DAMONA

Python version:

Python 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12

Source:

https://github.com/cokelaer/damona

Documentation:

https://damona.readthedocs.io

Issues:

https://github.com/cokelaer/damona/issues

Platform:

Linux with bash, zsh, or fish shell

Overview

Damona is a conda-style package and environment manager built on top of Apptainer/Singularity containers. It lets you install bioinformatics (and other) tools as isolated containers, manage multiple versions side-by-side, and run them exactly like any other command-line tool — with no dependency conflicts and no root privileges required.

Think of Damona as conda for Singularity images: the same familiar create / activate / install workflow you already know, but with the rock-solid isolation and reproducibility that containers provide.

Note

As of Apr. 2026, Damona ships 146 containers (220 versions), providing 744 unique ready-to-use binaries.

Why Damona?

Managing scientific software is notoriously painful:

• Conda environments break when incompatible packages are installed together.

• Raw Singularity/Apptainer requires verbose singularity exec invocations and manual management of image files.

• Docker is unavailable or restricted on most HPC clusters.

Damona solves all three problems at once:

Feature	Conda	Singu- larity	Damona
Familiar install/activate workflow	✔	✗	✔
Tools callable as plain commands	✔	✗	✔
Full container isolation (no dep. conflicts)	✗	✔	✔
No root required	✔	✔	✔
Works on HPC/clusters without Docker	✔	✔	✔
Multiple tool versions in separate envs	✔	✗	✔
Images shared across environments	✗	✗	✔
Central + custom registries	✔	✗	✔

Key strengths at a glance

• One command to install — damona install bwa downloads the container and creates a wrapper script so that bwa just works in your shell.

• Zero dependency conflicts — every tool runs inside its own container, completely isolated from everything else on the system.

• No root, no Docker — Apptainer/Singularity runs fully unprivileged, making Damona ideal for shared HPC clusters where Docker is not available.

• Multiple versions, one system — need BWA 0.7.17 in one pipeline and BWA 0.7.18 in another? Create two Damona environments and switch instantly.

• Images are shared — re-installing a tool in a second environment reuses the already-downloaded image, saving disk space and time.

• Reproducible by design — pin exact versions in an environment file and export/import it to reproduce results anywhere.

• Custom registries — host your own registry to distribute in-house containers to your team, just like a private conda channel.

• Quality control — broken or buggy releases can be marked in the registry, hidden from search and auto-selection, but still accessible for reproducibility.

Installation

Step 1 — Install Apptainer

Damona is a manager for Apptainer/Singularity images, so Apptainer must be present on your system first. Follow the official Apptainer installation guide, or — if you already use conda — install it with:

conda install -c conda-forge apptainer

Step 2 — Install Damona

pip install damona

Step 3 — Initialise Damona

Run damona once to create the configuration directory and shell helpers:

damona

Follow the on-screen instructions. To make the shell integration permanent, add one of the following lines to your shell start-up file:

bash — add to ~/.bashrc:

source ~/.config/damona/damona.sh

zsh — add to ~/.zshrc:

source ~/.config/damona/damona.zsh

fish — add to ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

source ~/.config/damona/damona.fish

Then open a new shell and run damona again. You should see the help screen:

Quick Start

The full workflow takes under a minute:

# 1. Create a named environment
damona create TEST

# 2. Activate it (installed tools go here)
damona activate TEST

# 3. Install a tool — container + wrapper created automatically
damona install fastqc:0.11.9

# 4. Use it just like any other command
fastqc --help

# 5. Rename or remove the environment when you're done
damona rename TEST --new-name prod
damona remove prod

For more examples see the User Guide.

Example without conda (pyenv + minimap2)

If you manage Python with pyenv instead of conda, the workflow is identical — Damona only requires Python ≥ 3.9 and Apptainer.

# --- Prerequisites ---------------------------------------------------
# 1. Install Apptainer (once, system-wide or via your package manager).
#    On Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install -y apptainer
#    Or follow https://apptainer.org/docs/admin/main/installation.html

# --- Python environment ----------------------------------------------
# 2. Create and activate a pyenv virtualenv with Python 3.10
pyenv install 3.10.14          # skip if already installed
pyenv virtualenv 3.10.14 damona-env
pyenv activate damona-env

# 3. Install Damona
pip install damona

# --- First-time initialisation ---------------------------------------
# 4. Run once to create the configuration directory and shell helpers
damona

# 5. Add the shell integration to your start-up file (bash example):
echo 'source ~/.config/damona/damona.sh' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

# --- Install minimap2 ------------------------------------------------
# 6. Create and activate a Damona environment
damona create my-env
damona activate my-env

# 7. Install minimap2 — the container is downloaded automatically
damona install minimap2:2.24.0

# 8. Use it like any other command
minimap2 --version

Motivation

Conda/Bioconda is excellent for distributing pre-compiled scientific software, but dependency conflicts are a real-world problem: installing one package can silently break another, and rebuilding environments is time-consuming.

Singularity/Apptainer solves the isolation problem perfectly — each image is self-contained and reproducible — but using it directly requires verbose singularity exec commands and manual bookkeeping of image files and wrapper scripts.

Damona bridges the gap: it wraps Singularity images in the familiar conda-style environment model so that containers are as easy to install, activate, and use as conda packages, while retaining full container isolation and reproducibility.

Damona was originally developed for the Sequana project, but it is completely general-purpose and can be used to distribute any Singularity-compatible software.

Commands (Full CLI Reference)

Run damona --help to see all available commands:

Environment management:
  create      Create a new environment
  remove      Remove an environment and all its binaries.
  rename      Rename an existing environment.
  env         List all environments with their size and binary counts.
  activate    Activate a damona environment.
  deactivate  Deactivate the current Damona environment.

Package management:
  install     Download and install an image and its binaries into the active environment.
  uninstall   Uninstall a binary or an image from an environment.
  clean       Find and remove orphaned images and binaries across all environments.
  export      Export an environment as a YAML file or a tar bundle.
  info        Show images and binaries installed in an environment.

Registry:
  search      Search the registry for a container image or binary.
  list        List all containers available in the local registry.
  stats       Show registry statistics and local installation summary.

Developer tools:
  check    Check that all binaries in a built image are functional.
  build    Build a Singularity image from a local recipe, a Damona recipe, or a Docker image.                                            catalog  Show a developer overview: latest version, size, and base image for every container.

For command-specific help (e.g. install):

damona install --help

1. List available environments

By default there is one environment called base. Unlike conda's base, it is not essential and may be altered freely (but it cannot be removed or re-created). List all environments with:

damona env

2. Create environments

All environments are stored in ~/.config/damona/envs/. Create a new one:

damona create TEST

Verify it was created:

damona env

The last line should confirm that TEST is the current environment.

3. Activate and deactivate environments

Activating an environment appends its bin directory to your $PATH:

damona activate TEST
damona env        # confirms TEST is active

Deactivating removes it from $PATH:

damona deactivate TEST

Multiple environments can be active simultaneously; they follow a Last-In-First-Out order when deactivated without a name:

damona activate base
damona activate TEST
damona deactivate           # removes TEST (last activated)
damona deactivate base      # removes base by name

4. Install a tool

With the target environment active, install any available package:

damona install fastqc:0.11.9

Damona downloads the Singularity image, registers it in ~/.config/damona/images (shared by all environments), and creates a wrapper script so that fastqc is available as a plain command.

5. Inspect an environment

List the binaries installed in an environment together with the underlying images:

damona info TEST

6. Search the registry

Search for available packages:

damona search PATTERN

Search an external registry (e.g. the official Damona registry):

damona search fastqc --url damona

The damona URL alias is pre-configured in ~/.config/damona/damona.cfg. You can add your own registry URLs there to distribute in-house containers.

7. Combine multiple environments

Images are shared across environments, so re-using an already-downloaded image in a new environment is instant and costs no extra disk space:

damona create test1
damona activate test1
damona install fastqc:0.11.9   # reuses the cached image

Activate several environments at once to mix tool sets:

damona activate base
damona activate test1

For more details see the User Guide and the Developer Guide.

Contributors

Maintaining Damona would not have been possible without users and contributors. Each contribution has been an encouragement to pursue this project. Thanks to all:

Changelog

From version 0.16 onwards, we will not mention the new software and their versions but only changes made to the code itself. Entire list of software is available using the command:

damona list

Version

Description

0.20.0 * ADD add spades 4.1.0, kallisto 0.51.1, pbmm2 1.16.99, STAR 2.7.11b,

nextdenovo 2.5.2, deepvariant 1.10.0, diamond 2.1.24, pbsv 2.11.0, unicycler 0.5.1, bamqc, idr 2.1.0 and unicycler 0.5.1, minigraph, picard 3.4.0, new datasets versions, iqtree 2.4.0 * UPDATED or CHANGED Add broken flag to mark buggy releases * FIX welcome message

0.19.2 * CHANGED faster damona check <IMG>

• UPDATED sequana 0.21 image

0.19.1 * CHANGED damona upload to damona publish

• NEW: new busco 6.0.0

0.19.0 * ADDED: isoquant container (scratch-built, no micromamba)

• FIXED: Zenodo upload now uses Bearer token authentication header instead of access_token query parameter (required by the new Zenodo InvenioRDM API)

• CHANGED: upload always creates a new independent deposit instead of versioning an existing one, so any developer can contribute a new release regardless of who originally created the record

• REMOVED: top-level doi field from registry (was the Zenodo concept DOI — unused and no longer meaningful with independent deposits)

• IMPROVED: damona stats --include-downloads now prints results line-by-line as they arrive instead of waiting for all requests to complete

0.18.0 * NEW command: catalog

• DECREASE fott print of repeatmasker

0.17.2 * ADDED sniffles, macs3, verkho

• IMPROVED: new damona command for developers: build and check

0.17.1 * RENAMED: delete command renamed to remove

• RENAMED: remove command renamed to uninstall

• RENAMED: --logger option renamed to --log-level

• RENAMED: --remove flag in clean renamed to --do-remove

• IMPROVED: CLI commands grouped into Environment management, Package management, and Registry sections

• IMPROVED: simplified ORCID parsing in zenodo upload

• ADDED: bedops

0.17.0 * IMPROVED: CLI output now uses rich tables and panels

• IMPROVED: auto-update shell config files (bash/zsh/fish) on startup

• FIXED: fish shell activation and PATH propagation

• FIXED: subprocess-based shell detection replacing env-variable approach

• FIXED: first-run exit code no longer causes CI failures

• BUILD: remove sudo requirement from singularity build commands

• BUILD: add dependency caching to CI workflows

0.16.0 * update precommit to create global registry automatically 0.15.2 * ADDED: purge_haplotigs

• FIXED: access to online registry (Default behaviour)

0.15.1 * using loguru (tentative). Update to have real 0.15.X version

0.15.0 is unfortunately is not uploading on pypi....

0.15.0 * biocontainers integrated

• Fix #35 to have a common registry online. no need to update damona anymore.

0.14.7 * ADDED rseqc 5.0.4

• UPDATED sequana_tools 0.19.1

0.14.6 * UPDATED freebayes to 1.3.9

• ADDED meme suite 5.5.3

0.14.5 * UPDATED pyproject to use poetry2.0 and drop py3.8 support for py3.12

• ADDED wget 1.25.4, chromap 0.2.7, qc3c 0.5.0 and pairtools 1.1.2

0.14.4 * UPDATE quast 5.3

• ADDED RNAfold 2.7.0

• ADDED pilon 1.24

• ADDED Mauve 2.4.0

0.14.3 * ADDED pecat 0.0.3, necat 0.0.1, sequana_coverage 0.18

• ADDED: bcftools 1.16, khmer 2.1.1 tRNAscan_SE 2.0.12

0.14.2 * ADDED: AdapterRemoval, bbmap 39.01, dsrc 2.0.2, lima 2.9.0,

necat 0.0.1

0.14.1 * ADDED: ragtag 2.1.0, orthofinder 2.5.5, mcl , liftoff 1.6.3

• Message if version is outdated

0.14 * ADDED: ir v2.8.0, vadr v1.6.4, seaview v5.0.5, repeatmasker 4.0.8

bandage 0.8.1, rnammer 1.2, miniasm 0.3.0, hmmer 2.3.2 and 3.3.2 infernal 1.1.5

• NEW: progress bar for upload

• CHANGES. fixed sandbox.zenodo upload

• CHANGES: damona search with container sizes and recommendation

0.13 * Fix insallation of a registered software given a dockerhub link

• Fix requests limits on zenodo (for the stats)

• remove URLs section in config (will remove this feature)

• handle docker:// link properly to pull image from registry

0.12.3 * ADDED dustmasker 1.0.0

• update art with 2.1.8, 2.3.7, 2.5.8 versions

• ADDED mosdepth 0.3.8

• ADDED delly 1.2.6

• UPDATED micromamba 1.5.8

0.12.2 * ADDED datasets 0.12.1 * ADDED pypolca, sratoolkit 0.12.0 * CORE development: rename zenodo-upload subcommand into upload

• UPDATE rtools to v1.3.0 to include limma package

0.11.1 * ADD pbsim.

• UPDATE hifiasm

0.11.0 * add precommit, update to use pyproject 0.10.1 * Fix the get_stats_software wrt new zenodo API 0.10.0 * ADD zsh support

• UPDATE flye 2.9.1

• ADD nanopolish and remove nanopolish from sequana_tools binaries

0.9.1 * ADD hmmer 3.2.2, trinotate 4.0.1, transdecode 5.7.0, trinity 2.15.1

• UPDATE bioconvert 1.1.0, bowtie2 2.5.1

0.9.0 * refactorise the command 'env' by splitting into dedicated subcommands

create, delete, rename. add progress bar when downloading container

• NEW micromamba image to work as a localimage

• NEW sequana_minimal package to hold common tools (bwa, samtools, kraken, etc)

• NEW ivar, pangolin, nextclade, subread, mafft packages

• UPDATE fastp to 0.23.3, gffread to 0.12.7 (3 times lighter).

• UPDATE sequana_tools to use micromamba (30% lighter)

0.8.4 * fix damona stats command to return unique binaries

• more recipes and version (e.g. fastqc 0.12.1, graphviz update, etc)

0.8.3 * create registry specifically for the sandbox (for testing)

• add damona community in the uploads

• add pbbam, bioconvert, busco, canu, ccs

• add polypolish, samtools 1.16.1, sequana 0.14.6, flye 2.9, canu 2.1.1 circlator 1.5.5, hifiasm

0.8.2 * add idr, samtools, homer, bamtools, bedtools, sequana_denovo

• add seqkit recipe and container

• add shustring

0.8.1 * Include ability to interact with biocontainers by allowing retrieval

of all biocontainers docker images using this syntax: 'damona install biocontainers/xx:1.2.3' Note that although 9000 containers are available, in practice, only about 1000 dockers are on dockerhub, which is already nice :-)

0.8.0 * Fix regression to install a software with its version 0.7.1 * Implement the fish shell

• add command "damona list"

• rename recipes/ directory into software/ and created a new library/ directory for images used as library, that are not installed.

0.7.0 * Check that singularity is installed

• implement the remove command https://github.com/cokelaer/damona/issues/15

• more recipes cleanup (https://github.com/cokelaer/damona/issues/12)

• removed damona recipes (pure python package)

• cleanup all recipes

• add zenodo stats (for admin)

0.6.0 * add ability to upload images on zenodo. No need for external

repositories.

• ability to add/delete a software from different images

• implement --help for the activate/deactivate (non trivial)

• add --rename option in 'damona env'

• 'base' environment is now at the same level as other environments

• better bash script; no need for DAMONA_EXE variable anymore.

0.5.3 * Fixing config/shell 0.5.2 * add missing shell package 0.5.1 * add DAMONA_SINGULARITY_OPTIONS env variable in the binary

• Fix the way binaries are found in the releases.

• new recipes: rtools

• new releases: sequana_tools_0.10.0

• Fix shell script to handle DAMONA_EXE variable

0.5.0 * Major refactoring.

• Simplification of the registries

• New command to build images from local recipes or dockerhub entries.

• Install command can now install local container.

• check md5 of images to not download/copy again

0.4.3 * Implement damona activate/deactivate 0.4.2 * Fix typo in the creation of aliases for 'set' containers 0.4.1 * implemented aliases for the --from-url option stored in a

damona.cfg file

0.4.0 * implemented the 'env' and 'activate' command

• ability to setup an external registry on any https and retrieve registry from there to download external images

0.3.X * add gffread, rnadiff recipes 0.3.0 * A stable version with documentation and >95% coverage read-yto-use 0.2.3 * add new recipes (rnadiff) 0.2.2 * Download latest if no version provided

• include build command to build image locally

0.2.1 fixed manifest 0.2.0 first working version of damona to pull image locally with binaries 0.1.1 small update to fix RTD, travis, coveralls 0.1 first release to test feasibility of the project ========= ========================================================================

User guide and reference

Documentation

• 1. User Guide
  • 1.1. Getting help
  • 1.2. Environments
  • 1.3. Software and releases
  • 1.4. Working with multiple environments
  • 1.5. Install binaries not listed in the registry
  • 1.6. Environmental variables
• 2. Developer guide
  • 2.1. Introduction
  • 2.2. Configuration file
  • 2.3. Publishing images on Zenodo
  • 2.4. Repository layout
  • 2.5. Naming conventions
  • 2.6. Building an image
  • 2.7. Writing Singularity recipes
  • 2.8. Micromamba-based recipes
  • 2.9. Registry format
  • 2.10. Where are images stored?
  • 2.11. Automatic README generation
  • 2.12. Setting up the pre-commit hook
• 3. References
  • 3.1. admin module
  • 3.2. builders module
  • 3.3. common module
  • 3.4. config module
  • 3.5. environ module
  • 3.6. install module
  • 3.7. registry module
  • 3.8. zenodo module
  • 3.9. DAMONA standalone (script module)
• 4. FAQs
  • 4.1. A Fatal error: cannot open file occurred but the file is visible
  • 4.2. Why Damona and not conda/mamba?
  • 4.3. Useful related projects
• 5. Changelog
  • 5.1. Version 0.20.0 (April 2026)
  • 5.2. Version 0.19.2 (March 2026)
  • 5.3. Version 0.19.1 (March 2026)
  • 5.4. Version 0.18.0

Indices and tables

• Index

• Module Index

• Search Page