tools:

bash
# 10x / scRNA -- group by cell barcode + UMI
umi_tools dedup --stdin=cellranger_possorted.bam --stdout=dedup.bam \
    --extract-umi-method=tag --umi-tag=UB --cell-tag=CB \
    --per-cell --method=directional

# Bulk UMI / ctDNA -- consensus calling (best practice for low-VAF detection)
fgbio AnnotateBamWithUmis -i raw.bam -f umi.fastq -o annotated.bam
fgbio GroupReadsByUmi -i annotated.bam -o grouped.bam --strategy=adjacency --edits=1
fgbio CallMolecularConsensusReads -i grouped.bam -o consensus.bam --min-reads=1
# Or for duplex (xGen-Prism, NEBNext duplex):
fgbio CallDuplexConsensusReads -i grouped.bam -o duplex.bam --min-reads 1 1 0

--method=directional is the default and correct -- do not use --method=unique, which treats single-base UMI errors as different molecules. samtools markdup --barcode-tag RX (UMI/barcode handling added in samtools 1.16) does exact-match UMI grouping; adequate for IDT xGen Duplex but insufficient for single-UMI applications where 1-edit errors are common.

Quick Reference

TaskCommand
Full workflowsort -n | fixmate -m | sort | markdup
Mark duplicatessamtools markdup in.bam out.bam
Remove duplicatessamtools markdup -r in.bam out.bam
Count duplicatessamtools view -c -f 1024 marked.bam
View non-duplicatessamtools view -F 1024 marked.bam
Get statssamtools markdup -s in.bam out.bam

Duplicate FLAG

FlagValueMeaning
0x4001024PCR or optical duplicate
Filter Commands
bash
# View only duplicates
samtools view -f 1024 marked.bam

# View non-duplicates only
samtools view -F 1024 marked.bam

# Count non-duplicates
samtools view -c -F 1024 marked.bam

Common Errors

ErrorCauseSolution
mate not foundInput not name-sortedRun samtools sort -n first
no MC tagfixmate not run with -mRe-run fixmate with -m flag
not coordinate sortedInput to markdup not sortedRun samtools sort after fixmate

Lossy Operations

samtools markdup -r (remove duplicates) is irreversible -- the records are dropped. Default to marking, not removing; downstream tools can filter on FLAG 1024. Removing pre-emptively destroys data needed for re-running QC, library complexity estimation, or switching dedup strategies.

  • alignment-sorting - Sort by name/coordinate; collate vs sort -n decision
  • alignment-filtering - Filter duplicates from output
  • alignment-amplicon-clipping - Use ampliconclip instead of markdup for amplicon panels
  • bam-statistics - Check duplicate rates with flagstat / mosdepth
  • variant-calling/variant-calling - Standard variant calling expects deduped BAMs
  • read-qc/quality-reports - Pre-alignment QC including UMI extraction

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

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files in alignment-files/duplicate-handling of GPTomics/bioSkills.

  • SKILL.md
  • examples/markdup_pipeline.sh
  • usage-guide.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit d91ed3d

Used in 2 other repositories

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

Compare with similar skills

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Works with

Questions about Bio Duplicate Handling

What does Bio Duplicate Handling do?

Mark and remove PCR/optical duplicates using samtools fixmate and markdup. Bio Duplicate Handling is an agent skill from GPTomics/bioSkills. Mark and remove PCR/optical duplicates using samtools fixmate and markdup.

When should I use Bio Duplicate Handling?

Bio Duplicate Handling fits situations like: preparing alignments for variant calling; duplicate reads would bias analysis.

How do I install Bio Duplicate Handling in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add GPTomics/bioSkills --skill bio-duplicate-handling -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (alignment-files/duplicate-handling in GPTomics/bioSkills) into .claude/skills/bio-duplicate-handling in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Bio Duplicate Handling in Codex?

Run `npx skills add GPTomics/bioSkills --skill bio-duplicate-handling -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (alignment-files/duplicate-handling in GPTomics/bioSkills) into .agents/skills/bio-duplicate-handling in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Bio Duplicate Handling 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 GPTomics/bioSkills --skill bio-duplicate-handling -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/bio-duplicate-handling, .gemini/skills/bio-duplicate-handling, .github/skills/bio-duplicate-handling and .opencode/skills/bio-duplicate-handling in your project.

What does Bio Duplicate Handling need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Bio Duplicate Handling needs a shell for the scripts in its folder and the command-line tools its instructions call (java and pip). Our summary lists: Python 3; A Bash shell.

Does Bio Duplicate Handling access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use pip, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Bio Duplicate Handling 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 Bio Duplicate Handling use?

Bio Duplicate Handling is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Bio Duplicate Handling use?

About 3.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 15k 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 Bio Duplicate Handling?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Bio Duplicate Handling: Pysam (davila7/claude-code-templates, 32k stars), Pysam (K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills, 48k stars), Omics Tools (DrugClaw/DrugClaw, 125 stars) and Tooluniverse Epigenomics (wu-yc/LabClaw, 1.1k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Bio Duplicate Handling?

GPTomics (a GitHub organization) maintains it in GPTomics/bioSkills, which has 1,217 GitHub stars. The repository holds 559 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 15, 2026.

Source: GPTomics/bioSkills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.