Vcf Annotate

vcf-annotate

Quick Start

• Command: vcf-annotate [OPTIONS] < in.vcf > out.vcf
• Local executable: /home/vimalinx/miniforge3/envs/bio/bin/vcf-annotate
• Full reference: See references/help.md

When To Use This Tool

• Add INFO, FILTER, ID, or QUAL annotations to a streamed VCF.
• Recalculate AC/AN, HWE, inbreeding coefficient, or TYPE tags on an existing callset.
• Apply built-in heuristic filters or custom annotation overlays from a tabix-indexed side table.
• Keep using it mainly when you are already in a vcftools-based stream workflow; for newer pipelines, bcftools annotate is often a better long-term choice.

Common Patterns

# 1) Add custom annotations from a tabix-indexed table
zcat input.vcf.gz \
  | vcf-annotate \
      -a annotations.gz \
      -c CHROM,FROM,TO,INFO/GN \
      -d "key=INFO,ID=GN,Number=1,Type=String,Description='Gene Name'" \
  | bgzip -c > output.vcf.gz

# 2) Recalculate allele count tags and variant type
zcat input.vcf.gz \
  | vcf-annotate --fill-AC-AN --fill-type \
  | bgzip -c > output.vcf.gz

# 3) Remove tags and apply built-in filters
zcat input.vcf.gz \
  | vcf-annotate -r INFO/DP,FILTER -f +/Q=20/d=5 \
  | bgzip -c > output.vcf.gz

Recommended Workflow

1. Decide whether you are annotating from a side table, recalculating tags, or filtering records.
2. If using external annotations, prepare a bgzipped tabix-indexed table and matching header descriptions up front.
3. Stream the VCF through vcf-annotate, then recompress the output if the result will be indexed or reused.
4. Check the output header and a few representative records before pushing the file downstream.

Guardrails

• This tool is stream-oriented: VCF input comes from stdin and output goes to stdout.
• Annotation files given with -a must be tabix-indexed and their column mapping in -c must match reality.
• -H/--hard-filter removes records failing FILTER, which is much more destructive than merely annotating them.
• --normalize-alleles can change REF/ALT representation; only use it when downstream expectations are clear.