flowio

combined

Parse FCS (Flow Cytometry Standard) files v2.0-3.1. Extract events as NumPy arrays, read metadata/channels, convert to CSV/DataFrame, for flow cytometry data preprocessing. Reads, inspects, and writes Flow Cytometry Standard (FCS) 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 files with FlowIO. Use for low-level FCS metadata and channel inspection, NumPy event extraction, multi-dataset files, table export, and FCS 3.1 creation; use FlowKit for compensation, cytometry transforms, gating, or FlowJo workspaces.

When to use

FCS files requiring parsing or metadata extraction
Flow cytometry data needing conversion to NumPy arrays
Event data requiring export to FCS format
Multi-dataset FCS files needing separation
Channel information extraction (scatter, fluorescence, time)
Cytometry file validation or inspection
Pre-processing workflows before advanced analysis
Reading FCS 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 files

When not to use

Advanced flow cytometry analysis including compensation, gating, and FlowJo/GatingML support

Skill page

Conflict

The three skills cover the same library (FlowIO) but contain conflicting and complementary information. The K-Dense skill is the most rigorous, specifying a pinned version (1.4.0), strict parsing defaults, and a critical semantic difference in how TEXT keys are accessed (lowercase/no-dollar vs. uppercase/dollar-prefixed). The other two skills (aipoch and FreedomIntelligence) use the uppercase/dollar-prefixed keys (e.g., `$DATE`) which contradicts the K-Dense skill's explicit warning. Additionally, the aipoch and FreedomIntelligence skills provide specific error-handling patterns (catching `DataOffsetDiscrepancyError`) and multi-dataset handling examples that are absent or less detailed in the K-Dense skill. Because the K-Dense skill warns against the key-access pattern used by the others, and the others provide workflow steps (error handling) that K-Dense lacks, no single copy is a safe superset.