Skip to content
Marketplace

start

by anthropics

Set up your bio-research environment and explore available tools. Use when first getting oriented with the plugin, checking which literature, drug-discovery, or visualization MCP servers are connected, or surveying available analysis skills before starting a new project.

Overview

SKILL.mdRead at 8444efc

Bio-Research Start

If you see unfamiliar placeholders or need to check which tools are connected, see CONNECTORS.md.

You are helping a biological researcher get oriented with the bio-research plugin. Walk through the following steps in order.

Step 1: Welcome

Display this welcome message:

Bio-Research Plugin

Your AI-powered research assistant for the life sciences. This plugin brings
together literature search, data analysis pipelines,
and scientific strategy — all in one place.

Step 2: Check Available MCP Servers

Test which MCP servers are connected by listing available tools. Group the results:

Literature & Data Sources:

  • ~~literature database — biomedical literature search
  • ~~literature database — preprint access (biology and medicine)
  • ~~journal access — academic publications
  • ~~data repository — collaborative research data (Sage Bionetworks)

Drug Discovery & Clinical:

  • ~~chemical database — bioactive compound database
  • ~~drug target database — drug target discovery platform
  • ClinicalTrials.gov — clinical trial registry
  • ~~clinical data platform — clinical trial site ranking and platform help

Visualization & AI:

  • ~~scientific illustration — create scientific figures and diagrams
  • ~~AI research platform — AI for biology (histopathology, drug discovery)

Report which servers are connected and which are not yet set up.

Step 3: Survey Available Skills

List the analysis skills available in this plugin:

SkillWhat It Does
Single-Cell RNA QCQuality control for scRNA-seq data with MAD-based filtering
scvi-toolsDeep learning for single-cell omics (scVI, scANVI, totalVI, PeakVI, etc.)
Nextflow PipelinesRun nf-core pipelines (RNA-seq, WGS/WES, ATAC-seq)
Instrument Data ConverterConvert lab instrument output to Allotrope ASM format
Scientific Problem SelectionSystematic framework for choosing research problems

Step 4: Optional Setup — Binary MCP Servers

Mention that two additional MCP servers are available as separate installations:

  • ~~genomics platform — Access cloud analysis data and workflows Install: Download txg-node.mcpb from https://github.com/10XGenomics/txg-mcp/releases
  • ~~tool database (Harvard MIMS) — AI tools for scientific discovery Install: Download tooluniverse.mcpb from https://github.com/mims-harvard/ToolUniverse/releases

These require downloading binary files and are optional.

Step 5: Ask How to Help

Ask the researcher what they're working on today. Suggest starting points based on common workflows:

  1. Literature review — "Search ~~literature database for recent papers on [topic]"
  2. Analyze sequencing data — "Run QC on my single-cell data" or "Set up an RNA-seq pipeline"
  3. Drug discovery — "Search ~~chemical database for compounds targeting [protein]" or "Find drug targets for [disease]"
  4. Data standardization — "Convert my instrument data to Allotrope format"
  5. Research strategy — "Help me evaluate a new project idea"

Wait for the user's response and guide them to the appropriate tools and skills.

Files 1 file

Install it by hand

Deska runs this for you, for every agent you pick. To run it yourself in a terminal:

npx skills add anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins --skill start

More from anthropics

  • frontend-designanthropicsOfficialGuidance for distinctive, intentional visual design when building new UI or reshaping an existing one. Helps with aesthetic direction, typography, and making choices that don't read as templated defaults.958K installs on skills.sh8
  • skill-creatoranthropicsOfficialCreate new skills, modify and improve existing skills, and measure skill performance. Use when users want to create a skill from scratch, edit, or optimize an existing skill, run evals to test a skill, benchmark skill performance with variance analysis, or optimize a skill's description for better triggering accuracy.398.8K installs on skills.sh0
  • pptxanthropicsOfficialUse this skill any time a .pptx or .potx file is involved in any way — as input, output, or both. This includes: creating slide decks, pitch decks, or presentations; reading, parsing, or extracting text from any .pptx or .potx file (even if the extracted content will be used elsewhere, like in an email or summary); editing, modifying, or updating existing presentations; combining or splitting slide files; working with templates (.potx), layouts, speaker notes, or comments. Trigger whenever the user mentions \"deck,\" \"slides,\" \"presentation,\" or references a .pptx or .potx filename, regardless of what they plan to do with the content afterward. If a .pptx or .potx file needs to be opened, created, or touched, use this skill.231.2K installs on skills.sh0
  • pdfanthropicsOfficialUse this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files. This includes reading or extracting text/tables from PDFs, combining or merging multiple PDFs into one, splitting PDFs apart, rotating pages, adding watermarks, creating new PDFs, filling PDF forms, encrypting/decrypting PDFs, extracting images, and OCR on scanned PDFs to make them searchable. If the user mentions a .pdf file or asks to produce one, use this skill.206.2K installs on skills.sh0
  • docxanthropicsOfficialUse this skill whenever the user wants to create, read, edit, or manipulate Word documents (.docx files) or Word templates (.dotx files). Triggers include: any mention of 'Word doc', 'word document', '.docx', '.dotx', or requests to produce professional documents with formatting like tables of contents, headings, page numbers, or letterheads. Also use when extracting or reorganizing content from .docx or .dotx files, inserting or replacing images in documents, performing find-and-replace in Word files, working with tracked changes or comments, or converting content into a polished Word document. If the user asks for a 'report', 'memo', 'letter', 'template', or similar deliverable as a Word or .docx file, use this skill. Do NOT use for PDFs, spreadsheets, Google Docs, or general coding tasks unrelated to document generation.197.1K installs on skills.sh0
All skills by anthropics