Tamarind Bio
Tamarind runs molecular-design and structural-biology tools on managed compute: structure prediction, protein and antibody design, docking, binding-affinity prediction, MSA generation, and molecular dynamics. Use it when the user requests Tamarind, its REST API/MCP server, or cloud execution of these scientific tools. For local sequence processing or molecular descriptors, use a local library.
Sources and review scope
The REST contracts and public catalog were reviewed on 2026-09-30. Examples are illustrative until validated against the user's account; this review did not run authenticated jobs or establish scientific accuracy for any model.
- API index and complete guide.
- Current OpenAPI includes discovery, validation, jobs, files, and newer pipeline/custom-tool surfaces. openapi.yaml is also available. Check that needed paths exist: the merged spec can return HTTP 200 with only its classic surface when the backend spec cannot be fetched.
- Public catalog needs no key; query
?type=or?tag=. It documents public tools and conditional required settings, not every optional parameter or account entitlement. - Product documentation index links to Markdown pages, including the MCP guide.
Fetch the account's current schemas before composing a run. Where the prose guide and OpenAPI differ, prefer the operation/schema for field shapes, and record any unresolved difference rather than guessing.
Access
- Use the user's Tamarind deployment. The shared base is
https://app.tamarind.bio/api; a dedicated organization deployment has its own host and account data. Every relative REST path below is under/api. - Obtain a key from the deployment's API settings and read it from
TAMARIND_API_KEY; send it asx-api-key. Keep keys out of files and logs. - Check the account's current allowance and compute budget before scaling up. Free usage is a monthly allowance, not an unconditional promise of ten jobs forever; billing and entitlements can change.
# Public discovery requires no credential.
curl --fail-with-body 'https://app.tamarind.bio/tools.json?type=alphafold'
# Account-scoped discovery:
curl --fail-with-body 'https://app.tamarind.bio/api/tools' \
-H "x-api-key: $TAMARIND_API_KEY"
For REST examples install requests in the execution environment. The official
CLI distribution is tamarind-cli, and its Custom Tools Python client imports
as from tamarind import Tamarind; the unrelated package named tamarind is not
this client. See the SDK reference.
Core job recipes below use HTTP directly.
Workflow
- Discover. Read
GET /toolsand match the user's scientific task to the tool description. Built-ins return an array;?custom=truelists legacy custom tools only. Current custom deployments can be missing from this list: use the known deployed name and its schema before concluding that it is unavailable. - Read the schema.
GET /tools/{name}/schemareturns a JSON Schema for thesettingsobject.GET /toolsalso supplies a trimmedsettingsparameter list. Check task-dependent fields, file extensions, list values, and defaults. - Validate. Send
POST /validate-jobwithtype,settings, and optionaljobName. Check HTTP status first, then JSONvalid. On success, inspect and usenormalizedas the settings to submit. Addressunrecognized_settingsif returned, even alongsidevalid: true: an optional-field typo can otherwise silently leave the default in effect. Validation checks fields, not all submit policies, queue limits, or deployment readiness. - Submit once.
POST /submit-jobtakesjobName,type,settings, optionalversionfor a custom-tool build, and optional/organization-requiredprojectTag. Persist the submitted name and settings. A successful response is plain text, not a JSON receipt. Use the returned stored name. - Poll.
GET /jobs?jobName=...returns a row directly. Single-job terminal states areComplete,Stopped, andFailed; handle legacyDeletedor an exact-lookup error without looping indefinitely. Poll batch parents usingbatchStatus, and poll newer pipelines on their own run endpoint. - Download and inspect.
POST /resultreturns a JSON string URL on 200, or 202 withstatus: "preparing". Retry result retrieval after 202, without resubmitting compute. GET the signed URL without the Tamarind API-key header. Download the archive only for successful runs; requestfileName: "output.log"for stopped/failed jobs. Verify the scientific outputs after downloading.
Workflow recipes implement validation, stored names, bounded polling, 202 handling, batch validation, and pagination. They are locally smoke-tested with simulated responses; authenticated execution remains untested.
Picking tools and interpreting results
Select by inputs, intended output, and modeling assumptions, then confirm the candidate in the live catalog. These are anchors, not a guaranteed catalog:
| Task | Candidates and decisions |
|---|---|
| Protein/complex structure | alphafold for AF2 monomers/multimers; boltz, chai, or protenix for cofolding including ligands/nucleic acids; esmfold for fast single-sequence protein folding. Check esmfold2 separately: its current catalog includes protein, DNA, RNA, and ligand complexes. |
| Binder/motif design | bindcraft, boltzgen, rfdiffusion; choose by target type, scaffold constraints, and required structure inputs. |
| Inverse folding | proteinmpnn/ligandmpnn consume structures and design sequences. Re-fold designs and compare to the intended backbone/interface. |
| Small-molecule docking | autodock-vina for a fixed receptor and search box; diffdock for diffusion docking; boltz/chai for cofolding. Choose the modeling approach for the task, not to avoid supplying a required input. |
| Antibody/developability/MSA/MD | Filter descriptions and schemas for the specific task; availability and inputs differ by tool. |
Confidence scores describe model confidence, not experimental binding, specificity, or affinity. Compare designed backbones, interfaces, clashes, chain/residue mapping, and developability. Check ligand chemistry and stereochemistry; docking scores are not interchangeable with measured binding free energies. Record tool/model, input provenance, chain mapping, seeds/samples, MSA/template choices, normalized settings, and any user-selected filtering thresholds.
Honor the user's selected tool and budget. Use authorized defaults for routine choices; surface unresolved choices that materially affect the scientific task or compute scope before a large campaign. Never silently substitute a different scientific task because its inputs are easier to supply.
File inputs and chaining
- Upload a structure with
PUT /upload/{filename}(binary body; follow the documented redirect), then reference the registered relative name, e.g.target.pdborinputs/target.pdbwhen?folder=inputswas used. - Confirm names using
GET /files; it returns a non-paginated array for the selected folder, not a list of a job's outputs. - Prefer these paths over inline file content. The current guide says redundant account-email prefixes are stripped; there is no longer a universal double-prefix failure. Arbitrary strings are not necessarily file references.
- Reuse a completed job's file as
JobName/path/to/file.ext, matching the next parameter's supported extensions and list/scalar shape. Do not guess filenames. - ProteinMPNN designs must feed a folding tool's sequence field. A structural template field does not mean "fold this designed sequence". Read generated FASTA/CSV sequences and validate one folding settings object per sequence.
- Do not author internal fields such as
submit_method,msa, ormonomer_msa.
Batches and pipelines
POST /submit-batch accepts one type, a nonempty settings array, batchName,
and optional parallel jobNames. Validate every row using array-mode
/validate-job (up to 1,000 rows per call), and use each row's normalized settings.
Submission allows up to 30,000 expanded jobs, counting design fan-out, and
has a separate approximately 4.5 MB request limit. Split on both constraints.
Do not assume old weightedHoursBudget, maxRuntimeSeconds, or gpuType request
fields enforce a cap: they are absent from the current batch schema. Use confirmed
account controls and an agreed job/sample count.
Poll GET /jobs?jobName=<batchName> until batchStatus is Complete, Stopped,
or AggregationFailed. Subjobs can finish before aggregation. Fetch the archive
through /result and handle 202; resultUrl is optional and is not a reliable
readiness signal. Page GET /jobs?batch=... using startKey to inspect children.
For new saved workflows use the template/run API under /pipelines: read the
current pipeline graph contract, validate the proposed run with
POST /pipelines/validate, submit with POST /pipelines/submit (required
name, bindings, and one of templateId/pipeline), and poll
GET /pipelines/runs/{run_id}. Its statuses are lowercase and separate from job
statuses. The legacy /submit-pipeline and /run-pipeline remain documented;
API reference gives their actual required fields.
MCP alternative
Connect to https://mcp.tamarind.bio/mcp with OAuth 2.1 or the x-api-key header.
The official guide confirms submitJob, submitBatch, getJobs, getResult,
uploadFile, and getFiles. Read the connected server's tools/list schemas
before using signatures or interpreting result envelopes.
If the connection advertises discovery/validation helpers such as
getAvailableTools, getJobSchema, or validateJob, use their current schemas.
Extra helpers, filter vocabularies, submitBatch(fromJob=...), and upload-through-
MCP variants are not guaranteed by the public guide. This review's anonymous
tools/list request returned 401, so their current contracts were not verified.
Use the documented REST equivalents when needed.
Recovery
HTTP auth failures differ by route: classic endpoints can answer 400, jobs can answer 401 or gateway 403, and usage can answer 401. A 403 is not proof of a budget error. Check status and the actual response body before changing settings. Submission errors may be JSON or plain text regardless of Content-Type.
A timeout/5xx on submit does not prove that nothing queued. Look up the persisted
name before retrying; for campaigns use POST /jobs/search with up to 1,000 names
per request. Respect rate limits and avoid one-request-per-job polling at scale.
A 413 rejects the oversized request before creating jobs; split the body or upload
file content separately. DELETE /delete-job is a soft delete: it hides the
job and leaves stored result files intact.
Reference files
- API reference: endpoint shapes, validation, pagination, authentication differences, and legacy/new pipeline boundaries.
- Tool catalog: schema interpretation and discovery.
- Examples: current catalog-backed settings examples and tool-specific caveats, explicitly bounded by verification scope.
- Workflows: executable HTTP recipes with local mocked verification; no authenticated scientific jobs were run for this review.