| name | genie3 |
| description | Run de-novo protein design with Genie 3 — a fast, all-atom, SE(3)-equivariant diffusion model. Use this skill when: (1) Generating unconditional monomeric protein backbones (length 50–600+), (2) Solving motif-scaffolding problems (single- and multi-motif), (3) Designing protein binders for a target with hotspot residues, (4) Running beam search or iterative-conditioning binder pipelines, (5) Loading legacy Genie 2 (Cα-trace) checkpoints, (6) Training the Genie 3 model from scratch.
This skill covers installation, the unified `genie3` CLI (run / generate / evaluate / status / train), the experiment YAML schema, the three application workflows, multi-GPU + multi-node sharding, problem-set preparation, output layout, and the in-silico success filters.
Pairs with: `proteinmpnn` (inverse folding), `colabfold` / `esmfold` (structure prediction back-ends used by the evaluation pipeline), `foldseek` (cluster successful designs), `protein-qc` (QC thresholds), and `binder-design` (tool selection between Genie 3, BindCraft, RFdiffusion, BoltzGen).
|
| license | MIT |
| category | design-tools |
| tags | ["structure-design","backbone-generation","motif-scaffolding","binder","diffusion","equivariant"] |
| repo | https://github.com/aqlaboratory/genie3 |
| preprint | https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.01.722168v1 |
Genie 3 — Fast All-Atom SE(3)-Equivariant Protein Design
What this is
Genie 3 is a single diffusion model with three application modes selected by
the YAML config:
generation.dataset.source | evaluation.version | What it does |
|---|
unconditional | unconditional | De-novo monomers; sweep length range |
motif | scaffold | Motif scaffolding (single or multi) |
target | binder | Binder design against a target PDB + hotspots |
All workflows are driven by one CLI: genie3 {run, generate, evaluate, status, train}.
A single genie3 conda env covers everything (incl. ColabFold, ESMFold, ProteinMPNN, FoldSeek, TMscore, DSSP).
Prerequisites
| Requirement | Minimum | Notes |
|---|
| OS | Linux (x86_64) | Setup script targets Linux |
| GPU | NVIDIA, CUDA 12+ | Required for generation, ColabFold, ESMFold |
| GPU VRAM | 24 GB | 40+ GB for long monomers / beam search / large complexes |
| Conda | Any modern conda | The setup script creates the genie3 env (Python 3.10) |
| Disk | ~30 GB | ColabFold AF2 multimer weights + pretrained Genie 3 checkpoint + datasets |
| Network | Internet at setup | HuggingFace + ColabFold MSA server (only at problem-prep time) |
Three-step quick start
1) Install (one-time)
git clone https://github.com/aqlaboratory/genie3.git
cd genie3
bash scripts/setup/setup.sh
bash scripts/setup/download.sh
conda activate genie3
The setup script installs into the genie3 conda env: torch 2.7.1, ColabFold (alphafold-multimer-v3 weights), ESMFold (openfold + ESM2), ProteinMPNN, FoldSeek, TMscore/TMalign, DSSP. See references/setup.md.
2) Pick an example config
genie3 run -c examples/unconditional/experiment.yaml
genie3 run -c examples/motif_scaffolding/experiment.yaml
genie3 run -c examples/binder_design/experiment.yaml
run chains generate → evaluate → reduce in three child processes (so GPU memory is freed between stages). To split stages or run multi-node, see step 3.
3) Inspect outputs
Every config sets paths.rootdir. Results land under <rootdir>/results/ (or <rootdir>/<problem_name>/results/ for per-problem tasks). The most useful files:
info.csv — per-design metrics (one row per generated sample)
successful_*_generations/ and v0_success/ — PDBs that passed in-silico filters
successful_*_cluster.csv — FoldSeek clusters at TM 0.5/0.6/0.8
See references/outputs.md for full schema and success criteria.
CLI at a glance
| Command | Description |
|---|
genie3 run -c <CFG> | Generate + evaluate + reduce, all in one |
genie3 generate -c <CFG> | Generation only (one shard) |
genie3 evaluate -c <CFG> | Evaluate one shard |
genie3 evaluate --reduce -c <CFG> | Merge shard outputs and produce final CSVs |
genie3 status -c <CFG> | Show shard/round progress |
genie3 train --config <CFG> -d N | Train the model |
Shared flags: -c/--config, --num-devices N, --shard-id ID, --num-shards N, --verbose, --log-dir <DIR>. Full reference in references/cli.md.
Choosing the right reference doc
Quick decision tree (which application?)
- You want diverse de-novo monomers, no constraint →
unconditional. Tune direction_scale (0.8 short / 0.0 long) and length range.
- You have a functional motif (active site, epitope) and want a scaffold around it →
motif. Define the motif PDB with REMARK 999 headers + a problem JSON (segment_config_str).
- You have a target PDB and want a binder for it →
target. Provide hotspot residues and binder length range. Choose folding mode: template (no MSA) for speed or msa for accuracy.
If you don't know whether Genie 3 is the right tool vs BindCraft / RFdiffusion / BoltzGen, consult the binder-design skill (tool selection guide).
Hard rules / gotchas
- Always activate the env first:
conda activate genie3. The CLI dispatches to itself via subprocess, so genie3 must be on PATH.
paths.rootdir is the single source of truth for output. Do not also set generation.io.outdir — the loader will reject conflicting values.
- Do not set
generation.dataset.datadir — use paths.dataset instead. Same for reward.reward.datadir.
- First chain in any binder PDB must be the binder chain. The reducer extracts chain
A as the binder.
- Re-running
genie3 run resumes from the last incomplete stage (sharded or iterative). Sentinel files (.generate_done, .evaluate_done, .shard_markers/) drive this.
genie3 evaluate --reduce runs once after all evaluation shards finish. Don't shard the reduce step.
direction_scale heavily affects quality/diversity. Defaults: 0.8 for short monomers (≤300), 0.0 for long monomers (>300) and binders, 0.1 for motif scaffolding.
- ColabFold MSAs are only needed for problem prep (
prepare.py) and for evaluation.folding.mode: msa. The MSA server is queried over the network at prep time.
- Beam search batches:
n_sample in beam mode means number of beam-search runs, and the loader auto-divides by beam_width to hit your requested total. See references/iterative-and-beam.md.
- Iterative
cond_strategy: iter_common* computes the common interface from prior rounds' successes and caches it under <rootdir>/problems/<problem>.json — that is the dataset path used by subsequent rounds.
Where to install the skill
This directory (skill/) is the skill payload. To make it discoverable to a Claude Code agent on this machine:
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
ln -s "$(pwd)/skill" ~/.claude/skills/genie3
cp -R skill ~/.claude/skills/genie3
After that, an agent can invoke it via the Skill tool with skill: genie3 (or you can include the marketplace structure if publishing). Skills are loaded by name from ~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md and may reference files in their own directory.
Citation
@article{lin2026genie3,
title = {Fast and Ultra-Capable Protein Design: Advancing the Frontier
Through Atomistic SE(3)-Equivariance with Genie 3},
author = {Lin, Yeqing and Lee, Minji and Vermani, Aakarsh and Jiang, Ellena
and {De Cooman}, Sebastiaan and Spetko, Matej and AlQuraishi, Mohammed},
journal = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.64898/2026.05.01.722168}
}