Agent skill
campaign-manager
Goal-oriented binder design campaign planning and health assessment. Use this skill when: (1) Planning a complete binder design campaign, (2) Converting high-level goals into runnable pipelines, (3) Assessing campaign health and pass rates, (4) Diagnosing why designs are failing QC, (5) Estimating time, cost, and expected yields, (6) Selecting between design tools for a specific target. This skill orchestrates the other protein design tools. For individual tool parameters, use the specific tool skills.
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills/tree/main/skills/campaign-manager
SKILL.md
Campaign Manager
Goal-oriented design
From goal to pipeline
When user says: "I need 10 good binders for EGFR"
Campaign Planning:
Goal: 10 high-quality binders for EGFR
├── Achievable: Yes (standard target)
├── Recommended pipeline: rfdiffusion → proteinmpnn → colabfold → protein-qc
├── Estimated designs needed: 500 backbones (to get ~50 passing QC)
├── Estimated time: 8-12 hours total
├── Estimated cost: ~$60 (Modal GPU compute)
└── Expected yield:
├── After backbone (500): 500 structures
├── After sequence (×8): 4,000 sequences
├── After validation: 4,000 predictions
├── After QC (~10-15%): 400-600 candidates
└── After clustering: 10-20 diverse final designs
Complete pipeline generator
Standard miniprotein binder campaign
# Step 1: Fetch and prepare target (5 min)
curl -o target.pdb "https://files.rcsb.org/download/{PDB_ID}.pdb"
# Trim to binding region if needed
# Step 2: Generate backbones (2-3h, ~$15)
modal run modal_rfdiffusion.py \
--pdb target.pdb \
--contigs "A1-150/0 70-100" \
--hotspot "A45,A67,A89" \
--num-designs 500
# Checkpoint: ls output/*.pdb | wc -l # Should be 500
# Step 3: Design sequences (1-2h, ~$10)
for f in output/*.pdb; do
modal run modal_proteinmpnn.py \
--pdb-path "$f" \
--num-seq-per-target 8 \
--sampling-temp 0.1
done
# Checkpoint: grep -c "^>" output/seqs/*.fa # Should be ~4000
# Step 4: Quick ESM2 filter (30 min, ~$5, optional)
modal run modal_esm.py --fasta output/all_seqs.fa --mode pll
# Filter sequences with PLL < 0.0
# Step 5: Structure validation (3-4h, ~$35)
modal run modal_colabfold.py \
--input-faa output/filtered_seqs.fa \
--out-dir predictions/
# Checkpoint: find predictions -name "*rank_001.pdb" | wc -l
# Step 6: Filter and rank (protein-qc skill)
# Apply thresholds: pLDDT > 0.85, ipTM > 0.5, scRMSD < 2.0
# Compute composite score
# Cluster at 70% identity, select top from each cluster
Total estimated time: 8-12 hours Total estimated cost: ~$60-70
Campaign size recommendations
| Goal | Backbones | Sequences/BB | Total Seq | Expected Passing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 binders | 200 | 8 | 1,600 | 160-240 |
| 10 binders | 500 | 8 | 4,000 | 400-600 |
| 20 binders | 1,000 | 8 | 8,000 | 800-1,200 |
| 50 binders | 2,500 | 8 | 20,000 | 2,000-3,000 |
Rule of thumb: Generate 50x more designs than you need (10-15% pass rate × clustering).
Tool selection guide
When to use each tool
| Scenario | Recommended Tool | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Standard miniprotein | RFdiffusion + ProteinMPNN | High diversity, proven |
| Need higher success rate | BindCraft | Integrated design loop |
| All-atom precision needed | BoltzGen | Side-chain aware |
| Difficult target | ColabDesign | AF2 gradient optimization |
| Need fast iteration | ESMFold + ESM2 | Quick screening |
Target difficulty assessment
| Indicator | Easy Target | Difficult Target |
|---|---|---|
| Surface type | Concave pocket | Flat or convex |
| Conservation | High | Low |
| Known binders | Yes | No |
| Flexibility | Rigid | Flexible |
| Expected pass rate | 15-20% | 5-10% |
Campaign health assessment
Quick metrics check
import pandas as pd
def assess_campaign(csv_path):
df = pd.read_csv(csv_path)
# Calculate pass rates
plddt_pass = (df['pLDDT'] > 0.85).mean()
iptm_pass = (df['ipTM'] > 0.50).mean()
scrmsd_pass = (df['scRMSD'] < 2.0).mean()
all_pass = ((df['pLDDT'] > 0.85) & (df['ipTM'] > 0.5) & (df['scRMSD'] < 2.0)).mean()
# Determine health
if all_pass > 0.15:
health = "EXCELLENT"
elif all_pass > 0.10:
health = "GOOD"
elif all_pass > 0.05:
health = "MARGINAL"
else:
health = "POOR"
# Identify top issue
issues = []
if plddt_pass < 0.20:
issues.append("Low pLDDT - backbone or sequence issue")
if iptm_pass < 0.20:
issues.append("Low ipTM - hotspot or interface issue")
if scrmsd_pass < 0.50:
issues.append("High scRMSD - sequence doesn't specify backbone")
return {
"health": health,
"overall_pass_rate": all_pass,
"plddt_pass_rate": plddt_pass,
"iptm_pass_rate": iptm_pass,
"scrmsd_pass_rate": scrmsd_pass,
"top_issues": issues
}
Interpreting results
| Health | Pass Rate | Action |
|---|---|---|
| EXCELLENT | > 15% | Proceed to selection |
| GOOD | 10-15% | Proceed, normal yield |
| MARGINAL | 5-10% | Review failure tree |
| POOR | < 5% | Diagnose and restart |
Cost estimation
Per-tool costs (Modal)
| Tool | GPU | $/hour | Typical Job | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RFdiffusion | A10G | ~$1.20 | 500 designs/2h | ~$2.50 |
| ProteinMPNN | T4 | ~$0.60 | 4000 seq/1.5h | ~$1.00 |
| ESM2 (PLL) | A10G | ~$1.20 | 4000 seq/30min | ~$0.60 |
| ColabFold | A100 | ~$4.50 | 4000 preds/4h | ~$18.00 |
| Chai | A100 | ~$4.50 | 500 preds/1h | ~$4.50 |
Campaign cost estimates
| Campaign Size | Total Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Small (100 bb) | ~$15 | Quick exploration |
| Standard (500 bb) | ~$60 | Most campaigns |
| Large (1000 bb) | ~$120 | Comprehensive |
| XL (5000 bb) | ~$600 | Very thorough |
Pipeline variants
High-throughput (maximize diversity)
# More backbones, fewer sequences each
modal run modal_rfdiffusion.py --num-designs 2000
modal run modal_proteinmpnn.py --num-seq-per-target 4 --sampling-temp 0.2
High-quality (maximize per-design quality)
# Fewer backbones, more sequences each, lower temperature
modal run modal_rfdiffusion.py --num-designs 200
modal run modal_proteinmpnn.py --num-seq-per-target 32 --sampling-temp 0.1
Quick exploration (fast iteration)
# Small batch, ESMFold instead of ColabFold
modal run modal_rfdiffusion.py --num-designs 50
modal run modal_proteinmpnn.py --num-seq-per-target 8
modal run modal_esmfold.py --fasta all_seqs.fa # Faster than ColabFold
See also
- Tool-specific parameters:
rfdiffusion,proteinmpnn,colabfold,chai,boltz - QC thresholds and filtering:
protein-qc - Tool selection guidance:
binder-design
Recommended Agent Skills
Expand your agent's capabilities with these related and highly-rated skills.
proteinmpnn
Design protein sequences using ProteinMPNN inverse folding. Use this skill when: (1) Designing sequences for RFdiffusion backbones, (2) Redesigning existing protein sequences, (3) Fixing specific residues while designing others, (4) Optimizing sequences for expression or stability, (5) Multi-state or negative design. For backbone generation, use rfdiffusion or bindcraft. For ligand-aware design, use ligandmpnn. For solubility optimization, use solublempnn.
esm
ESM2 protein language model for embeddings and sequence scoring. Use this skill when: (1) Computing pseudo-log-likelihood (PLL) scores, (2) Getting protein embeddings for clustering, (3) Filtering designs by sequence plausibility, (4) Zero-shot variant effect prediction, (5) Analyzing sequence-function relationships. For structure prediction, use chai or boltz. For QC thresholds, use protein-qc.
binding-characterization
Guidance for SPR and BLI binding characterization experiments. Use when: (1) Planning binding kinetics experiments, (2) Troubleshooting poor/no binding signal, (3) Interpreting kinetic data artifacts, (4) Choosing between SPR vs BLI platforms.
cell-free-expression
Guidance for cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) optimization. Use when: (1) Planning CFPS experiments, (2) Troubleshooting low yield or aggregation, (3) Optimizing DNA template design for CFPS, (4) Expressing difficult proteins (disulfide-rich, toxic, membrane).
ligandmpnn
Ligand-aware protein sequence design using LigandMPNN. Use this skill when: (1) Designing sequences around small molecules, (2) Enzyme active site design, (3) Ligand binding pocket optimization, (4) Metal coordination site design, (5) Cofactor binding proteins. For standard protein design, use proteinmpnn. For solubility optimization, use solublempnn.
bindcraft
End-to-end binder design using BindCraft hallucination. Use this skill when: (1) Designing protein binders with built-in AF2 validation, (2) Running production-quality binder campaigns, (3) Using different design protocols (fast, default, slow), (4) Need joint backbone and sequence optimization, (5) Want high experimental success rate. For backbone-only generation, use rfdiffusion. For QC thresholds, use protein-qc. For tool selection guidance, use binder-design.
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