histolab WSI Tile Extraction Assistant
A guided skill for using histolab to detect tissue, extract tiles, and normalize stains from whole slide pathology images.
Data & AnalyticsIntermediate★ 33,030⑂ 3,248AI score 8/10Last updated: Aug 9, 2026
What it does
- Walks through opening gigapixel WSIs (.svs and friends) with histolab and inspecting properties, pyramid levels, and thumbnails.
- Detects tissue with
TissueMask/BiggestTissueBoxMaskand picks the right tiler (RandomTiler,GridTiler,ScoreTiler) for the goal. - Covers deep-learning dataset prep: Macenko/Reinhard stain normalization, filter chains,
locate_tiles()previews, and CSV tile reports. - Includes troubleshooting for no tiles extracted, too many background tiles, slow extraction, and artifact-laden tiles.
Who it's for
- Medical-AI researchers and students building datasets from H&E slides.
- Data engineers setting up a pathology image preprocessing pipeline for the first time.
- Anyone needing quick slide QC or tissue-coverage statistics.
Example uses
- "Extract 100 random 512×512 tiles from slide.svs with a fixed seed" → produces RandomTiler config plus a preview step.
- "Cover the whole tissue with a grid at level 1 and write a CSV report" → GridTiler + reporting workflow.
- "Stain color varies across slides and hurts my model" → guidance on Macenko normalization and tuning tissue_percent for reproducibility.
· · · Install guide · · ·
Try it now, no install
Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.
Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/HEAD/skills/histolab/SKILL.md What I want: (describe your task here)
If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.
↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.
Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
- Download the ZIP with the button below.
- In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
- Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
Install in Claude Code
Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code
Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart. Copy the skills/histolab folder from the GitHub repo K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/histolab/. When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.
Install with a command instead
git clone https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r scientific-agent-skills/skills/histolab ~/.claude/skills/⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.
- Install the OpenSlide system libraries first (macOS:
brew install openslide; Ubuntu:sudo apt install openslide-tools). histolab 0.7.0 does not support Windows. - In a Python 3.8–3.11 environment run
pip install histolab(oruv pip install histolab); addpip install poochfor the built-in TCGA sample slides. - Clone the repo:
git clone https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills.git. - Create the skills folder:
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills. - Copy the whole skill folder including references/:
cp -r scientific-agent-skills/skills/histolab ~/.claude/skills/. - Restart Claude Code and try a prompt like "use histolab to extract tiles from this WSI".
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT