/labarchive-integration

name: labarchive-integration
description: Securely integrate with the official LabArchives ELN REST-like API and Inventory API v1. Use for regional endpoint selection, signed-request construction, user authorization and UID flows, local LA container validation, and verified LabArchives integration workflows.
license: MIT
compatibility: >-
  Requires Python 3.11+ and uv for bundled local tools, plus network access for
  official documentation or remote API calls. LabArchives issues an Access Key
  ID and Access Password; user-scoped calls also need a UID, and Inventory calls
  require Inventory API permission and a Lab ID. Bundled scripts read only named
  LABARCHIVES_* environment variables and never load .env files.
metadata:
  version: "1.2"
  skill-author: K-Dense Inc.

LabArchives Integration

Use LabArchives APIs only from current, official method pages. The public documentation is a shared notebook, not a versioned SDK reference, so verify the specific page immediately before implementing a remote operation.

Choose the Correct Surface

Do not combine these interfaces:

• **Legacy ELN API:** notebook trees, entries, attachments, users, searches,

exports, and site-license functions. It uses regional `*api.labarchives.com` hosts, `/api/<class>/<method>` paths, XML for many responses, and signed query parameters.

• **Inventory API v1:** inventory, item types, orders, storage locations, and

vendors. It documents relative `/public/v1/...` paths, JSON schemas, and signed `X-LabArchives-*` request headers.

• **Product integrations:** Jupyter, REDCap, Protocols.io, GraphPad Prism,

SnapGene, Geneious, and others are product-specific UI or file workflows. They are not evidence of a general LabArchives OAuth 2.0 API.

Read [`references/api_reference.md`](references/api_reference.md) before writing API code and [`references/integrations.md`](references/integrations.md) before automating an advertised integration.

Access and Credentials

LabArchives ELN developer API access is an Enterprise capability. The current Inventory FAQ limits Inventory API access to Enterprise and Enterprise Plus licensees and requires an Inventory account with API permission. Contact the institution's LabArchives team or LabArchives support for access and the development documentation supplied with it.

The environment names below are conventions of this skill, not vendor-defined standards:

• `LABARCHIVES_ELN_API_URL` — one exact regional ELN API URL ending in `/api`
• `LABARCHIVES_ACCESS_KEY_ID` — LabArchives-issued Access Key ID (`akid`)
• `LABARCHIVES_ACCESS_PASSWORD` — HMAC signing secret
• `LABARCHIVES_USER_ID` — optional persistent UID bound to that Access Key ID
• `LABARCHIVES_INVENTORY_LAB_ID` — required for Inventory requests

Keep secrets in the process environment or an approved secret manager. Do not put them in YAML, source code, command-line arguments, prompts, logs, notebooks, or committed `.env` files. The bundled tools never search for `.env` files.

From this skill directory:

uv run scripts/setup_config.py regions
uv run scripts/setup_config.py check --require-user-id

`setup_config.py` validates only endpoint structure and named-variable presence; it does not authenticate, persist, or print credentials. See [`references/authentication_guide.md`](references/authentication_guide.md).

Regional Endpoints

Browser login hosts and API hosts are different. The official ELN API overview currently lists US/rest of world, Australia/New Zealand, UK, Europe outside the UK, and Canada API hosts. The help center separately lists the five regional browser login hosts.

Use `setup_config.py regions` for the current allowlist and the complete table in the authentication guide. Never build an API URL from a browser login URL.

The public Inventory v1 pages retrieved for this refresh document relative paths, but not a complete regional absolute base-URL table. Obtain that base URL from the institution/vendor documentation rather than guessing from an Inventory login host.

Authentication Model

ELN requests

The official algorithm is fully documented:

1. Set `expires` to the current Unix epoch time in milliseconds, adjusted for server clock difference if necessary. Despite its name, it is not a future expiry time. 2. Concatenate, with no separators: `<Access Key ID><API method name><expires>`. 3. Compute HMAC-SHA-512 using the Access Password as the key. 4. Base64-encode the digest. 5. URI-encode that signature and send `akid`, `expires`, and `sig` as the documented query parameters.

For ordinary ELN calls, the signature input is the method name only, not the API class. User authorization is a documented special case: signing the `api_user_login` redirect uses the unencoded redirect URI in place of a method name.

Inventory API v1 requests

Inventory shares the HMAC algorithm but signs the exact relative route, including resolved path parameters and excluding the query string. Its authentication page documents these headers:

• `X-LabArchives-UId`
• `X-LabArchives-AKId`
• `X-LabArchives-LabId`
• `X-LabArchives-Signature`
• `X-LabArchives-Expires`

Create a fresh signature for every request. Do not move ELN query authentication into Inventory headers or Inventory headers into ELN calls.

Local Request Planning

`scripts/entry_operations.py` is deliberately network-free. It implements the documented signature primitive and emits redacted JSON plans, never a live request or reusable signature:

uv run scripts/entry_operations.py self-test
uv run scripts/entry_operations.py eln-plan \
  --api-class entries --api-method entry_info
uv run scripts/entry_operations.py inventory-plan \
  --path /public/v1/users/me

Import its `create_signature`, `build_eln_auth_params`, or `build_inventory_headers` functions into institution-reviewed code when needed. Pass returned authentication material directly to the HTTP client; never print or persist