DNA Engine
A 100% offline, bring-your-own-DNA genomics workbench for macOS.
DNA Engine is a native SwiftUI application that reads your consumer raw-DNA export or VCF entirely on your own Mac and turns it into a curated, citation-backed research readout: a 403-marker interpretation catalog across ~15 biological domains, local ancestry against a bundled 2,621-marker reference panel, a conservative pharmacogenomics surface, polygenic-tendency panels, runs-of-homozygosity, genome quality control, and a two-file raw-concordance comparison — with an encrypted local workspace and a hard, explicit refusal to overclaim.
There is no cloud, no account, no telemetry, no analytics, no updater, and no network code. Your genome never leaves your machine.
⚠️ Research and educational use only. DNA Engine is not a medical device, a diagnostic assay, a clinical pharmacogenomics test, an ancestry-identity/nationality service, or a validated relationship/kinship test. It does not diagnose, treat, prescribe, or recommend a diet, supplement, medication, dose, training plan, or clinical action. Discuss anything health-related with a licensed clinician. See The Science Contract.
Table of contents
Download
Get the latest release for macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later — a .dmg plus a .sha256 checksum. Open the disk image and drag DNA Engine to Applications.
The download is the same offline workbench as a source build: no cloud, no account, no telemetry, no updater, and no network code. Your genome never leaves your Mac.
Verify the image if you want:
shasum -a 256 -c DNA-Engine-<version>.dmg.sha256
First launch
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Signed and notarized releases (when the maintainer has configured Apple signing) should open with a normal double-click after install.
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Unsigned releases — or any build Gatekeeper still quarantines — need an explicit open: right-click DNA Engine.app → Open. If you trust the file you downloaded:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/DNA Engine.app"
Prefer to compile it yourself? See Build from source.
Getting your raw DNA file
You need the raw genotype export (a text/CSV/TSV file, often inside a zip), not a PDF ancestry report or a screenshot. DNA Engine reads that file entirely on your Mac — it does not upload it. Vendor menus move; if a label has changed, use that company's current "download raw DNA / raw data" help page.
AncestryDNA — Sign in, open DNA Settings for the test you own or manage, and choose Download DNA data. Confirm the warning and verify your account (password or email code). Ancestry emails a one-time link (often within a few hours, up to 24 hours; the link typically expires after about a week). The download is a .zip containing a .txt file.
23andMe — Sign in and open raw data from Resources → Browse Raw Genotyping Data → Download, from you.23andme.com/tools/data/, or from Account Settings → 23andMe Data. Request the raw genotyping download and confirm the profile date of birth. 23andMe emails when the file is ready (often about a week). The .zip name usually starts with genome.
MyHeritage — On a computer, DNA → Manage DNA kits → ⋯ → Download kit, and choose the standard DNA data file (not a CRAM/WGS dump). Only the kit manager can download, and only after results are published. Kits that were uploaded to MyHeritage from another company must be downloaded from the original provider. MyHeritage emails a link (typically valid about 24 hours); open it, re-enter your password, and save the file.
You can import the zip or the extracted text, and also VCF or gzip. After import, read Genome Quality Control and the receipt before treating any interpretation as meaningful.
Official help (vendor pages, not DNA Engine): Ancestry · 23andMe · MyHeritage
Who it's for
- Curious individuals who already downloaded their raw data from a consumer testing service and want to explore it privately, offline, without re-uploading it to a third party.
- Students and educators in human genetics who want a hands-on, honestly-bounded tool that shows both what a SNP array can suggest and — just as importantly — what it cannot.
- Tinkerers and contributors who want a well-documented, dependency-light Swift + Python codebase to extend with new markers, panels, or reference data.
DNA Engine is deliberately conservative. If you're looking for a tool that will tell you your "nationality", your metabolizer phenotype, or a supplement to buy, this isn't it — and the Science Contract explains why.
Screenshots
Screenshots live in qa-2.0/. All screenshots depict the built-in synthetic demo persona — not a real person.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
