Track Catalog

This page summarizes the major track families, when to reach for them, and where to find runnable examples.

Structural tracks

• scalebar (ScaleBar): genomic distance bar.
• axis (GenomicAxis): coordinate ticks and labels.
• spacer (Spacer): layout spacing.

Signal tracks

• bigwig (BigWigTrack): continuous/interval signal (style: fill, fragment, scatter, std).
• overlay (OverlayTrack): multi-signal overlay panel with one shared y-axis derived from all component values.
• bigwig_overlay (BigwigOverlay): compatibility alias for overlay.
• bigwig_collection (BigWigCollection): multi-BigWig collection workflows.
• bigwig_diff (BigWigDiff): subtraction/ratio/log2ratio between two tracks.

Use overlay when the signals should be compared directly on one axis. Put autoscale_group on the overlay itself when it should match neighboring signal tracks, and use explicit min_value / max_value only when you want to pin that bound.

Scripts:

• examples/tracks/01_bigwig_styles.py
• examples/tracks/04_bigwig_collection_and_diff.py
• examples/recipes/01_autoscale_overlay_highlight.py

Interval and annotation tracks

• bed (BedTrack): interval rectangles with optional labels.
• narrowpeak (NarrowPeakTrack): peak intervals with summit/score support.
• genes (Genes): gene models from bundled or custom annotations.
• links (LinksTrack): arcs for BEDPE-style interactions.
• highlight (HighlightsFromFile): region overlays.
• hline / vline: reference lines.

Scripts:

• examples/tracks/02_bed_and_narrowpeak.py
• examples/tracks/03_links_annotations.py

Matrix tracks

• cooler (CoolerTrack)
• capcruncher (CapcruncherTrack)
• cooler_average (CoolerAverage)

These require cooler-compatible files.

Scripts:

• examples/tracks/05_matrix_tracks.py

QuantNado tracks

• quantnado_coverage
• quantnado_stranded_coverage
• quantnado_methylation
• quantnado_variant

These support object-backed and array-backed workflows.

Scripts:

• examples/tracks/06_quantnado_tracks.py

Field-level options

• Runtime introspection: GenomicFigure.track_options("<alias>")
• Full generated table: Aesthetics Reference
• Script mapping by track: Example Coverage

Coverage snapshot

Track / alias	Coverage	Primary example(s)
scalebar, axis, genes	Runnable script	examples/quickstart/01_first_plot.py, examples/recipes/03_gene_label_strategies.py
bigwig	Runnable script	examples/tracks/01_bigwig_styles.py, examples/basic_figure.py
bed, narrowpeak	Runnable script	examples/tracks/02_bed_and_narrowpeak.py
links, hline, vline	Runnable script	examples/tracks/03_links_annotations.py
highlight, overlay	Runnable script	examples/recipes/01_autoscale_overlay_highlight.py
bigwig_collection, bigwig_diff	Runnable script (remote Blueprint crop staged in a temp dir)	examples/tracks/04_bigwig_collection_and_diff.py
cooler, capcruncher, cooler_average	Runnable script	examples/tracks/05_matrix_tracks.py
QuantNado aliases	Runnable script	examples/tracks/06_quantnado_tracks.py