ncbi-datasets

What problem does it solve?

NCBI Datasets provides a fast way to retrieve genome data, genome metadata, gene information, and taxonomy data, removing the need for manual downloads and scattered sources.

Core Features & Use Cases

• Summarize data with datasets summary (genome metadata, gene info, and taxonomy) to inspect datasets quickly.
• Download data with datasets download (genomes, genes, annotations, and metadata) for offline analysis.
• Export results in common formats via dataformat (JSON Lines, TSV) for downstream pipelines.
• Real-world use cases include genome assembly validation, gene annotation retrieval, and taxonomic surveys across taxa.

Quick Start

Install the ncbi-datasets-cli, then run a datasets summary or download workflow to fetch your first dataset.