Workflow Type: Nextflow

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Introduction

nf-core/seqinspector is a bioinformatics pipeline that processes raw sequence data (FASTQ) to provide comprehensive quality control. It can perform subsampling, quality assessment, duplication level analysis, and complexity evaluation on a per-sample basis, while also detecting adapter content, technical artifacts, and common biological contaminants. The pipeline generates detailed MultiQC reports with flexible output options, ranging from individual sample reports to project-wide summaries, making it particularly useful for sequencing core facilities and research groups with access to sequencing instruments. If provided, nf-core/seqinspector can also parse statistics from an Illumina run folder directory into the final MultiQC reports.

Compatibility between tools and data type

Tool Type Tool Name Tool Description Compatibility with Data Dependencies Default tool
Subsampling Seqtk Global subsampling of reads. Only performs subsampling if --sample_size parameter is given. [RNA, DNA] [N/A] no
Lint FASTQs fq fq filters, generates, subsamples, and validates FASTQ files. [RNA, DNA, synthetic] [N/A] yes
Trimming Fastp Trimming of reads. Only performs trimming if --tools parameter is given. [RNA, DNA, synthetic] [N/A] no
Deduplication assessment BBMap Clumpify Deduplicate and compress FASTQ files. Only performs clumpify if --tools parameter is given. [RNA, DNA] [N/A] no
Indexing, Mapping Bwamem2 Align reads to reference [RNA, DNA] [N/A] yes
Indexing SAMtools Index aligned BAM files, create FASTA index [DNA] [N/A] yes
QC checkQC Read QC [RNA, DNA] Illumina rundir no
QC FastQC Read QC [RNA, DNA] [N/A] yes
QC FASTQE Read QC [RNA, DNA] [N/A] no
QC FastqScreen Basic contamination detection [RNA, DNA] [N/A] yes
QC SeqFu Stats Sequence statistics [RNA, DNA] [N/A] yes
QC Seqkit Stats Simple statistics of FASTA/Q files [RNA, DNA] [N/A] no
QC Sequali Read QC for long and short reads. [RNA, DNA] [N/A] yes
Taxonomic Classification Kraken2 Performs taxonomic classification and/or profiling [RNA, DNA] [N/A] no
QC Picard collect multiple metrics Collect multiple QC metrics [RNA, DNA] [Bwamem2, SAMtools, --genome] yes
QC Picard_collecthsmetrics Collect alignment QC metrics of hybrid-selection data. [RNA, DNA] [Bwamem2, SAMtools, --fasta, --bait_intervals, --target_intervals (--ref_dict)] no
QC Riker Collect BAM-level QC metrics (alignment, base distribution, insert size, GC bias, WGS, error metrics). [DNA] [Bwamem2, SAMtools, --fasta] no
Reporting MultiQC Present QC for raw reads [RNA, DNA, synthetic] [N/A] yes
Reporting Krona Plotting Kraken2 results [RNA, DNA, synthetic] [kraken2] no

Workflow diagram

The subway map below is a graphical representation of the pipeline workflow, generated with nf-metro.

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The diagram below illustrates the MultiQC reporting logic for per-sample tags and global aggregation.

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Summary of tools and version used in the pipeline

Tool Version
bwamem2 2.3
bbmap 39.18
checkQC 4.1.0
fq/lint 0.12.0
fastp 1.1.0
fastqc 0.12.1
fastqe 0.5.2
fastqscreen 0.16.0
kraken2 2.1.6
krona 2.8.1
multiqc 1.35
multiqcsav 0.2.0
picard 3.4.0
riker 0.4.0
samtools 1.24
seqfu 1.22.3
seqkit 2.9.0
seqtk 1.4
sequali 1.0.2
toulligqc 2.8.4

Usage

[!NOTE] If you are new to Nextflow and nf-core, please refer to this page on how to set-up Nextflow. Make sure to test your setup with -profile test before running the workflow on actual data.

First, prepare a samplesheet with your input data that looks as follows:

samplesheet.csv:

sample,fastq_1,fastq_2,rundir,tags
CONTROL_REP1,AEG588A1_S1_L002_R1_001.fastq.gz,AEG588A1_S1_L002_R2_001.fastq.gz,200624_A00834_0183_BHMTFYDRXX,lane1:project5:group2

Each row represents a fastq file (single-end with only fastq_1) or a pair of fastq files (paired end with fastq_1 and fastq_2). rundir is the path to the runfolder. tags is a colon-separated list of tags that will be added to the MultiQC report for this sample.

Now, you can run the pipeline using:

nextflow run nf-core/seqinspector \
   -profile  \
   --input samplesheet.csv \
   --outdir 

[!WARNING] Please provide pipeline parameters via the CLI or Nextflow -params-file option. Custom config files including those provided by the -c Nextflow option can be used to provide any configuration except for parameters; see docs.

For more details and further functionality, please refer to the usage documentation and the parameter documentation.

Pipeline output

To see the results of an example test run with a full size dataset refer to the results tab on the nf-core website pipeline page. For more details about the output files and reports, please refer to the output documentation.

Credits

nf-core/seqinspector was originally written by @agrima2010, @Aratz, @FranBonath, @kedhammar, and @MatthiasZepper from the Swedish National Genomics Infrastructure and Clinical Genomics Stockholm.

Maintenance is now lead by Maxime U Garcia (National Genomics Infrastructure)

We thank the following people for their extensive assistance in the development of this pipeline:

Contributions and Support

If you would like to contribute to this pipeline, please see the contributing guidelines.

For further information or help, don't hesitate to get in touch on the Slack #seqinspector channel (you can join with this invite).

Citations

You can cite the seqinspector zenodo record for a specific version using the following doi: 10.5281/zenodo.18757486

An extensive list of references for the tools used by the pipeline can be found in the CITATIONS.md file.

You can cite the nf-core publication as follows:

The nf-core framework for community-curated bioinformatics pipelines.

Philip Ewels, Alexander Peltzer, Sven Fillinger, Harshil Patel, Johannes Alneberg, Andreas Wilm, Maxime Ulysse Garcia, Paolo Di Tommaso & Sven Nahnsen.

Nat Biotechnol. 2020 Feb 13. doi: 10.1038/s41587-020-0439-x.

Version History

1.1.0 (latest) Created 15th Jul 2026 at 03:09 by WorkflowHub Bot

Updated to 1.1.0


Frozen 1.1.0 9d2c693

1.0.1 Created 28th Jun 2026 at 03:09 by WorkflowHub Bot

Updated to 1.0.1


Frozen 1.0.1 14106c0

1.0.0 (earliest) Created 28th Jun 2026 at 03:09 by WorkflowHub Bot

Updated to 1.0.0


Frozen 1.0.0 9896586
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Created: 28th Jun 2026 at 03:09

Last updated: 15th Jul 2026 at 03:09

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