GA4GH Standards¶
ELIXIR On-Cloud is a Driver Project of the GA4GH. Its services implement the APIs of the GA4GH Cloud Workstream. This page lists them, the versions that the stack implements and the workflow engines that can use them. The specifications define what each API does: read them, not this page, for the details.
APIs and versions¶
The table lists, for each product, the version of the specification that it implements and the current release of the specification. Each version links to its source: the API specification (or the commit of the specification) that the product's default branch builds on, and the release page of the specification. Checked in November 2026.
| Product | API | Implemented version | Current version | Docs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| proTES | TES, for tasks | 1.1.0 | 1.1.0 | proTES |
| TESK | TES, for tasks | 1.0.0 | 1.1.0 | TESK |
| Funnel | TES, for tasks | not stated: a commit after 1.1.0 | 1.1.0 | Funnel |
| Poiesis | TES, for tasks | not stated: a commit after 1.1.0 | 1.1.0 | Poiesis |
| proWES | WES, for workflows | 1.0.1 | 1.1.0 | see the README |
| Conquest | WES, for workflows | 1.1 (README; no specification file) | 1.1.0 | see the README |
| WESkit | WES, for workflows | 1.1.0 | 1.1.0 | WESkit |
| CWL-WES | WES, for workflows | 1.0.0 | 1.1.0 | see the README |
| DRS-Filer | DRS, for data | 1.1.0 | 1.5.0 | see the README |
| TRS-Filer | TRS, for tools and workflows | 2.1.0 | 2.0.2 | TRS-Filer |
| Cloud Registry | Service Registry, for finding services | 1.0.0 | 1.0.0 | Cloud Registry |
Notes on the table:
- TRS-Filer: the specification file of the TRS release 2.0.2 (commit
4854e2f) states the version2.1.0, and there is no release 2.1.0 (see ga4gh/tool-registry-service-schemas#295). The table takes the specification file as the source of truth and lists2.1.0. - Funnel and Poiesis: neither states a TES release. Both build on a
commit of the TES repository after the release 1.1.0 (Funnel, now in the
calyprorganisation:28a83a6, as a Git submodule; Poiesis:c4c17c9), whose specification file states1.1.0. - TESK: the TES API is implemented by tesk-api, which includes the TES specification as a Git submodule.
- Conquest: its README states WES 1.1 (and TES 1.1 for its internal task backend); the repository has no specification file.
Check the product's docs for the current state. Some products deviate from the specification in details: the docs of the product list the deviations (for example, see the Cloud Registry API).
Do your clients support a newer version?
Several products implement an older version than the current one. Send
requests that the version in the table accepts, and read the service
info of a service (GET /service-info) to see what it reports.
Run workflows through TES¶
Workflow engines can send their tasks to a TES service instead of running them on the local machine. This helps if a workflow has steps that need a GPU or many cores, or if the data must stay at the site where it is stored.
- Choose a TES service: see Using the APIs.
- Get an access token: see Using the APIs.
- Configure your workflow engine to use the TES service and the token.
The engines below support TES. Each one's docs describe the configuration.
- Snakemake uses the TES executor plugin. A demo workflow for Snakemake 7, which had TES support built in, is available: see Run Workflows Across Nodes.
- Nextflow uses the
nf-ga4ghplugin. Setplugins { id 'nf-ga4gh' }andprocess.executor = 'tes'innextflow.config. - cwl-tes runs CWL workflows with a TES backend: see cwl-tes. Its demo of 2023 is retired.
For the researcher's view, see Researchers.