domains / families / science / pylabrobot

pylabrobot

combined

Laboratory automation toolkit for controlling liquid handlers, plate readers, pumps, heater shakers, incubators, centrifuges, and analytical equipment. Use this skill when automating laboratory workflows, programming liquid handling robots (Hamilton STAR, Opentrons OT-2, Tecan EVO), integrating lab equipment, managing deck layouts and resources (plates, tips, containers), reading plates, or creating reproducible laboratory protocols. Applicable for both simulated protocols and physical hardware control. Develops and reviews PyLabRobot lab-automation resources, liquid-handling plans, offline simulations, and supported-device integrations. Supports PyLabRobot protocols and API questions; keep physical execution behind an explicit operator safety gate.

When to use

• Programming liquid handling robots (Hamilton STAR/STARlet, Opentrons OT-2, Tecan EVO)
• Automating laboratory workflows involving pipetting, sample preparation, or analytical measurements
• Managing deck layouts and laboratory resources (plates, tips, containers, troughs)
• Integrating multiple lab devices (liquid handlers, plate readers, heater shakers, pumps)
• Creating reproducible laboratory protocols with state management
• Simulating protocols before running on physical hardware
• Reading plates using BMG CLARIOstar or other supported plate readers
• Controlling temperature, shaking, centrifugation, or other material handling operations

Skill page

Conflict

The two skills cover the same domain (PyLabRobot) but serve different operational postures. The K-Dense-AI skill is a strict, safety-focused procedure for developing and reviewing protocols with a hard boundary against physical execution, specific version pinning (0.2.2), and bundled offline validation CLIs. The FreedomIntelligence skill is a broader, capability-oriented guide for controlling hardware, including specific device integrations (plate readers, incubators, centrifuges) and a 'Quick Start' for live backend initialization. The K-Dense skill explicitly forbids the actions the FreedomIntelligence skill encourages (connecting to/initializing physical equipment). Combining them is necessary to capture both the safe development workflow and the broader hardware control capabilities, while explicitly flagging the safety conflict.