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BEAST_pype: An automated pipeline for high throughput phylodynamic analyses using BEAST 2.

BEAST_pype is a pipeline with the aim of automating and parallelizing many of the steps involved in phylodynamics using BEAST 2. The workflows expedite phylodynamic analyses using BEAST 2 via a series of python, bash and R based Jupyter Notebooks.

BEAST_pype was concieved with the aim to speed up and automate the use of BEAST-2 analyses for routine public health use at the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Activities include running routine analyses on continuously circulating viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2 or Influenza, to extract epidemiological parameters of interest for surviellance. Also, for accelerating research or outbreak investigations that require several experimental runs for optimization and more rapid results generation.

Features of BEAST_pype include:

• Command-line launchable, and Yaml file controlled pipeline.
• Improved XML generation and re-use, e.g. using user-provided BEAST-2 xmls as a template for generating a new BEAST-2 xml from new sequences with the associated metadata.
• Launching several parallelized runs and a GUI for selecting converged MCMC chains.
• Automated generation of reports analysing BEAST-2 runs (diagnostic and result plots and statistics).
• Ability to create and include initial trees for faster runs.
• Incorporating downsampling techniques.

For instructions, getting started, and more details, please see BEAST_pype's wiki.

IMPORTANT NOTES

• For ease of distribution reasons BEAST_pype uses the version of BEAST-2 that is currently available via conda, specifically bioconda, 2.7.7 as of 2026-May-13. BEAST_pype was developed on BEAST 2.6. Therefore, template BEAST-2 XMLs from BEAST 2 versions other than 2.6 or 2.7 may not work.

Installation instructions:

See the wiki's installation instructions section.

Guides on Running BEAST_pype Workflows

The documentation for running BEAST_pype's workflows is in the repo's wiki.

How to Contribute

See CONTRIBUTING.md

Legal

Copyright (c) His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Health, 2025.

Unless otherwise noted, the source code of this project is covered under Crown Copyright, Government of Canada, and is distributed under the GPL-2 license.

The Canada wordmark and related graphics associated with this distribution are protected under trademark law and copyright law. No permission is granted to use them outside the parameters of the Government of Canada's corporate identity program. For more information, see Federal identity requirements.

Contributors

Martin Grunnill martin.grunnill@phac-aspc.gc.ca
Carmen Lia Murall carmen.lia.murall@phac-aspc.gc.ca
Rachelle Di Tullio
Kodjovi Mlaga

Acknowledgments

Useful Software

A forerunner and inspiration of this work was CoV flow.

BEAST_pype would not be possible without:

• BEAST 2 also Bouckaert R. et al. (2019)
• The initial work on BEAST2xml by Terry Jones.

Feedback During Development

George Long
Venketa Duvvuri
Louis Du Plessis
Samuel Alizon
Remco Bouckaert Gonche Danesh

BEAST_pype: ...

• Quel est ce projet?
• Comment ça marche?
• Qui utilisera ce projet?
• Quel est le but de ce projet?

Comment contribuer

Voir CONTRIBUTING.md

Licence

Sauf indication contraire, le code source de ce projet est protégé par le droit d'auteur de la Couronne du gouvernement du Canada et distribué sous la licence GPL-2.

Le mot-symbole « Canada » et les éléments graphiques connexes liés à cette distribution sont protégés en vertu des lois portant sur les marques de commerce et le droit d'auteur. Aucune autorisation n'est accordée pour leur utilisation à l'extérieur des paramètres du programme de coordination de l'image de marque du gouvernement du Canada. Pour obtenir davantage de renseignements à ce sujet, veuillez consulter les Exigences pour l'image de marque.