---
id: latch
version: "2.76.10"
license: Copyright 2024 LatchBio Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software… (full text in the JSON record)
license_treatment: unclear
maintenance: active
---

# latch — The Latch SDK

License: unclear · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 216.4K/mo

## What it is and what it does

Latch SDK is a Python framework built on Flyte that lets you define bioinformatics workflows as Python functions and automatically deploy them to managed cloud infrastructure. It handles containerization, versioning, and resource scheduling (CPU, GPU) while generating web interfaces for workflow execution without additional code. The framework is designed for accessibility—workflows can be registered and run through a web console after a single CLI command—and includes first-class type safety and task-level isolation.

The SDK targets bioinformaticians and developers building data pipelines for genomics, proteomics, and other life-science domains. It abstracts away Kubernetes orchestration details while providing the scalability and reliability of container-native execution. Workflows are versioned automatically on each registration, and the framework integrates with cloud storage (via boto3) and container registries. The dependency footprint is substantial—27 runtime packages including Docker, Kubernetes, and various cloud SDKs—reflecting the complexity of the infrastructure it manages.

Use it for:

- Register and run RNA-seq analysis pipelines with automatic containerization and cloud scheduling.
- Build multi-step bioinformatics workflows (alignment, variant calling, annotation) with type-safe task definitions.
- Deploy gene-editing or phylogenetics analysis tools as web-accessible applications without writing deployment code.
- Scale single-cell analysis or protein engineering workflows across heterogeneous compute resources (CPU, GPU).
- Version and share reproducible bioinformatics workflows with collaborators through the Latch platform.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Latch SDK is a framework for building, containerizing, and deploying bioinformatics workflows to managed cloud infrastructure with automatically generated web interfaces.

Yes, if you are building bioinformatics workflows and want to avoid Kubernetes and Docker orchestration boilerplate. The active maintenance, low install friction, and zero known vulnerabilities make it safe to adopt. However, the 27 runtime dependencies and requirement for Docker and cloud infrastructure mean this is a substantial commitment—best suited for teams planning to deploy workflows at scale rather than one-off scripts. The unclear license metadata should be clarified with the maintainers before use in proprietary contexts.

## Install

pip install latch
uv add latch
poetry add latch

## Installing latch

Before you install: Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel distribution. The package is actively maintained with a release 14 days old and recent repository activity. However, it carries 27 runtime dependencies including Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud SDKs, which adds operational complexity despite straightforward pip installation.

License in practice: Licensed under the MIT License (inferred from the copyright and permission text). This is permissive and places no restrictions on commercial or private use, though the license treatment is marked unclear in the metadata.

Quickstart:

pip install latch
latch init testworkflow
latch register testworkflow

Docker must be installed and running locally to register workflows; the registration process builds and pushes container images.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the 27 runtime dependencies are all required for basic workflow definition or only for deployment/registration.
- Specific performance characteristics or scalability limits for large bioinformatics datasets.
- Whether Latch-hosted infrastructure is required or if workflows can run on self-managed Kubernetes clusters.

## Package facts

- License: Copyright 2024 LatchBio Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software… (full text in the JSON record) (unclear)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 216.4K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

bioinformatics workflow framework, workflow orchestration python, containerized pipeline deployment, flyte-based workflow sdk, biological data processing automation, bioinformatics, workflow-orchestration, containerization

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