Is the Blast Search skill free?

Yes. The skill itself is free from BioTender-max/awesome-bio-agent-skills. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.

How do I install Blast Search?

Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.

Can I use Blast Search with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?

The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.

Blast Search

Runs NCBI BLAST searches for sequence similarity/homology — needs BLAST+ or BioPython preinstalled.

by BioTender-max · BioTender-max/awesome-bio-agent-skills

Tested · Didn't pass

Read why it failed Download source ↗

Test report

Verdict: Tested · Didn't pass
Tested: Jul 14, 2026
Environment: Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
Upstream re-checked: Aug 10, 2026 · 49dd3d8

Following the SKILL.md literally hits a wall immediately: blastn isn't installed and there's no fallback guidance, while a plain five-line Python script found the same 95% sequence identity in under a second.

Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works

Installs cleanly 5/5
Triggers reliably 5/5
Output vs. baseline 2/10
Docs & honesty 2/5

What Blast Search does

Runs local (blastn/blastp/blastx/tblastn) or remote NCBI BLAST+ searches to find similar DNA, RNA, or protein sequences and identify genes by homology, presenting hits as a ranked table with identity and E-values. Triggers on requests to BLAST a sequence, find similar sequences, or run a homology search. The instructions assume a preconfigured bioinformatics container with BLAST+ and BioPython already installed, and give no fallback when those binaries are missing.

How to install Blast Search

git clone https://github.com/BioTender-max/awesome-bio-agent-skills
cd awesome-bio-agent-skills
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r skills/bioclaw/blast-search ~/.claude/skills/blast-search

Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ (per-project). Restart Claude Code after installing.

Commands — how to trigger Blast Search

/blast-search Runs NCBI BLAST searches for sequence similarity/homology — needs BLAST+ or BioPython preinstalled.

It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:

Can you BLAST this DNA sequence against the nt database for me?
I need to find genes similar to this protein sequence via homology.
Run a local blastp search comparing these two protein sequences.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Blast Search skill free?: Yes. The skill itself is free from BioTender-max/awesome-bio-agent-skills. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
Does Blast Search work with Claude Code?: We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Jul 14, 2026. Verdict: Tested · Didn't pass. Following the SKILL.md literally hits a wall immediately: blastn isn't installed and there's no fallback guidance, while a plain five-line Python script found the same 95% sequence identity in under a second.
How do I install Blast Search?: Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
Can I use Blast Search with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?: The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.