Agent skill

Drug Retrosynthesis

by learningmatter-mit in learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills

Predict synthetic accessibility and retrosynthetic pathways for novel molecules using the IBM RXN API.

MITAuto-check passedFrontend & Design

Install Drug Retrosynthesis

skills CLI
$ npx skills add learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills --skill drug-retrosynthesis -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills drug-retrosynthesis --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/learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/drug-retrosynthesis .claude/skills/drug-retrosynthesis && 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
drug-retrosynthesis
GitHub stars
176
Token cost
~647 tokens
SKILL.md length
270 words
Files
4 (incl. scripts)
Skills in repo
129
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Predict synthetic accessibility and retrosynthetic pathways for novel molecules using the IBM RXN API.

  • Works in 3 steps: Identify Target Molecule → Set Up the IBM RXN Environment → Run Retrosynthesis Evaluation
  • Tasks that involve Creative writing and fiction
  • SKILL.md covers Goal, Instructions, Examples and Constraints, plus 1 more section
  • Runs Python scripts from its folder; calls pip; needs RXN_API_KEY

What it does

Drug Retrosynthesis is an agent skill from learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills. Predict synthetic accessibility and retrosynthetic pathways for novel molecules using the IBM RXN API.

Its SKILL.md is about 650 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 6 other files, including scripts (for example `examples/aspirin_retrosynthesis/README.md`, `examples/aspirin_retrosynthesis/retrosynthesis_result.json` and `scripts/evaluate_ibm_rxn.py`).

It sits in Frontend & Design, covering Creative writing and fiction, Drug discovery and cheminformatics and Accessibility. The repository describes itself as: Integrating AtomisticSkills into Agentic IDEs (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Google Antigravity, Hermes Agent, etc). The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Creative writing and fiction
  • Tasks that involve Drug discovery and cheminformatics
  • Tasks that involve Accessibility

Example prompts

  • “/drug-retrosynthesis”

Requirements

  • Python 3
  • A credential in RXN_API_KEY

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Identify Target Molecule
  2. Set Up the IBM RXN Environment
  3. Run Retrosynthesis Evaluation

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6257444. 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 1 file in scripts/ (Python), which the agent can run.

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • pip

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

  • Network

    Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

    • rxn.res.ibm.com
    • doi.org
    • github.com

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

  • Credentials

    Names these keys or tokens, usually read from environment variables:

    • RXN_API_KEY

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

Context cost

Drug Retrosynthesis loads about 647 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 31 tokens; SKILL.md has 270 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~31
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~647

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); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills at commit 6257444, republished under its MIT licence (© learningmatter-mit). 270 words, ~647 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/drug-retrosynthesis/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 3 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
drug-retrosynthesis
description
Predict synthetic accessibility and retrosynthetic pathways for novel molecules using the IBM RXN API.
metadata.category
drug-discovery
metadata.venv
cpu

drug-retrosynthesis

Goal

To predict the retrosynthetic pathways and synthetic accessibility of novel small molecules (such as undocumented fluorinated gases) using the state-of-the-art transformer models provided by IBM RXN for Chemistry.

Instructions

1. Identify Target Molecule

Ensure you have the valid canonical SMILES string for the target material or chemical you wish to synthesize.

2. Set Up the IBM RXN Environment

Because IBM RXN is a cloud-hosted API, you must have an API Key.

  1. Sign up for a free IBM RXN account at https://rxn.res.ibm.com/
  2. Generate an API Key in your user profile.
  3. Export the key in your terminal session before running the skill script:
bash
export RXN_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
3. Run Retrosynthesis Evaluation

Use the wrapper script to submit the SMILES string to the IBM RXN API. The script will poll the server and return the predicted pathway and a confidence score for synthetic feasibility.

bash
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../venv/run cpu python ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/evaluate_ibm_rxn.py "target_smiles" --steps 3

Examples

Evaluating the synthetic pathway for a fluorinated gas analog (e.g., 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene: FC(F)(F)C(F)=C):

bash
export RXN_API_KEY="api-key-here"
${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../venv/run cpu python ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/evaluate_ibm_rxn.py "FC(F)(F)C(F)=C" --steps 3

Constraints

  • Environments: Requires the cpu environment.
  • Dependencies: The script relies on the rxn4chemistry python library (pip install rxn4chemistry). If not installed, the script will gracefully exit with instructions.
  • Rate Limits: The IBM RXN free tier has API limits. Do not use this in a high-throughput loop for thousands of molecules without a premium tier.
  • Sourcing Constraints: This tool does not directly check commercial availability of the proposed precursors. You must manually verify if the starting materials proposed by IBM RXN are commercially available.

References


Author: Sathya Edamadaka Contact: GitHub @snme

© learningmatter-mit, 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 3 other files (scripts) in skills/drug-retrosynthesis of learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills.

  • SKILL.md
  • examples/aspirin_retrosynthesis/README.md
  • examples/aspirin_retrosynthesis/retrosynthesis_result.json
  • scripts/evaluate_ibm_rxn.py

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6257444

Compare with similar skills

Drug Retrosynthesis 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.

Drug Retrosynthesis compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Drug Retrosynthesis this skilllearningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills176—~647Automated safety check: PassMIT
Antislop Humanmiqdadbadjuber/anti-slop5.2k—~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Bio Atac Seq Allele Specific AccessibilityGPTomics/bioSkills1.2k2 repos~4.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Bio Atac Seq Differential AccessibilityGPTomics/bioSkills1.2k2 repos~6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Bio Workflows Atacseq PipelineGPTomics/bioSkills1.2k1 repos~4.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Md Reviewborghei/Claude-Skills886—~3.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Drug Retrosynthesis

What does Drug Retrosynthesis do?

Predict synthetic accessibility and retrosynthetic pathways for novel molecules using the IBM RXN API. Drug Retrosynthesis is an agent skill from learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills. Predict synthetic accessibility and retrosynthetic pathways for novel molecules using the IBM RXN API.

When should I use Drug Retrosynthesis?

Drug Retrosynthesis fits situations like: tasks that involve Creative writing and fiction; tasks that involve Drug discovery and cheminformatics; tasks that involve Accessibility.

How do I install Drug Retrosynthesis in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills --skill drug-retrosynthesis -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/drug-retrosynthesis in learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills) into .claude/skills/drug-retrosynthesis in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Drug Retrosynthesis in Codex?

Run `npx skills add learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills --skill drug-retrosynthesis -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/drug-retrosynthesis in learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills) into .agents/skills/drug-retrosynthesis in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Drug Retrosynthesis 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 learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills --skill drug-retrosynthesis -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/drug-retrosynthesis, .gemini/skills/drug-retrosynthesis, .github/skills/drug-retrosynthesis and .opencode/skills/drug-retrosynthesis in your project.

What does Drug Retrosynthesis need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Drug Retrosynthesis needs Python for the scripts in its folder, the command-line tools its instructions call (pip) and credentials named RXN_API_KEY. Our summary lists: Python 3; A credential in RXN_API_KEY.

Does Drug Retrosynthesis access the network?

SKILL.md names 3 domains. As links in the text: rxn.res.ibm.com, doi.org and github.com. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Drug Retrosynthesis 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. The check reads SKILL.md only: the scripts in the folder are not scanned, so read them before running anything.

What licence does Drug Retrosynthesis use?

Drug Retrosynthesis 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 Drug Retrosynthesis use?

About 647 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.6k 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 Drug Retrosynthesis?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Drug Retrosynthesis: Antislop Human (miqdadbadjuber/anti-slop, 5.2k stars), Bio Atac Seq Allele Specific Accessibility (GPTomics/bioSkills, 1.2k stars), Bio Atac Seq Differential Accessibility (GPTomics/bioSkills, 1.2k stars) and Bio Workflows Atacseq Pipeline (GPTomics/bioSkills, 1.2k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Drug Retrosynthesis?

learningmatter-mit (a GitHub organization) maintains it in learningmatter-mit/AtomisticSkills, which has 176 GitHub stars. The repository holds 129 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 7, 2026.

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