gget

Overview

gget is a command-line bioinformatics tool and Python package providing unified access to 20+ genomic databases and analysis methods. Query gene information, sequence analysis, protein structures, viral sequences, expression data, disease associations, and mouse tissue/cell specificity metrics through a consistent interface. Most gget modules work both as command-line tools and as Python functions.

Important: The databases queried by gget are continuously updated, which sometimes changes their structure. Guidance here targets gget 0.30.8 (reviewed 2026-09-30). For reproducible work, pin gget==0.30.8; for broken upstream database adapters, update gget after checking release notes.

Installation

Install gget in a clean virtual environment to avoid conflicts:

# Reproducible install targeting this skill
uv venv --python 3.13 .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "gget==0.30.8"

import gget

Quick Start

Inspect module-specific syntax before querying:

gget info --help
gget pdb --help

Most modules return:

• Command-line: JSON (default) or CSV with -csv flag
• Python: DataFrame or dictionary

Common flags across modules:

• -o/--out: Save results to file
• -q/--quiet: Suppress progress information
• -csv: Return CSV format (command-line only)

Python argument names generally match long CLI options without leading dashes. For example, --census_version becomes census_version=.... Use gget <module> --help for CLI syntax and inspect.signature(gget.<module>) for Python; CLI flags such as --download may have no Python equivalent.

Module Categories

gget exposes 24 modules in six categories. Parameters, CLI and Python examples, and return shapes for every one are in references/module_catalog.md; fuller per-parameter documentation is in references/module_reference.md.

Several modules need a one-time gget setup before first use (elm, cellxgene, cbio; legacy alphafold/gpt), and cosmic prompts for COSMIC credentials to download its database.

Common Workflows

Worked multi-module pipelines — gene characterization, structural comparison, expression and enrichment analysis, disease and drug association, orthology comparison, and reference-file preparation for kallisto or alignment — are in references/common_workflows.md, with longer versions in references/workflows.md.

Best Practices

Data Retrieval

• Use --limit where supported; it is often a local cap, not a complete pagination mechanism
• Save results with -o/--out for reproducibility
• Check database versions/releases for consistency across analyses
• Use --quiet in production scripts to reduce output

Sequence Analysis

• For BLAST/BLAT, start with default parameters, then adjust sensitivity
• Use gget diamond with --threads for faster local alignment
• Save DIAMOND databases with --diamond_db; gget still requires the reference input
• For multiple sequence alignment, use -s5/--super5 for large datasets

Expression and Disease Data

• Gene symbols are case-sensitive in cellxgene (e.g., 'PAX7' vs 'Pax7')
• Install optional dependencies for cellxgene, elm, and cbio with gget setup <module>
• For enrichment, record the full library name and release, not only a shortcut:

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