What problem does it solve?
AnnData provides a compact, extensible data structure to store a gene expression matrix (X) plus rich annotations (obs, var, uns, layers, obsm, varm, obsp) in single-cell experiments, enabling integrated analysis workflows without data misalignment.
Core Features & Use Cases
- Core data structure components: X, obs, var, layers, obsm, varm, obsp, uns, and raw for end-to-end single-cell analysis.
- Interoperability and persistence: read/write to h5ad, integration with Scanpy, Muon, and the scverse ecosystem; concatenation, backends, and memory-efficient operations.
- Use cases include building annotated datasets, batch integration previews, reproducible preprocessing pipelines, and scalable data management for large cohorts.
Quick Start
Install anndata and create a minimal AnnData object from a dense matrix with basic obs and var annotations.