GRIT: Genomic Range Interval Toolkit

A high-performance genomic interval toolkit written in Rust. Drop-in replacement for bedtools with 3-15x faster performance.

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Why GRIT?

Feature	bedtools	GRIT
Speed	Baseline	3-15x faster
Memory (streaming)	N/A	O(k) constant
Large file support	Limited by RAM	Process 50GB+ on 4GB RAM

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Benchmarks

Tested on 10M × 5M intervals (full methodology):

Uniform Distribution

Command	bedtools	GRIT	Speedup	BT Memory	GRIT Memory	Reduction
window	32.18s	2.10s	15.3x	1.5 GB	11 MB	137x less
merge	3.68s	0.34s	10.8x	2.6 MB	2.8 MB	~same
coverage	16.53s	1.84s	9.0x	1.4 GB	11 MB	134x less
subtract	9.49s	1.47s	6.5x	208 MB	11 MB	19x less
closest	9.70s	1.95s	5.0x	670 MB	11 MB	59x less
intersect	6.77s	1.54s	4.4x	208 MB	11 MB	19x less
jaccard	4.98s	1.59s	3.1x	3.4 GB	2.8 MB	1230x less

Clustered Distribution (Real-world hotspots)

Command	bedtools	GRIT	Speedup	BT Memory	GRIT Memory
window	28.80s	1.97s	14.6x	1.4 GB	12 MB
subtract	14.72s	1.22s	12.1x	1.3 GB	11 MB
coverage	14.59s	1.50s	9.7x	1.4 GB	11 MB
merge	2.17s	0.31s	7.0x	55 MB	2.8 MB
closest	9.51s	1.80s	5.3x	583 MB	12 MB
intersect	6.27s	1.44s	4.4x	207 MB	11 MB
jaccard	4.51s	1.95s	2.3x	3.4 GB	3.4 MB

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Installation

Bioconda (Recommended for Python users)

conda install -c bioconda grit-genomics

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install manish59/grit/grit

Cargo (Rust users)

cargo install grit-genomics

Pre-built Binaries

Download from GitHub Releases for Linux (x86_64, ARM64) and macOS (x86_64, ARM64).

From Source

git clone https://github.com/manish59/grit && cd grit && cargo install --path .

Verify: grit --version

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Quick Start

# Find overlapping intervals
grit intersect -a regions.bed -b features.bed > overlaps.bed

# Merge overlapping intervals
grit merge -i intervals.bed > merged.bed

# Sort a BED file
grit sort -i unsorted.bed > sorted.bed

# Streaming mode for large files (minimal memory)
grit intersect -a large_a.bed -b large_b.bed --streaming --assume-sorted > result.bed

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Documentation

Full documentation: https://manish59.github.io/grit/

• Command Reference - All commands with examples
• Migration from bedtools - Drop-in replacement guide
• Benchmarks - Performance methodology
• Input Validation - Sort order & genome validation

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Commands

Command	Description
intersect	Find overlapping intervals
subtract	Remove overlapping regions
merge	Combine overlapping intervals
sort	Sort BED files
closest	Find nearest intervals
window	Find intervals within a window
coverage	Calculate interval coverage
slop	Extend intervals
complement	Find gaps between intervals
genomecov	Genome-wide coverage
jaccard	Similarity coefficient
multiinter	Multi-file intersection
generate	Generate synthetic datasets

Run grit <command> --help for usage details.

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Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/new-feature)
3. Commit changes (git commit -m 'feat: add new feature')
4. Push to branch (git push origin feature/new-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

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Acknowledgments

• bedtools by Aaron Quinlan - the inspiration for this project