splicecraft 0.2.2

Terminal-based circular plasmid map viewer, sequence editor, and Primer3/Golden Braid primer design workbench

SpliceCraft

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⚠️ Beta software. SpliceCraft is under active development and the API, UI, and on-disk file formats may change between releases. Your data files (plasmid_library.json, parts_bin.json, primers.json) are auto-backed up to *.bak on every save, but please keep your own off-disk copies of anything critical. Do not use SpliceCraft as your sole system of record for cloning work until it exits beta.

A terminal-based circular plasmid map viewer, sequence editor, primer design workbench, and Golden Braid parts domesticator — rendered entirely in your shell. Fetch any GenBank record by accession, load local files, annotate features with pLannotate, design diagnostic / cloning / Golden Braid primers with Primer3, and edit sequences — without ever leaving the terminal.

Quick start

pip install splicecraft
splicecraft              # empty canvas
splicecraft L09137       # fetch pUC19 from NCBI
splicecraft myplasmid.gb # open a local GenBank file

That's it. All required dependencies are installed automatically. User data lives in the platform-appropriate data directory (see the Installation section below).

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Features

Core visualization & editing

• Braille dot-matrix circular map — plasmids rendered as crisp Unicode braille rings with per-strand feature arcs, directional arrowheads, and proximity-placed labels
• Linear map view — toggle with v for a horizontal strip layout
• Dithered sequence panel — per-base DNA viewer with feature bars, restriction site overlays, and double-stranded display
• Live NCBI fetch — pull any GenBank record by accession number on demand
• Local file support — open .gb / .gbk files directly from disk
• Free rotation — spin the origin left or right with [ / ]
• Restriction enzyme overlay — 200+ NEB enzymes including Type IIS (BsaI, BsmBI, BbsI, SapI) with visible recognition arcs + cut markers

Libraries (all persist to JSON)

• Plasmid library — SnapGene-style collection, auto-saves on import, survives restarts, supports rename and handslip-protected delete
• Parts Bin — Golden Braid L0 parts catalog with user-domesticated parts including sequences and primer pairs
• Primer library — all designed primers with Tm, length, date, status (Designed / Ordered / Validated), multi-select for batch operations

Primer design (Primer3)

• Detection primers — diagnostic PCR; Primer3 picks the ideal pair within a selected region, 450-550 bp product by default (configurable)
• Cloning primers — RE-site tails + GCGC padding; 30+ common enzymes or type a custom recognition sequence
• Golden Braid primers — BsaI domestication for all L0 positions (Promoter, 5' UTR, CDS, CDS-NS, C-tag, Terminator)
• Generic primers — simple binding primers, no tails
• Primers can be added to the plasmid map as primer_bind features
• Scrollable TextArea for custom sequence input; highlighted text = target

Annotation

• pLannotate integration — press Shift+A (or use the ◈ library button) to auto-annotate a plasmid against pLannotate's curated feature database. Optional — see install notes below

Feature operations

• Feature sidebar — click a row to highlight on map; click the map to select the feature under the cursor
• Undo/redo — 50-deep snapshot stack for all sequence edits
• Delete protection — focus-aware Delete key; confirmation modal (default focus = No) for library entries
• Clipboard — OSC-52 copy works in Windows Terminal, iTerm2, modern WSL

Data safety

• Atomic saves — all JSON files written via tempfile + os.replace
• Automatic backups — every save writes *.json.bak before overwriting
• Corrupt-file recovery — missing files don't crash; corrupt files auto- restore from .bak with a warning notification on startup

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Installation

Requires Python 3.10+.

From PyPI (recommended)

pip install splicecraft
splicecraft              # empty canvas
splicecraft L09137       # fetch pUC19 from NCBI
splicecraft myplasmid.gb # open a local GenBank file

All required dependencies (textual, biopython, primer3-py, platformdirs) are pulled in automatically. User data (library, parts bin, primers) lives in the platform-appropriate data directory:

Platform	Path
Linux	~/.local/share/splicecraft/
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/splicecraft/
Windows	%APPDATA%\splicecraft\

Override with SPLICECRAFT_DATA_DIR=/path/to/dir splicecraft.

From source

git clone https://github.com/Binomica-Labs/SpliceCraft.git
cd SpliceCraft
pip install -e .

Optional dependencies

pLannotate (for automatic plasmid annotation via Shift+A) — requires conda:

conda create -n plannotate -c conda-forge -c bioconda plannotate
conda activate plannotate
plannotate setupdb          # one-time ~500 MB BLAST database download
# then run SpliceCraft from the same conda env

SpliceCraft runs fine without pLannotate — the annotation feature just notifies the user how to install it if pressed.

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Usage

# After pip install:
splicecraft              # empty canvas
splicecraft L09137       # fetch pUC19 from NCBI on launch
splicecraft myplasmid.gb # open a local GenBank file
splicecraft --version    # print version
splicecraft --help       # quick usage hint

If running from a git clone (pip install -e .), the same commands work; you can also still run python3 splicecraft.py directly.

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Key Bindings

Main screen

Key	Description
[ / ]	Rotate map origin left / right
Shift+[/]	Rotate coarse (10× step)
Home	Reset origin to 0
, / .	Circular map aspect wider / taller
v	Toggle circular ↔ linear map
l	Toggle feature label connector lines
r	Toggle restriction-site overlay
f	Fetch a record from NCBI by accession
o	Open a .gb file from disk
a	Add current plasmid to the library
Shift+A	Annotate plasmid with pLannotate
Shift+E	Enter sequence editor mode
Shift+S	Save edits to file
Delete	Context-aware delete (feature or library entry)
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo
Ctrl+C	Copy selection to clipboard
q	Quit

Primer Design screen

Key	Description
esc	Close primer screen
m	Mark / unmark primer under cursor (★)
M	Mark / unmark all primers
S	Cycle status: Designed → Ordered → Validated
Tab	Cycle focus between fields

Mouse

Action	Description
Click	Place cursor / select feature under pointer
Double-click	Select full feature span
Drag	Select a sequence range
Scroll wheel	Rotate map (when over map panel)

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Menus

Menu	Items
File	Open .gb file · Fetch from NCBI · Add to Library · Save · Quit
Edit	Edit Sequence · Undo · Redo · Delete Feature
Enzymes	Show RE sites · Unique cutters · 6+/4+ bp sites · Connectors
Features	Add Feature · Delete Feature · Annotate with pLannotate
Primers	Opens the full-screen Primer Design workbench
Parts	Opens the Parts Bin (Golden Braid L0 parts catalog)
Constructor	Opens the Assembly Constructor for TU building

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Requirements

Package	Version	Purpose
Python	≥ 3.10	Runtime
Textual	≥ 8.2.3	TUI framework and rendering engine
Rich	≥ 14.0	Terminal rendering (Textual dependency)
Biopython	≥ 1.87	GenBank parsing and NCBI Entrez fetch
primer3-py	≥ 2.3.0	Primer design (Tm, thermodynamic screening)
pytest	≥ 9.0	Test suite (dev only)
pytest-asyncio	≥ 1.3	Async test support (dev only)
pLannotate	optional, conda	Automatic plasmid annotation (Shift+A)
BLAST+	optional, conda	Required by pLannotate
Primer3 CLI	optional, apt	Not used directly — primer3-py bundles it

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Data files

All user data persists as human-readable JSON in the repo directory:

File	Purpose
plasmid_library.json	Saved plasmid collection (GenBank + metadata)
parts_bin.json	User-domesticated Golden Braid parts
primers.json	Designed primer library
*.json.bak	Automatic backup — written before each save

These files are in .gitignore — they're user-local data, not repo content. A manual backup rotation happens on every save so accidental data loss is always recoverable via the .bak file.

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Tests

python3 -m pytest -q          # full suite (246 tests, ~45 s)
python3 -m pytest tests/test_dna_sanity.py    # biology correctness only (< 1s)

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License

MIT