OpenTimsTDF
Read Bruker timsTOF data in Rust.
A pure-Rust parser for Bruker's TDF format - an SQLite metadata database
paired with a binary blob
(analysis.tdf_bin), used
by timsTOF Pro, Pro 2, HT, SCP, Ultra, and fleX instruments.
Reverse-engineered without the vendor SDK. Covers TDF schema versions
3.1 through 3.8.
Docs
Format spec, API reference, and quickstart.
Source
Apache-2.0 on GitHub.
What is TDF?
TDF is the acquisition format for Bruker's timsTOF instrument family.
Each acquisition bundle (.d/) contains
an analysis.tdf SQLite database with frame
metadata, calibration parameters, and schema, alongside an
analysis.tdf_bin binary file that holds
compressed peak frames. The vendor exposes access only through a closed shared library.
OpenTimsTDF reconstructs the full on-disk layout from first principles.
Coverage
Both compression codecs are supported: legacy LZF (codec 1) and zstd-with-transpose (codec 2). TOF-to-m/z and scan-to-1/K₀ calibration uses the open opentims linear models. Validated against a 15-bundle corpus spanning every timsTOF variant.