album

Album is an open-source framework that turns scientific routines into executable building blocks and organizes them into a shareable, versioned library of research software.

• A solution is a single Python file that bundles a routine with its metadata, arguments, environment and install / run / test hooks. It can wrap tools written in Python, Java, R, C++, Fiji, napari, Blender and more.
• A catalog is a git repository of solutions that you can search, share with collaborators, publish as a website and archive on Zenodo with a DOI per solution version.

Every solution gets its own micromamba environment, so tools with conflicting dependencies run side by side on one machine.

Installation

With micromamba (recommended, also installs git):

micromamba create -n album album -c conda-forge
micromamba activate album

With pip (needs git on your system):

pip install album

Installation wizards for Windows, macOS and Linux and more options are described in the installation instructions.

Getting started

The default catalog with solution templates is added the first time you run album:

album index                                             # list catalogs and their solutions
album info album:template-python                        # what the solution does and which arguments it takes
album install album:template-python                     # create its environment
album run album:template-python --name "your name"

Continue with the quick start, learn how to write your own solution, or browse the public catalogs on album.solutions.

The Album suite

Package	What it adds	PyPI	conda-forge
album	the framework and the album command line
album-gui	graphical interface, album gui
album-docker	Docker images from solutions, album docker
album-package	standalone installers, album package
album-distributed	batch and distributed runs, album run-distributed
album-solution-api	the API every solution script uses
album-environments	environment handling with micromamba
album-mcp	MCP server for LLM agents	from source	from source

Find Album

• Documentation: docs.album.solutions
• Website and public catalogs: album.solutions
• Source code and issues: gitlab.com/album-app/album
• Developer documentation: wiki
• Docker images: albumsolutions/album
• Helmholtz Research Software Directory: helmholtz.software/software/album
• Helmholtz Imaging CONNECT: Album

Citation

Albrecht, J.P.*, Schmidt, D.*, Rieckert, L., Otto, M., and Harrington, K., 2026. Album: executable building blocks for scientific imaging routines, from sharing to LLM-assisted orchestration. arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.00601v2.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.00601v2

@misc{albrecht_album_2026,
  title         = {Album: executable building blocks for scientific imaging routines, from sharing to {LLM}-assisted orchestration},
  author        = {Albrecht, Jan Philipp and Schmidt, Deborah and Rieckert, Lucas and Otto, Maximilian and Harrington, Kyle},
  year          = {2026},
  eprint        = {2110.00601},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  doi           = {10.48550/arXiv.2110.00601},
  url           = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.00601v2}
}

Developers

• Kyle Harrington, Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association
• Jan Philipp Albrecht, Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association
• Deborah Schmidt, Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association

Everyone who contributed to album is listed in CITATION.cff.