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The Carta Platform

Carta is composed of several interconnected components, each with a specific role. This page gives a component-by-component overview of the platform — what each piece does and when you'd interact with it.

For a walkthrough of how these components work together in a live workflow, see How Carta Works →.

Entry Points

Carta Portal

The Carta Portal is the single sign-on (SSO) entry point for all human users. It handles authentication — confirming your identity using your organization's credentials — before granting access to any Carta resource. If you use Carta through a web browser, you start at the Portal.

Admin Tools

Admin Tools is the web interface where users manage the resources they own within Carta. Any user can create and organize projects, manage groups, and grant access to their data and services based on the permissions they hold. Ownership and access control in Carta are designed so that every user has meaningful control over what they create — not just designated administrators.

Structured Data Capture

Collections

Collections is the primary interface for capturing structured research data. Researchers use Collections to fill out standardized forms that record experimental parameters, sample information, process steps, and results. Each form submission creates a traceable, structured record that preserves not just the data but the context of how and why it was created.

Form Builder

Form Builder is the tool for designing the forms that appear in Collections. Project administrators and domain experts use Form Builder to define what information gets captured, what fields are required, and how data is structured and validated. Form Builder creates the reusable schemas that define the forms users fill out in Collections.

FormsDB

FormsDB is Carta's out-of-the-box form storage layer. It persists form schemas and submissions, holding both the structure (schemas) and the content (form data) with parent-child relationships linking related records together. FormsDB is designed so that new customers can get started on day one without additional setup — but it is optional. Organizations with existing data backends can connect those to Carta instead. See Your Data →.

File Storage

CartaFS (Carta File System)

CartaFS is Carta's file reference registry. Rather than storing files directly, CartaFS maintains a catalog of pointers to files that live in your organization's own storage systems — such as an institutional file server or cloud storage. CartaFS brokers access to those files using temporary, permission-controlled URLs, so files are always accessed securely through Carta's authorization layer regardless of where the underlying storage lives.

This design means that if an organization changes its storage system, only CartaFS needs to be updated. Nothing downstream breaks because nothing downstream knows or cares where the file actually lives.

Automation and Integration

DEXR (Data Exchange Registry)

DEXR is the coordination layer that moves information between independent systems without requiring them to share infrastructure, credentials, or data formats. When Carta needs to deliver an artifact — such as a run-control file — to an external system, DEXR handles the handoff securely.

DEXR stores only encrypted references. The actual files remain in the sender's storage; DEXR hands the receiving system the key to retrieve them. This design allows a lab instrument, a partner institution's computing environment, or any other external actor to participate in a Carta workflow without being connected to Carta's infrastructure.

Workflow Manager

Workflow Manager is a visual editor for designing multi-step workflows that span data capture, structure, and process coordination. Users can fill out and submit forms, link records, and connect processes into directed sequences — defining how data flows and actions are ordered across complex experimental or operational pipelines. Workflow definitions can be reused across multiple runs.

Infrastructure and Security

Carta Gateway

The Carta Gateway is the network entry point for all Carta traffic. Every request — from a user's browser, a PyCarta script, or an automated system — passes through the Gateway, which authenticates the caller before forwarding the request to the appropriate service. The Gateway also serves as an isolation boundary between external clients and internal Carta services.

Carta Permissions

Carta Permissions is Carta's authorization engine. After the Gateway confirms who you are, Carta Permissions determines what you're allowed to do. It uses a graph-based model in which every user, group, service, and resource in Carta is a node, and access is determined by the relationships between those nodes.

The result: permissions travel with your data. If you are authorized to see a resource, you see it — whether you're a researcher clicking through Collections, a data scientist running a PyCarta script, or an authorized AI agent calling a service. If you're not authorized, access is blocked at the same layer regardless of how the request arrives.

Developer Tools

PyCarta

PyCarta is the official Python SDK for Carta. It provides a programmatic interface to all Carta services: authentication, data retrieval from FormsDB, file operations via CartaFS, service registration, and more. Data scientists and engineers use PyCarta to build analytical pipelines, automate data workflows, and integrate external systems with Carta.

Scaffold and Dispatchers

Scaffold is the standard boilerplate for building a Carta service. Scientists, researchers, and developers use Scaffold to wrap a Python function — a model, a data transformation, an analysis routine, or an automation handler — into a permission-gated service that is registered in Carta and callable by authorized users and systems.

A Dispatcher is a type of Carta service built with Scaffold. Dispatchers are commonly used as post-submit targets that trigger when a form is submitted — translating form content into an action such as generating a run-control file, routing data to a downstream system, or writing instructions to DEXR for an edge device to act on.

Service Manager

Service Manager handles the registration and lifecycle of services within Carta. Services built with Scaffold — including Dispatchers — are registered through Service Manager, making them discoverable and invocable by authorized users and systems.

How the Components Relate

Most user interactions follow this path:

  1. A user authenticates through Carta Portal and Carta Gateway
  2. Carta Permissions determines what they can access
  3. The user interacts with Collections to submit or retrieve structured data stored in FormsDB
  4. If the submission triggers automation, a Dispatcher runs — it may interact with CartaFS, DEXR, or an external system
  5. Files are stored and retrieved through CartaFS; cross-system handoffs happen through DEXR

Developers interact with the same underlying services via PyCarta. Multi-step workflows are designed in Workflow Manager and executed through the same platform infrastructure.