/rowan

name: rowan
description: Rowan is a cloud-native molecular modeling and medicinal-chemistry workflow platform with a Python API. Use for pKa and macropKa prediction, conformer and tautomer ensembles, docking and analogue docking, protein-ligand cofolding, MSA generation, molecular dynamics, permeability, descriptor workflows, and related small-molecule or protein modeling tasks. Ideal for programmatic batch screening, multi-step chemistry pipelines, and workflows that would otherwise require maintaining local HPC/GPU infrastructure.
license: Proprietary (API key required)
compatibility: Python 3.12+, API key required
metadata:
  version: "1.5"
  skill-author: Rowan Science
  trigger-keywords: pKa prediction, molecular docking, conformer search, chemistry workflow, drug discovery, SMILES, protein structure, batch molecular modeling, cloud chemistry
  openclaw:
    primaryEnv: ROWAN_API_KEY
    envVars:
    - name: ROWAN_API_KEY
      required: true
      description: Rowan computational chemistry API key.

Rowan: Cloud-Native Molecular-Modeling and Drug-Design Workflows

Overview

Rowan is a cloud-native workflow platform for molecular simulation, medicinal chemistry, and structure-based design. Its Python API exposes a unified interface for small-molecule modeling, property prediction, docking, molecular dynamics, and AI structure workflows.

Use Rowan when you want to run medicinal-chemistry or molecular-design workflows programmatically without maintaining local HPC infrastructure, GPU provisioning, or a collection of separate modeling tools. Rowan handles all infrastructure, result management, and computation scaling.

When to use Rowan

**Rowan is a good fit for:**

• Quantum chemistry, semiempirical methods, or neural network potentials
• Batch property prediction (pKa, descriptors, permeability, solubility)
• Conformer and tautomer ensemble generation
• Docking workflows (single-ligand, analogue series, pose refinement)
• Protein-ligand cofolding and MSA generation
• Multi-step chemistry pipelines (e.g., tautomer search → docking → pose analysis)
• Batch medicinal-chemistry campaigns where you need consistent, scalable infrastructure

**Rowan is not the right fit for:**

• Simple molecular I/O (use RDKit directly)
• Post-HF *ab initio* quantum chemistry or relativistic calculations

Quick start

uv pip install rowan-python

import rowan
rowan.api_key = "your_api_key_here"  # or set ROWAN_API_KEY env var

# Descriptors require a 3D Molecule, not a bare SMILES string.
mol = rowan.Molecule.from_smiles("CC(=O)Oc1ccccc1C(=O)O")
wf = rowan.submit_descriptors_workflow(mol, name="aspirin")
result = wf.result()

print(result.descriptors["MW"])       # 180.042 — exact mass
print(result.descriptors["SLogP"])    # 1.31
print(result.descriptors["TopoPSA"])  # 63.6 — topological PSA

If that prints without error, you're set up correctly. These values and examples were verified against `rowan-python` 3.1.13.

Installation

uv pip install rowan-python
# or: uv pip install rowan-python

User and webhook management

Authentication

Set an API key via environment variable (recommended):

export ROWAN_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

Or set directly in Python:

import rowan
rowan.api_key = "your_api_key_here"

Verify authentication:

import rowan
user = rowan.whoami()  # Returns user info if authenticated
print(f"User: {user.email}")
print(f"Credits available: {user.credits_available_string()}")

Molecule input formats

Rowan accepts molecules in the following formats:

• **SMILES** (preferred): `"CCO"`, `"c1ccccc1O"`
• **SMARTS patterns** (for some workflows): subset of SMARTS for substructure matching
• **InChI** (if supported in your API version): `"InChI=1S/C2H6O/c1-2-3/h3H,2H2,1H3"`

The API validates molecule inputs and raises `ValueError` for an unparseable SMILES or a workflow-incompatible input type. Always use canonicalized SMILES for reproducibility.

SMILES strings versus molecule objects

Accepted input types vary by workflow in `rowan-python` 3.1.13. Only these common workflows accept a bare string: pKa, conformer search, membrane permeability, ADMET, LogP, macropKa, solubility, and pose-analysis MD. Most others — including descriptors, tautomer search, docking, analogue docking, BDE, NMR, and Fukui — require `rowan.Molecule.from_smiles(smiles)` or an RDKit `Mol`/`RWMol`. A wrong type raises `ValueError` before submission.

**Tip:** Use RDKit to validate SMILES before submission:

from rdkit import Chem
smiles = "CCO"
mol = Chem.MolFromSmiles(smiles)
if mol is None:
    raise ValueError(f"Invalid SMILES: {smiles}")

Core usage pattern

Most Rowan tasks follow the same three-step pattern:

1. **Submit** a workflow 2. **Wait** for completion (with optional streaming) 3. **Retrieve** typed results with convenience properties

import rowan

# 1. Submit — use the specific workflow function (not the generic submit_workflow)
workflow = rowan.submit_descriptors_workflow(
    rowan.Molecule.from_smiles("CC(=O)Oc1ccccc1C(=O)O"),
    name="aspirin descriptors",
)

# 2. & 3. Wait and retrieve
result = workflow.result()  # Blocks until done (default: wait=True, poll_interval=5)
print(result.data)              # Raw dict
print(result.descriptors["MW"]) # 180.042 exact mass; no result.molecular_weight property

For long-running workflows, use streaming:

for partial in workflow.stream_result(poll_interval=5):
    print(f"Complete: {partial.complete}")  # bool, not a percentage
    print(partial.data)

result() vs. stream_result()

| Pattern | Use When | Duration | |---------|----------|----------| | `result()` | You can wait for the full result | <5 min typical | | `stream_result()` | You want progress feedback or need early partial results | >5 min, or interactive use |

**Guideline:** Use `result()` for descriptors, pKa. Use `stream_result()` fo