PyLabRobot

Use PyLabRobot's hardware-agnostic frontends, resource tree, trackers, and device-specific backends to develop laboratory automation. Default to local manifest validation, bookkeeping, and the software-only chatterbox backend.

Verified snapshot

• PyPI stable: PyLabRobot==0.2.2, released 2026-07-30.
• Upstream requirement: Python >=3.9; runtime checks here used Python 3.13.
• Hosted /stable/ pages mix 0.2.1 API pages with development documentation. GitHub has no v0.2.2 tag and its changelog has no 0.2.2 section. Use the released wheel/source distribution for the tested contract, not the URL label.
• Released liquid-handler backends include STARBackend, VantageBackend, EVOBackend, OpentronsOT2Backend, and the software-only LiquidHandlerChatterboxBackend.
• MicroSpin and Plate.stacking_z_height are present in 0.2.2, despite being listed under Unreleased in the current changelog. Newer development APIs, including the track= Hamilton deck keyword, are not this release.
• See the release and transport review for source hashes, tested behavior, and the known OT-2 cancellation mismatch.

Non-negotiable hardware boundary

Never connect to, initialize, home, move, heat, shake, spin, pump, open/close, or otherwise command physical equipment automatically. Do not turn a simulation plan into a live backend merely by changing an environment variable, config value, or import.

Before any separately authorized live run, require a trained human to:

1. Explicitly confirm the exact backend, device identity, firmware, transport, deck, and protocol revision.
2. Reconcile the physical deck against the resource tree, including carriers, adapters, lids, plates, tip racks, waste, labware orientation, barcodes, and every occupied coordinate.
3. Verify calibration, teaching, motion envelopes, collision risks, gripper or channel clearances, and all aspiration/dispense coordinates.
4. Review source identity and actual fill volume, dead volume, destination capacity, tip type/capacity/filter compatibility, channel mapping, units, heights, rates, liquid class, blowout/mixing, and contamination boundaries.
5. Confirm guards, doors, waste capacity, containment, emergency stop readiness, PPE, biosafety/chemical controls, and a safe abort/recovery procedure.
6. Approve a slow dry run or nonhazardous commissioning run when anything is new or changed.

Tracker state is bookkeeping, not sensing. It cannot prove that liquid or a tip is physically present. After a backend error, tracker rollback describes software state; it does not reverse a physical aspiration, dispense, or tip movement that partly completed. Preserve the error/channel details and have the operator reconcile tips and source/destination volumes before resuming. Do not blindly retry the failed operation from the pre-error plan. The 0.2.2 liquid-handler implementation commits or rolls back trackers according to reported operation success. The Visualizer renders resource/tracker events; it does not model physics. Chatterbox prints planned operations; it does not prove calibration, reachability, collision freedom, liquid behavior, or device state.

Required intake

Do not guess any of these:

• Exact device model, installed options, firmware, computer/OS, and transport.
• Stable PyLabRobot version and required extras.
• Deck/deck origin, carriers, adapters, resource definitions, dimensions, coordinates, orientations, and motion clearances.
• Plate/tube/reservoir capacities and dead volumes; initial physical volumes.
• Tip model, filter, fitting, capacity, rack state, channel count, and channel mapping.
• Transfer units (uL, mm, uL/s, s), heights, rates, mixing, air gaps, blowout, liquid properties, and validated vendor liquid class.
• Contamination policy, controls, waste handling, operator interventions, acceptance criteria, and recovery procedure.

If information is missing, produce an assumptions/blockers list and an offline draft only.

Reproducible install

For offline API inspection and chatterbox simulation:

uv venv --python 3.13 .venv-pylabrobot
uv pip install --python .venv-pylabrobot/bin/python "PyLabRobot==0.2.2"

On Windows, use .venv-pylabrobot\Scripts\python.exe. Do not install hardware extras until the user names the device and explicitly approves its transport

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