genmol-nim

Generate novel drug-like molecules using the GenMol NIM microservice. Use for de novo generation, scaffold decoration, motif extension, lead optimization, SAFE notation, QED or LogP ranking, hosted NVIDIA API calls, or local Docker deployment. GenMol takes SAFE notation in the smiles field, not ordinary SMILES.

GenMol NIM

Generate drug-like molecules with GenMol. Use this guide for first-pass hosted and local usage; load supplemental files only when needed:

• references/api.md: endpoints, schema, Docker flags, response fields.
• references/science.md: use cases, strengths, limits, and handoffs.
• references/parameters.md: SAFE patterns and tuning effects.
• references/validation.md: chemical and artifact checks.
• references/examples.md: compact request patterns.

Choose Mode

Ask only when context is unclear:

Hosted NVIDIA API or local Docker NIM?

• Hosted: https://health.api.nvidia.com/v1/biology/nvidia/genmol/generate
• Local: http://localhost:8000/generate

Hosted requests use Authorization: Bearer $NGC_API_KEY. For local Docker, authenticate image pulls with docker login nvcr.io using NGC_API_KEY (or NVIDIA_API_KEY via the preflight). Pass -e NGC_API_KEY into the container for entitlement checks and first-run model downloads. Local inference requests use no auth header after readiness, so bind the published port to loopback with -p 127.0.0.1:8000:8000. Warm-cache key-free startup varies by image version and should not be assumed.

Local Docker

Use credentials already supplied in the shell environment or injected by a secret manager. Do not load credential files, print keys, or enable shell tracing. For local setup answers, include this sequence: env preflight, docker login with --password-stdin, docker run, readiness loop, then a no-auth localhost request. Do not invent a cache default or drop the NVIDIA_API_KEY fallback.

Before executing local setup, explain that registry authentication sends the key to the NVIDIA registry at https://nvcr.io and first-run model downloads use about 20 GB in LOCAL_NIM_CACHE. Execute deployment only when the user requests it; for a setup guide, provide the commands without running them.

For the exact startup preflight (environment checks, NVIDIA_API_KEY fallback, --shm-size=2G, both --ulimit flags, docker login, and the docker run for nvcr.io/nim/nvidia/genmol:1.0.1), copy the command block in references/api.md under Local container startup verbatim.

GenMol is single-GPU; NIM_TEST_GPU defaults to 0. Wait for readiness:

until curl -sf http://localhost:8000/v1/health/ready; do sleep 5; done

SAFE Input

The API field is named smiles, but GenMol expects SAFE notation. Masked positions use [*{min-max}].

• De novo: safe_input = "[*{20-30}]"
• Scaffold decoration: safe_input = scaffold_to_safe("C1CC(=O)NC1", 10, 15)
• Motif extension: safe_input = f"[*{{5-10}}].{motif_safe}.[*{{5-10}}]"
• Lead optimization: encode the hit, then replace a fragment with .[*{5-12}]

Use safe-mol for conditioned generation. Simple ring scaffolds may raise SAFEFragmentationError; fall back to the original SMILES plus a SAFE mask.

See the scaffold_to_safe helper in references/examples.md under Scaffold Decoration.

Wider masks increase diversity; tight masks keep analog size more predictable.

Request Pattern

import os
import requests

HOSTED = True
url = (
    "https://health.api.nvidia.com/v1/biology/nvidia/genmol/generate"
    if HOSTED else "http://localhost:8000/generate"
)
headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json"}
if HOSTED:
    headers["Authorization"] = f"Bearer {os.getenv('NGC_API_KEY')}"

payload = {
    "smiles": "[*{20-30}]",  # SAFE notation
    "num_molecules": 30,
    "temperature": "1",      # string, not float
    "noise": "1",            # string, not float
    "step_size": 1,
    "scoring": "QED",        # or "LogP"
    "unique": False,
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=payload, timeout=180)
response.raise_for_status()
result = response.json()

Gotchas:

• temperature and noise are strings.
• num_molecules is 1-1000; invalid/duplicate molecules may be filtered, so request extra when the user needs a minimum count.
• scoring is "QED" for drug-likeness or "LogP" for lipophilicity.
• Set unique=True for deduplicated analog lists.

Save And Report Output

Sort molecules by score, print the top ranks, and write a .smi file as shown in references/examples.md under Save Ranked Results. For chemical validity, uniqueness, PAINS/alerts, and visualization with RDKit, read references/validation.md.

Limits And Troubleshooting

• Fewer molecules than requested is expected after filtering.
• Invalid SAFE strings cause status: "failed" or validation errors.
• Install safe-mol only for scaffold, motif, or lead-optimization workflows; de novo masks work without conversion.
• Local startup downloads about 20 GB into LOCAL_NIM_CACHE.
• Container issues: confirm nvidia-smi, NVIDIA Container Toolkit, and --runtime=nvidia; use NIM_TEST_GPU to choose the single visible GPU.