FlowIO
Purpose
Use FlowIO as a lightweight, low-level reader and writer for Flow Cytometry Standard files. Examples in this skill target FlowIO 1.4.0, the current stable release verified on 2026-07-23.
FlowIO is appropriate for:
- Reading FCS 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 files
- Inspecting HEADER, TEXT, ANALYSIS, and channel metadata
- Retrieving event data as a two-dimensional NumPy array
- Reading legacy files that contain multiple datasets
- Writing list-mode, single-precision FCS 3.1 files
- Preparing data for pandas, machine-learning, or downstream cytometry tools
FlowIO does not perform compensation, logicle/biexponential transforms, gating, clustering, or FlowJo workspace processing. Use FlowKit or another analysis package for those tasks.
Install
Create or activate a Python environment, then install the verified release:
uv pip install "flowio==1.4.0"
Confirm the runtime version:
uv run python -c "import flowio; print(flowio.__version__)"
FlowIO 1.4.0 supports Python 3.9 through 3.13 and depends on NumPy.
Operating Workflow
- Clarify the operation. Distinguish metadata inventory, event extraction, file repair, conversion,…
