Indexes¶

alai reads which collections exist, their versions and what they depend on from an index, rather than from the Galaxy API. The default is https://index.alai.sh/, a static mirror of Galaxy with a few changes to make that metadata quicker to fetch. Collections are downloaded from the location the index gives, and checked against the checksum it lists, which alai.lock records.

Nothing needs configuring to use the default index. When you need another index, such as a mirror of index.alai.sh, add it with [[index]] or --index. A collection can be tied to one index with [project.sources]. See Configuration for how indexes are defined and ordered.

Running your own index¶

alai-index builds an index as a tree of static files, from collection tarballs or by mirroring a Galaxy server, ready to publish to a web server or bucket. Its docs also hold the specification:

• Index format: the files an index serves and how alai reads them.
• Plugin index: the plugin lists alai find searches.