haildepends

haildepends is an open-source dependency management tool associated with the Hail ecosystem, a collection of software for scalable genomic data analysis. The project aims to provide reproducible builds by tracking exact versions of dependencies and their transitive requirements, and by generating lockfiles that pin those versions for use in development, testing, and production environments.

The tool operates by consuming a manifest file that lists direct dependencies (programs, libraries, and language bindings), along with version constraints. It then resolves a compatible set of versions that satisfy all constraints, checks for conflicts, and produces artifacts such as a lockfile and a machine-readable environment specification. In addition to installation, haildepends supports generation of dependency graphs to help users understand relationships and potential changes over time.

Key features include deterministic installation order, support for Python and Java ecosystems, integration with container images and cloud-based runtimes, and the ability to export to Conda environments or Dockerfiles. It also provides commands to visualize dependency graphs and to audit changes between versions, aiding reproducibility and traceability in complex genomics workflows.

Implementation-wise, haildepends uses a constraint solver to compute a compatible dependency graph and records metadata in a JSON or YAML lockfile. The system is designed to operate across multiple platforms and can function in offline mode if all dependencies are cached locally. Usage typically involves creating a manifest, running the resolver to generate a lockfile, and applying the resulting artifacts in local environments, CI pipelines, or production clusters.

See also: Hail (genomics), dependency management, lockfiles, conda, Docker.