u/Mokey925

Hi everyone,

I’ve been building OpenLIMS, an open-source, self-hosted Laboratory Information Management System aimed at research labs, bioinformatics groups, small biotech teams, and core facilities.

GitHub:
https://github.com/Mokey2002/OpenLIMS

The goal is to provide a lighter alternative for labs that need more structure than spreadsheets but don’t want the cost or complexity of a large commercial LIMS.

Some of the current functionality includes:

• Sample tracking, lineage, and chain of custody
• Projects and collaborative experiment notebooks
• Inventory and barcode/location tracking
• Configurable workflows and QC
• Instrument CSV/API ingestion
• Legacy data migration
• FASTA and sequence management
• Clustal Omega alignments
• Local BLAST databases and blastn/blastp searches
• mzML/mzXML and other mass-spec data review using pyOpenMS
• Reporting and audit trails
• REST API
• Optional OpenAI or local Ollama assistant

The stack is Django/DRF + PostgreSQL + Celery/Redis with a React frontend, and it can be deployed using Docker Compose.

It’s currently a production-style prototype and is not yet a validated clinical/diagnostic LIMS.

I’d be interested in hearing from people working in bioinformatics or lab informatics

Contributions, issues, and technical feedback are welcome as well.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been continuing work on OpenLIMS, an open-source, self-hosted LIMS for research labs, small biotech teams, and groups that need something more structured than spreadsheets.

The latest release, v0.19.2, adds a read-only assistant that can help users find samples, summarize projects, review failed migrations, and explain skipped import rows.

It can operate in three modes:

• Built-in OpenLIMS Rules with no external AI required
• Optional OpenAI support
• Optional local Ollama support for labs that want to keep processing on their own infrastructure

The assistant uses controlled backend tools and respects the logged-in user’s permissions. It cannot directly modify laboratory records. If an AI provider is unavailable, it automatically falls back to the built-in rules engine.

I also recently changed it from a separate page into a small floating assistant available throughout the application.

OpenLIMS currently includes sample and project tracking, inventory, custom fields, instrument imports, audit trails, legacy-data migration, sequence workspaces, Clustal Omega alignments, local BLAST, mass-spectrometry review, reports, and role-based access.

It is still a production-style prototype and is not yet a validated clinical or diagnostic LIMS.

I would appreciate feedback from people who work with lab data:

• Would a read-only assistant be useful in your lab?
• What information do you repeatedly search for?
• Would local processing with Ollama make a difference for your organization?
• What would you need before trusting a feature like this?

GitHub: https://github.com/Mokey2002/OpenLIMS

Hi everyone,
I’m working on a small open-source LIMS project called OpenLIMS, and I wanted to ask for feedback from people who actually work in labs.
I know lab software can be very specific to each lab, and I’m trying not to build “just another system” that tries to do everything. I’m more interested in understanding which workflows are painful enough that a lightweight tool could actually help.
Right now, I’m thinking about workflows like:
Sample and project tracking
Connecting samples to files, results, and notes
Audit/history tracking
Basic inventory and freezer/location tracking
Custom fields for different lab workflows
CSV or instrument result imports
QC review steps
Barcode workflows
Sample-to-result tracking
BLAST/alignment-related workflows
Initial mass spectrometry file preview and run tracking
It is still early and not validated for regulated production use, so I’m not presenting it as something labs should immediately rely on. I’m mostly trying to learn what problems are worth solving well.
For people who work in wet labs, core facilities, bioinformatics, lab automation, or lab operations:
What is one lab data/workflow problem your current setup handles poorly?
For example, is the biggest pain point sample tracking, handoffs between lab members, instrument files, result review, chain of custody, freezer organization, spreadsheets, or something else?
I’m leaving the repo link out of the post because I’m mainly looking for workflow feedback, not trying to spam/promote it.

Thinking of collecting only energy makers, will it be costly?