<!-- !test program bash -eo pipefail -->
# vg

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## variation graph data structures, interchange formats, alignment, genotyping, and variant calling methods

![Variation graph](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vgteam/vg/master/doc/figures/vg_logo_small.png)

_Variation graphs_ provide a succinct encoding of the sequences of many genomes. A variation graph (in particular as implemented in vg) is composed of:

* _nodes_, which are labeled by sequences and ids
* _edges_, which connect two nodes via either of their respective ends
* _paths_, describe genomes, sequence alignments, and annotations (such as gene models and transcripts) as walks through nodes connected by edges

This model is similar to sequence graphs that have been used in assembly and multiple sequence alignment.

Paths provide coordinate systems relative to genomes encoded in the graph, allowing stable mappings to be produced even if the structure of the graph is changed.
The variation graph model makes this embedding explicit and essential.
Tools in vg maintain paths as immutable during transformations of the graph.
They use paths to project graph-relative data into reference-relative coordinate spaces.
Paths provide stable coordinates for graphs built in different ways from the same input sequences.

![example variation graph](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vgteam/vg/master/doc/figures/smallgraph.png)

## Citing VG

Please cite:

* [The VG Paper](https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4227) when using `vg`
* [The VG Giraffe Paper](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg8871) when using `vg giraffe`
* [The VG Call Paper](https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020-1941-7) when SV genotyping with `vg call`
* [The GBZ Paper](https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btac656) when using GBZ
* [The HPRC Paper](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05896-x) when using `vg deconstruct`
* [The Snarls Paper](https://doi.org/10.1089/cmb.2017.0251) when using `vg snarls`
* [The Personalized Pangenome Paper](https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.12.13.571553) when using `vg haplotypes` and/or `vg giraffe --haplotype-name`

## Support 

We maintain a support forum on biostars: https://www.biostars.org/tag/vg/

## Installation

### Download Releases

The easiest way to get vg is to download one of our release builds for Linux. We have a 6-week release cadence, so our builds are never too far out of date.

**[![Download Button](doc/figures/download-linux.png)](https://github.com/vgteam/vg/releases/latest)**  
**[Download the latest vg release for Linux](https://github.com/vgteam/vg/releases/latest)**

**For MacOS**, see [Building on MacOS](#building-on-macos).

### Building on Linux

If you don't want to or can't use a pre-built release of vg, or if you want to become a vg developer, you can build it from source instead.

#### Linux: Clone VG

First, obtain the repo and its submodules:

    git clone --recursive https://github.com/vgteam/vg.git
    cd vg

#### Linux: Install Dependencies
    
Then, install VG's dependencies. You'll need the protobuf and jansson development libraries installed, and to run the tests you will need:
* `jq`, `bc`, `rs`, and `parallel`
* `hexdump` and `column` from `bsdmainutils`
* [`npm` for testing documentation examples](https://github.com/anko/txm)).

On Ubuntu, you should be able to do:

    make get-deps

If you get complaints that `sudo` is not found, install it:

    apt update
    apt install sudo

If you get a bunch of errors like `E: Unable to locate package build-essential`, make sure your package index files are up to date by running:

    sudo apt update
    
On other distros, or if you do not have root access, you will need to perform the equivalent of:

    sudo apt-get install build-essential git cmake pkg-config libncurses-dev libbz2-dev  \
                         protobuf-compiler libprotoc-dev libprotobuf-dev libjansson-dev \
                         automake gettext autopoint libtool jq bsdmainutils bc rs parallel \
                         npm curl unzip redland-utils librdf-dev bison flex gawk lzma-dev \
                         liblzma-dev liblz4-dev libffi-dev libcairo-dev libboost-all-dev \
                         libzstd-dev pybind11-dev python3-pybind11
                         
Note that **Ubuntu 16.04** does not ship a sufficiently new Protobuf; vg requires **Protobuf 3** which will have to be manually installed.

At present, you will need GCC version 4.9 or greater, with support for C++14, to compile vg. (Check your version with `gcc --version`.) GCC up to 11.2.0 is supported.

Other libraries may be required. Please report any build difficulties.

Note that a 64-bit OS is required. Ubuntu 20.04 should work.

#### Linux: Build

When you are ready, build with `make`. You can use `make -j16` to run 16 build threads at a time, which greatly accelerates the process. If you have more CPU cores, you can use higher numbers.

Note that vg can take anywhere from 10 minutes to more than an hour to compile depending on your machine and the number of threads used. 

You can also produce a static binary with `make static`, assuming you have static versions of all the dependencies installed on your system.

#### Linux: Run

Once vg is built, the binary will be at `bin/vg` inside the vg repository directory. You can run it with:

```
./bin/vg
```

You can also add its directory to your `PATH` enviornment variable, so that you can invoke `vg` from any directory. To do that on Bash, use this command from the vg repository directory:

```
echo 'export PATH="${PATH}:'"$(pwd)"'/bin"' >>~/.bashrc
```

Then close your terminal and open a new one. Run `vg` to make sure it worked.

If it did not work, make sure that you have a `.bash_profile` file in your home directory that will run your `.bashrc`:
```
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
   source ~/.bashrc
fi
```

### Building on MacOS

#### Mac: Clone VG

The first step is to clone the vg repository:

    git clone --recursive https://github.com/vgteam/vg.git
    cd vg

#### Mac: Install Dependencies

VG depends on a number of packages being installed on the system where it is being built. Dependencies can be installed using either [MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/install.php) or [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).

##### Using MacPorts

You can use MacPorts to install VG's dependencies:

    sudo port install libtool protobuf3-cpp jansson jq cmake pkgconfig autoconf automake libtool coreutils samtools redland bison gperftools md5sha1sum rasqal gmake autogen cairo libomp boost zstd pybind11
    

##### Using Homebrew

Homebrew provides another package management solution for OSX, and may be preferable to some users over MacPorts. VG ships a `Brewfile` describing its Homebrew dependencies, so from the root vg directory, you can install dependencies, and expose them to vg, like this:

    # Install all the dependencies in the Brewfile
    brew bundle
    
#### Mac: Build

With dependencies installed, VG can now be built:

    make

As with Linux, you can add `-j16` or other numbers at the end to run multiple build tasks at once, if your computer can handle them.
    
**Note that static binaries cannot yet be built for Mac.**

The vg Mac build targets whatever the current version of Apple Clang is, and whatever version of Apple Clang is provided by our Github Actions Mac CI system. If your Clang is up to date and vg does not build for you, please open an issue.

#### Mac: Run

Once vg is built, the binary will be at `bin/vg` inside the vg repository directory. You can run it with:

```
./bin/vg
```

You can also add its directory to your `PATH` enviornment variable, so that you can invoke `vg` from any directory. To do that on the default `zsh` Mac shell, use this command from the vg repository directory:

```
echo 'export PATH="${PATH}:'"$(pwd)"'/bin"' >>~/.zshrc
```

Then close your terminal and open a new one. Run `vg` to make sure it worked.

##### Migrate a VG installation from x86 to ARM

The Mac platform is moving to ARM, with Apple's M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and subsequent chip designs. The vg codebase supports ARM on Mac as well as on Linux. **The normal installation instructions work on a factory-fresh ARM Mac**.

However, it is easy to run into problems when **migrating a working vg build environment** or **migrating Macports or Homebrew** from x86_64 to ARM. The ARM machine can successfully run x86_64 tools installed via Macports or Homebrew on the old machine, but vg can only build properly on ARM if you are using ARM versions of the build tools, like `make` and CMake.

So, after migrating to an ARM Mac using e.g. Apple's migration tools:

1. Uninstall Macports and its packages, if they were migrated from the old machine. Only an ARM Macports install can be used to provide dependencies for vg on ARM.
2. Uninstall Homebrew and its packages, if they were migrated. Similarly, only an ARM Homebrew install will work.
3. Reinstall one of Macports or Homebrew. Make sure to use the M1 or ARM version.
4. Use the package manager you installed to install system dependencies of vg, such as CMake, [as documented above](#install-dependencies).
5. Clean vg with `make clean`. This *should* remove all build artefacts.
6. Build vg again with `make`.

If you still experience build problems after this, delete the whole checkout and check out the code again; `make clean` is not under CI test and is not always up to date with the rest of the build system.

Whether or not that helps, please then [open an issue](https://github.com/vgteam/vg/issues/new) so we can help fix the build or fix `make clean`.

## Usage

### Variation graph construction

#### From VCF

> **Note**
> See the `vg autoindex` examples below for how to use that tool in place of `vg construct` to build and index graphs in a single step.

One way to build a graph with `vg` is to `construct` it from variant calls using a reference FASTA file and VCF file. If you're working in vg's `test/` directory:

<!-- !test check Construct the small graph -->
```sh
vg construct -r small/x.fa -v small/x.vcf.gz >x.vg
```

Note that to build a graph, an index of the VCF file is required. The VCF index file can be generated using the `tabix` command provided by SAMtools (e.g. `tabix -p vcf x.vcf.gz` on the command line).

#### From Assemblies

You can also build a graph (and indexes for mapping with vg) from a set of genome assemblies (FASTA), as opposed to variant calls as described above, using [Minigraph-Cactus](https://github.com/ComparativeGenomicsToolkit/cactus/blob/master/doc/pangenome.md).

### Importing and exporting different graph formats

`vg` supports [many formats](https://github.com/vgteam/vg/wiki/File-Formats), the three most important are:

* `PackedGraph (.vg)` : This is `vg's` native format. It supports edits of all kinds (to topology and paths), but can be inefficient at large scales, especially with many paths.
* `GFA (.gfa)` : [GFA](https://github.com/GFA-spec/GFA-spec) is standard text-based format and usually the best way to exchange graphs between `vg` and other pangenome tools. `vg` can also operate on (**uncompressed**) GFA files directly, by way of using a `PackedGraph` representation in memory (and therefore shares that format's scaling concerns and edit-ability).
* `GBZ (.gbz)` : [GBZ](https://github.com/jltsiren/gbwtgraph/blob/master/SERIALIZATION.md) is a highly-compressed format that uses much less space to store paths than the above formats, but at the cost of not allowing general edits to the graph.

You can query the format of any graph using `vg stats -F`.

#### Importing

In general, you will build and index `vg` graphs using `vg autoindex` (from GFA or VCF) or `Minigraph-Cactus` (FASTAs). You can also import `GFA` files from other tools such as [ODGI](https://github.com/pangenome/odgi) and [PGGB](https://github.com/pangenome/pggb) using `vg convert -g`.

#### Exporting

You can convert any graph to `GFA` using `vg convert -f`.  By default, `vg` uses [GFA v1.1](https://github.com/GFA-spec/GFA-spec/blob/master/GFA1.md#w-walk-line-since-v11) where paths are represented as W-lines. To use P-lines instead (GFA v1.0), use `vg convert -fW`.

#### Path Types

The `GBZ` format makes the distinction between `REFERENCE` and `HAPLOTYPE` paths. `REFERENCE` paths can be used as coordinate systems but are more expensive to store. `HAPLOTYPE` paths are highly compressed but cannot be used for position lookups. In the [HPRC](https://github.com/human-pangenomics/hpp_pangenome_resources/) graphs for example, contigs from `GRCh38` and `CHM13(T2T)` are `REFERENCE` paths and all other samples `HAPLOTYPE` paths.

The distinction between `REFERENCE` and `HAPLOTYPE` paths is carried over into the other formats such as `.vg` and `.gfa` to facilitate conversion and inter-operation. In `.gfa`, `REFERENCE` paths are P-Lines, or W-lines whose sample names are flagged in the header. W-lines whose names are not flagged in the header are `HAPLOTYPE` paths. In `.vg` they are denoted using a naming convention.  

See the [Path Metadata WIKI](https://github.com/vgteam/vg/wiki/Path-Metadata-Model) for more details.

> **Warning**
> `GBZ` is the only format that supports efficient loading large numbers of `HAPLOTYPE` paths in `vg`.  You may run into issues trying to load whole-genome graphs with thousands of `HAPLOTYPE` from `.vg` or `.gfa` files.  `vg convert -H` can be used to drop `HAPLOTYPE` paths, allowing the graph to be more easily loaded in other formats. 

### Viewing

> **Note**
> It is best to use the newer `vg convert` tool (described above) for GFA conversion

`vg view` provides a way to convert the graph into various formats:

<!-- !test check Convert the small graph to different formats -->
```sh
# GFA output
vg view x.vg >x.gfa

# dot output suitable for graphviz
vg view -d x.vg >x.dot

# And if you have a GAM file
cp small/x-s1337-n1.gam x.gam

# json version of binary alignments
vg view -a x.gam >x.json
```

### Mapping

If you have more than one sequence, or you are working on a large graph, you will want to map rather than merely aligning.

There are multiple read mappers in `vg`:

* `vg giraffe` is designed to be fast for highly accurate short reads, against graphs with haplotype information.
* `vg map` is a general-purpose read mapper.
* `vg mpmap` does "multi-path" mapping, to allow describing local alignment uncertainty. [This is useful for transcriptomics.](#Transcriptomic-analysis)

#### Mapping with `vg giraffe`

To use `vg giraffe` to map reads, you will first need to prepare indexes. This is best done using `vg autoindex`. In order to get `vg autoindex` to use haplotype information from a VCF file, you can give it the VCF and the associated linear reference directly.

<!-- !test check Simulate and map back with surjection with Giraffe -->
```sh
# construct the graph and indexes (paths below assume running from `vg/test` directory)
vg autoindex --workflow giraffe -r small/x.fa -v small/x.vcf.gz -p x

# simulate a bunch of 150bp reads from the graph, into a GAM file of reads aligned to a graph
vg sim -n 1000 -l 150 -x x.giraffe.gbz -a > x.sim.gam
# now re-map these reads against the graph, and get BAM output in linear space
# FASTQ input uses -f instead of -G.
vg giraffe -Z x.giraffe.gbz -G x.sim.gam -o BAM > aln.bam
```

[More information on using `vg girafe` can be found on the `vg` wiki.](https://github.com/vgteam/vg/wiki/Mapping-short-reads-with-Giraffe)

#### Mapping with `vg map`

If your graph is large, you want to use `vg index` to store the graph and `vg map` to align reads. `vg map` implements a kmer based seed and extend alignment model that is similar to that used in aligners like novoalign or MOSAIK. First an on-disk index is built with `vg index` which includes the graph itself and kmers of a particular size. When mapping, any kmer size shorter than that used in the index can be employed, and by default the mapper will decrease the kmer size to increase sensitivity when alignment at a particular _k_ fails.

<!-- !test check Simulate and map back with surjection with map -->
```sh
# construct the graph (paths below assume running from `vg/test` directory)
vg construct -r small/x.fa -v small/x.vcf.gz > x.vg

# store the graph in the xg/gcsa index pair
vg index -x x.xg -g x.gcsa -k 16 x.vg

# align a read to the indexed version of the graph
# note that the graph file is not opened, but x.vg.index is assumed
vg map -s CTACTGACAGCAGAAGTTTGCTGTGAAGATTAAATTAGGTGATGCTTG -x x.xg -g x.gcsa > read.gam

# simulate a bunch of 150bp reads from the graph, one per line
vg sim -n 1000 -l 150 -x x.xg > x.sim.txt
# now map these reads against the graph to get a GAM
vg map -T x.sim.txt -x x.xg -g x.gcsa > aln.gam

# surject the alignments back into the reference space of sequence "x", yielding a BAM file
vg surject -x x.xg -b aln.gam > aln.bam

# or alternatively, surject them to BAM in the call to map
vg sim -n 1000 -l 150 -x x.xg > x.sim.txt
vg map -T x.sim.txt -x x.xg -g x.gcsa --surject-to bam > aln.bam
```

### Augmentation

Variation from alignments can be embedded back into the graph.  This process is called augmentation and can be used for *de novo* variant calling, for example (see below).

> **Warning**
> Using `vg augment` for variant calling remains very experimental. It is not at all recommended for structural variant calling, and even for small variants, you will often get much more accurate results (at least on human) by projecting your alignment to `BAM` and running a linear variant caller such as DeepVariant. 

<!-- !test check Augment a graph -->
```sh
# augment the graph with all variation from the GAM except that implied by soft clips, saving to aug.vg.  aug.gam contains the same reads as aln.gam but mapped to aug.vg
vg augment x.vg aln.gam -A aug.gam > aug.vg

# augment the graph with all variation from the GAM, saving each mapping as a path in the graph.
# softclips of alignment paths are preserved (`-S`).
# Note, this can be much less efficient than the above example if there are many alignments in the GAM
vg augment x.vg aln.gam -i -S > aug_with_paths.vg
```

### Variant Calling

> **Note**
> More information can be found in the [WIKI](https://github.com/vgteam/vg/wiki/SV-Genotyping-and-variant-calling).

#### Calling variants using read support

The following examples show how to generate a VCF with vg using read support.  They depend on output from the Mapping and Augmentation examples above.  Small variants and SVs can be called using the same approach.  **Currently, it is more accuracte for SVs**.  

Call only variants that are present in the graph:

<!-- !test check Pack and call -->
```sh
# Compute the read support from the gam
# -Q 5: ignore mapping and base qualitiy < 5
vg pack -x x.xg -g aln.gam -Q 5  -o aln.pack

# Generate a VCF from the support.  
vg call x.xg -k aln.pack > graph_calls.vcf
```

By default, `vg call` omits `0/0` variants and tries to normalize alleles to make the VCF more compact.  Both these steps can make it difficult to compare the outputs from different samples as the VCFs will have different coordinates even though they were created using the same graph.  The `-a` option addresses this by calling every snarl using the same coordinates and including reference calls.  Outputs for different samples can be combined with `bcftools merge -m all`.   
<!-- !test check Call from pack without normalizing -->
```
vg call x.xg -k aln.pack -a > snarl_genotypes.vcf
```

In order to also consider *novel* variants from the reads, use the augmented graph and gam (as created in the "Augmentation" example using `vg augment -A`):

> **Warning**
> Using `vg augment` for variant calling remains very experimental. It is not at all recommended for structural variant calling, and even for small variants, you will often get much more accurate results (at least on human) by projecting your alignment to `BAM` and running a linear variant caller such as DeepVariant. 

<!-- !test check Call from augmentation -->
```sh
# Index our augmented graph
vg index aug.vg -x aug.xg

# Compute the read support from the augmented gam (ignoring qualitiy < 5, and 1st and last 5bp of each read)
vg pack -x aug.xg -g aug.gam -Q 5 -s 5 -o aln_aug.pack

# Generate a VCF from the support
vg call aug.xg -k aln_aug.pack > calls.vcf
```

A similar process can by used to *genotype* known variants from a VCF. To do this, the graph must be constructed from the VCF with `vg construct -a` (graphs from other sources such as `vg autoindex` and `Minigraph-Cactus` cannot be used):

<!-- !test check Genotype -->
```sh
# Re-construct the same graph as before but with `-a`
vg construct -r small/x.fa -v small/x.vcf.gz -a > xa.vg

# Index the graph with `-L' to preserve alt paths in the xg
vg index xa.vg -x xa.xg -L

# Compute the support (we could also reuse aln.pack from above)
vg pack -x xa.xg -g aln.gam -o aln.pack

# Genotype the VCF (use -v)
vg call xa.xg -k aln.pack -v small/x.vcf.gz > genotypes.vcf
```

Pre-filtering the GAM before computing support can improve precision of SNP calling:

<!-- !test check Pre-filter GAM and call -->
```sh
# filter secondary and ambiguous read mappings out of the gam
vg filter aln.gam -r 0.90 -fu -m 1 -q 15 -D 999 -x x.xg > aln.filtered.gam

# then compute the support from aln.filtered.gam instead of aln.gam in above etc.
vg pack -x xa.xg -g aln.filtered.gam -o aln.pack
vg call xa.xg -k aln.pack -v small/x.vcf.gz > genotypes.vcf
```

For larger graphs, it is recommended to compute snarls separately:

<!-- !test check Pre-compute snarls and call -->
```sh
vg snarls x.xg > x.snarls

# load snarls from a file instead of computing on the fly
vg call x.xg -k aln.pack -r x.snarls > calls.vcf
```

Note: `vg augment`, `vg pack`, `vg call` and `vg snarls` can now all be run on directly on any graph format (ex '.gbz', '.gfa', `.vg`, `.xg` (except `augment`) or anything output by `vg convert`).  Operating on `.vg` or '.gfa' uses the most memory and is not recommended for large graphs.  The output of `vg pack` can only be read in conjunction with the same graph used to create it, so `vg pack x.vg -g aln.gam -o x.pack` then `vg call x.xg -k x.pack` will not work.

#### Calling variants from paths in the graph

Infer variants from from alignments implied by paths in the graph.  This can be used, for example, to call SVs directly from a variation graph that was constructed from a multiple alignment of different assemblies:

<!-- !test check MSGA and deconstruct -->
```sh
# create a graph from a multiple alignment of HLA haplotypes (from vg/test directory)
vg msga -f GRCh38_alts/FASTA/HLA/V-352962.fa -t 1 -k 16 | vg mod -U 10 - | vg mod -c - > hla.vg

# index it
vg index hla.vg -x hla.xg

# generate a VCF using gi|568815592:29791752-29792749 as the reference contig.  The other paths will be considered as haploid samples
vg deconstruct hla.xg -e -p "gi|568815592:29791752-29792749" > hla_variants.vcf
```

Haplotype paths from `.gbz` or `.gbwt` indexes input can be considered using `-z` and `-g', respectively.

As with `vg call`, it is best to compute snarls separately and pass them in with `-r` when working with large graphs.

### Transcriptomic analysis

`vg` has a number of tools to support transcriptomic analyses with spliced graphs (i.e. graphs that have annotated splice junctions added as edges into the graph). These edges can be added into an existing graph using `vg rna`. We can then perform splice-aware mapping to these graphs using `vg mpmap`. `vg` developers have also made a tool for haplotype-aware transcript quantification based on these tools in [`rpvg`](https://github.com/jonassibbesen/rpvg). The easiest way to start this pipeline is to use the `vg autoindex` subcommand to make indexes for `vg mpmap`. `vg autoindex` creates indexes for mapping from common interchange formats like FASTA, VCF, and GTF. 

More information is available in the [wiki page on transcriptomics](https://github.com/vgteam/vg/wiki/Transcriptomic-analyses).

Working from the `test/` directory the following example shows how to create a spliced pangenome graph and indexes using `vg autoindex` with 4 threads:

<!-- !test check Autoindex for transcriptomic analysis -->
```sh
# Create spliced pangenome graph and indexes for vg mpmap
vg autoindex --workflow mpmap -t 4 --prefix vg_rna --ref-fasta small/x.fa --vcf small/x.vcf.gz --tx-gff small/x.gtf
```

RNA-seq reads can be mapped to the spliced pangenome graph using `vg mpmap` with 4 threads:

<!-- !test check Mapping using mpmap for transcriptomic analysis -->
```sh
# Map simulated RNA-seq reads using vg mpmap
vg mpmap -n rna -t 4 -x vg_rna.spliced.xg -g vg_rna.spliced.gcsa -d vg_rna.spliced.dist -f small/x_rna_1.fq -f small/x_rna_2.fq > mpmap.gamp
```

This will produce alignments in the multipath format. For more information on the multipath alignment format and `vg mpmap` see [wiki page on mpmap](https://github.com/vgteam/vg/wiki/Multipath-alignments-and-vg-mpmap). Running the two commands on the small example data using 4 threads should on most machines take less than a minute.  

### Alignment

If you have a small graph, you can align a sequence to the whole graph, using a full-length partial order alignment:

<!-- !test check Align a string to a graph -->
```sh
vg align -s CTACTGACAGCAGAAGTTTGCTGTGAAGATTAAATTAGGTGATGCTTG x.vg
```

Note that you don't have to store the graph on disk at all, you can simply pipe it into the local aligner:

<!-- !test check Align a string to a piped graph -->
```sh
vg construct -r small/x.fa -v small/x.vcf.gz | vg align -s CTACTGACAGCAGAAGTTTGCTGTGAAGATTAAATTAGGTGATGCTTG -
```

Most commands allow the streaming of graphs into and out of `vg`.

### Command line interface

A variety of commands are available:

- *autoindex*: construct graphs and indexes for other tools from common interchange file formats
- *construct*: graph construction
- *index*: index features of the graph in a disk-backed key/value store
- *map*: mapp reads to a graph
- *giraffe*: fast, haplotype-based mapping of reads to a graph
- *mpmap*: short read mapping and multipath alignment (optionally spliced)
- *surject*: project graph alignments onto a linear reference
- *augment*: adds variation from aligned reads into the graph
- *call*: call variants from an augmented graph
- *rna*: construct splicing graphs and pantranscriptomes
- *convert*: convert graph and alignment formats
- *combine*: combine graphs
- *chunk*: extract or break into subgraphs
- *ids*: node ID manipulation
- *sim*: simulate reads by walking paths in the graph
- *prune*: prune graphs to restrict their path complexity
- *snarls*: find bubble-like motifs in a graph
- *mod*: various graph transformations
- *filter*: filter reads out of an alignment
- *deconstruct*: create a VCF from variation in the graph
- *paths*: traverse paths in the graph
- *stats*: metrics describing graph properties

## Implementation notes

`vg` is a collection of tools based on a common data model (the variation graph) that is described by a protobuf schema (vg.proto). Data objects defined in vg.proto may be serialized via a stream pattern defined in stream.hpp. It is not necessary to write code in vg in order to interface with the algorithms defined here. Rather, it is sometimes simpler to write an external algorithm that reads and writes the same data formats.

## License

MIT

