I am shocked to learn that NCBI has no documentation on the SRA file format. An example of good transparency (the source code is available) but poor usability (a major barrier to building tools to work directly with SRA files).
github.com/ncbi/sra-tools…

Lior Pachter NCBI I am a data scientist with a major institution doing microbiome research, have noticed the same issue

I would love to replicate results but SRA/SRR etc. formats are incomprehensible.

Please PM me if you'd like someone to work on making it more accessible. Would make API w/ you!

genome_inquisitor Lior Pachter NCBI a sralite thing?