bioversions

What it is and what it does

Bioversions is a Python package that tracks and serves the current version numbers for biological and biomedical databases. It maintains a curated registry of versions for databases like BioGRID and provides both a programmatic API and command-line interface to query them. The package caches results locally (by default in ~/.data/bioversions) and refreshes once per day, reducing network overhead for repeated queries.

The package includes a web application mode that can be launched locally to serve versions via HTTP endpoints, making it useful for shell scripts, data pipelines, and automated workflows that need to download specific versions of biological databases. It is built on a modular architecture where new database sources can be added by extending the Getter class.

Use it for:

• Download specific versions of biological databases in shell scripts using the CLI: `bioversions get biogrid`
• Query current database versions programmatically in Python data pipelines without repeated network calls
• Run a local HTTP API server to resolve database versions for downstream tools and services
• Integrate version tracking into reproducible bioinformatics workflows that depend on specific database releases
• Extend the package with custom database sources by implementing new Getter subclasses

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Retrieves and caches the current version numbers for biological and biomedical databases, with both Python API and CLI interfaces.

Yes. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses a permissive MIT license, and solves a real problem for bioinformatics workflows—reliably tracking biological database versions. Low install friction and broad Python version support (3.11–3.14) make it a straightforward addition to any biomedical data pipeline.

Install

bioversions on PyPI

pip install bioversions

uv add bioversions

poetry add bioversions

Installing bioversions

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure Python wheel distribution. Actively maintained with a release on 2026-08-14 and recent commits; supports Python 3.11 through 3.14.

License in practice

MIT license permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; suitable for most projects.

Quickstart

import bioversions

version = bioversions.get_version("biogrid")
print(version)

# Or resolve for more details
bioversion = bioversions.resolve("biogrid")
print(bioversion.version)

Requires Python 3.11 or later. Cache is stored in ~/.data/bioversions by default; set BIOVERSIONS_HOME environment variable to override.

Verify before relying

• How many biological databases are currently supported in the version lookup system
• Whether the daily-updated static listing at biopragmatics.github.io/bioversions is automatically synchronized with the package
• Performance characteristics when querying many databases in succession

Package facts

Evidence: bioversions-0.11.1-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: snekpack, cookiecutter, databases, biological databases, biomedical databases

Tags

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