Octopus
Octopus is a wet lab operating system.
Core trick
Turns a written protocol into a voice-guided run, logs notes, photos, and deviations, and generates a report where each claim cites its source.
Description
Octopus is a wet lab operating system. It turns a written protocol into a live, voice-guided run and an auditable report, so the experiment record is created while the work happens, not reconstructed afterward.
It’s built for the wet-lab researcher at the bench, where hands are busy and fidelity leaks between what a protocol says, what was actually done, and what was observed.
Everything lives in one app. Deterministic, tested code owns every number, the model never computes a volume, it reads and explains it. A voice copilot guides the run hands-free, and every result cites its source, all flowing into a lab memory you can search.
With Octopus you can generate and scale a protocol, run it by voice while capturing notes, photos, measurements and deviations, get a fully sourced Planned / Performed / Observed / Interpreted report, and then ask your whole lab questions in plain language.
README excerpt
# 🐙 Octopus — wet lab operating system **Protocol → voice-guided bench run → auditable report → ask your lab.** Octopus turns a written protocol into an executable run, guides the bench **by voice**, captures every piece of evidence (notes, photos, measurements, deviations), and reconstructs a **planned / actually done / observed / interpreted** report where every claim cites its source — then feeds it all into a semantic **lab memory** you can query in plain language. Built for the hackathon **Built with Claude: Life Sciences** (Builder Track). Open source (MIT), built from scratch around a few deliberate seams (injected `db`, fail-closed feature flags, a single LLM layer) so the core stays portable and testable in isolation. ## Quickstart ```bash npm install cp .env.example .env.local # ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is optional, see below npm run seed # demo dataset: 2 protocols, 3 runs, 1 report npm run dev # http://localhost:3000 ``` `/` is the whole app: a desktop shell with a navigable galaxy backdrop, a floating toolbar (**Bench / Files / New protocol / Settings**) and an **Ask your lab** dock at the bottom. Every surface — protocol library, a protocol, a run, a report, files, chat — opens as a draggable/resizable window (float or fullscreen, tabs when several are open), not a route. Voice copilot (real-time, interruptible) — optional but the fun part: ```bash brew install livekit # once — local LiveKit server npm run voic