BioContainers Registry: searching for bioinformatics tools, packages and containers

BioContainers is an open-source project that aims to create, store, and distribute bioinformatics software containers and packages. The BioContainers community has developed a set of guidelines to standardize the software containers including the metadata, versions, licenses, and/or software dependencies. BioContainers supports multiple packaging and containers technologies such as Conda, Docker, and Singularity. Here, we introduce the BioContainers Registry and Restful API to make containerized bioinformatics tools more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). BioContainers registry provides a fast and convenient way to find and retrieve bioinformatics tools packages and containers. By doing so, it will increase the use of bioinformatics packages and containers while promoting replicability and reproducibility in research. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. * API : Application Programming Interface; FAIR : Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable; GA4GH : Global Alliance for Genomics and Health; HPC : High-Performance Computing; TRS : Tool Registry Service