.svg){kind=logo}
PLAN EXPERIMENTS. CAPTURE METADATA. CONNECT YOUR DATA.
Orchestra is an open-source microscopy workflow suite that helps labs plan experiments, capture structured metadata, and connect that context to real imaging data.
PLAN EXPERIMENTS. CAPTURE METADATA. CONNECT YOUR DATA.
Orchestra is an open-source microscopy workflow suite that helps labs plan experiments, capture structured metadata, and connect that context to real imaging data.
What Orchestra does
Ever tried to find images from an experiment you did years ago — with a specific gene knockdown, the right staining, and exactly the condition you need now — but couldn’t remember where the data was stored?
Orchestra is built for that.
Orchestra brings together two complementary tools: Orchestra Planner, a web app for experiment planning and structured metadata entry, and Orchestra Link, a desktop app that extracts acquisition metadata from microscope files and links it back to the experimental context defined upstream.
Together, they turn your experiments into searchable data — so you can find exactly what you need, when you need it.
Plan experiments as structured workflows, schedule them in time, and capture rich metadata as part of normal lab planning.
Extract instrument metadata from image files and merge it with Planner exports to produce a unified, analysis-ready dataset.
The Workflow
01 — Plan
Schedule and organize every microscopy experiment in your lab. Orchestra Planner helps you maximize instrument time, plan plates, and keep your team aligned. Define experiments as structured blocks — coating, seeding, imaging, fixation, staining — each linked by relative timing.
Orchestra Planner02 — Capture metadata as a by-product
As you plan experiments in Orchestra Planner, you're simultaneously building a rich metadata layer — plate layouts, well-level conditions, cell lines, antibodies, drug treatments. This context becomes invaluable for downstream analysis, and you get it for free.
Orchestra Planner03 — Unify
Orchestra Link reads your CZI microscopy files — with more formats coming soon — extracts their acquisition metadata, and merges it with the experimental context from Planner. The result: a comprehensive, analysis-ready dataset where every image knows its full story.
Orchestra Link04 — Explore
The unified CSV output can be loaded into BioFile Finder (BFF) to search across all images, filter or group by experimental conditions, timepoints, plates, antibodies, and every note you ever took in Planner — then browse scene by scene.
BioFile FinderIt's a sequence of intricate, interdependent steps — coating, seeding, imaging, fixation, staining. Drag one block in the calendar, and Orchestra Planner moves all the others accordingly, preserving relative timing so you can immediately see if a conflict arises.
Orchestra Planner — Drag & drop scheduling with interdependent experiment blocks
Experiment scheduling & metadata
Orchestra Planner is a web application that helps labs plan, schedule, and manage microscopy experiments in time. Define experiments as sequences of interdependent steps — coating, seeding, imaging, fixation, staining — drag them across a visual calendar, and let Planner maintain the internal structure for you.
Nothing is blocked. You decide how much metadata to capture, and what to call it. Planner is here to inform, not to restrict.
Metadata extraction & merging
Orchestra Link is a desktop application that bridges the gap between your raw microscopy images and their experimental context. Point it to a folder of CZI files and a Planner export — Link extracts acquisition metadata from each image and merges it with your experimental metadata to produce a single, unified dataset.
Free, open-source, and built for scientists.
Web-based experiment planner. Schedule, organize, and capture rich experimental metadata — right from your browser.
v1.3 · Web ApplicationDesktop metadata unifier. Extract CZI acquisition data and merge it with experimental context from Planner.
v0.3 · Windows · macOS · Linux