For those of you working with the Microlab Prep, I wanted to share that Hamilton has released a REST API that gives you direct programmatic access to the system. This opens up some interesting possibilities for integration and custom automation workflows.
What’s Available
The API provides broader control over the Microlab Prep with:
RESTful endpoints with Swagger documentation and developers portal
Multi-language support (Python, C#, Java, etc.)
Dynamic protocol creation - build and modify protocols programmatically
Error handling capabilities - monitoring and responding
Real-time monitoring and status reporting
Essentially, you can now treat the Microlab Prep as a programmable component in larger automation workflows rather than being limited to what is possible only while standing in front of the device and through the UI.
Technical Discussion
I’m curious about use cases the community might have for this. Some obvious applications:
Integration with existing automation frameworks that support consuming REST APIs
Custom protocol generation based on sample metadata
Building decision trees that adapt protocols based on real-time results
Connecting to upstream sample tracking or downstream analysis systems
I know many of you have been requesting API access for the Prep for years, so I’m curious how this implementation aligns with what you’ve been looking for. This initial release focuses on programmatic protocol management and system integration through the existing execution engine - we’re continuing to explore ways to deepen the API’s capabilities based on community feedback.
Where to Learn More
We’ll be demonstrating the API this week at ADLM 2025 in Chicago if anyone wants to see it in action or discuss technical implementation details. Stop by, I’d love to meet you and show you the demo.
The developers portal will be going live officially later this week.
Questions?
Happy to answer technical questions about the API capabilities, integration patterns, or specific use cases. Also curious to hear if this fills gaps or simplifies workarounds you’ve been using.
Excited to finally get this in your hands after all the requests over the years. Let me know how it works for your use cases!
This is fantastic new @mrthorne - is there a place we can see the swagger documentation? Would really help to understand and evaluate the API and start to give you some feedback.
Yes absolutely @mathewkeegan! The developer portal has the entire API reference documentation (openAPI specification/swagger/etc) along with some short guides on consuming the APIs for common activities and then larger example projects. These exist for both the Prep API as well as the VENUS API.
We’re making a few more adjustments to the site and then I’ll link it in this thread.
The developer’s portal with information about the Prep and VENUS API can now be accessed by following the link found on the Hamilton Software API page. The short form to get the link is temporary and intended to better gauge interest, the user base, and potential support need.
I’m sure the direct, developer portal link will get floated out there once a few have beared the burden of the form.
When accessing the Prep API:
For the best experience, you’ll want to upgrade to v3.3.1 (released 8/6/25 and available on the Prep software download page).
If you are on version v3.2.2 or earlier, you can remain there and have full access, but remember the latest version always has the latest bug fixes and performance enhancements.
Lastly, don’t forget to sign up for the Hamilton APIs webinar on August 13th! In it I’ll be demonstrating an implementation of variable handling, remote execution and management of runs/errors, and show off a sample 3rd party software integration, all using the Prep API.
Hey,
Thank you for the updated link! I did sign up and still haven’t gotten a link to the developers portal.
Is it something that’s done manually on your end or something went wrong with my form?
Good question @Tsargu. There aren’t any specific code examples up on the portal, but here are a couple of ideas:
After using a protocol to move a reagent into a number of wells, a quick frame could be captured by the camera and analyzed for visual reactions by trained ML tool that could list out those specific wells. This would become the input to dynamically creating or modifying a new protocol that act only on these specific wells via a modified transfer sameple / add reagent / hit picking step to perform the next part of some process.
Upstream data from a LIMS system could be used to construct a specific set of pipettable locations (with barcodes if necessary?) that could be exported later as data (csv, or json) for the LIMS system to be updated.
Let’s say a 6 step protocol errors at some point during it’s run or otherwise must abort (let’s say after step 3), based on the report data of when the error occured, that same protocol could be modified to disable the first three steps and run again to complete it’s pipetting.
Just a couple of thoughts off the top of my head. Maybe you have some other ideas that could be explored?
Ah, got it — so this isn’t something handled inside the protocol itself, but rather before or after it runs. In that case, examples aren’t really needed, since this is just standard programming logic and not specific to the Prep API.
For now, that is correct, the protocol is self-contained. Any programmatic modifications you’ll want to do before the run has been scheduled or after it has completed.
In the meantime, one option is to split a larger protocol that needs those types of decisions into multiple protocols on those logical breaks and then have your orchestrating software handle both making whatever modifcations might be necessary, along with scheduling and executing the pieces after the modifications are made. The camera handles detecting tips, so you can leave partial racks on deck and the 2nd or 3rd protocol in a chain can pick up from where the previous left off.
I just wanted to say awesome addition to make the ML Prep fully functional, this is seriously now something we would consider using. Thank you for all the hard work on the Hamilton side!
