The raw output data generated by the Xenium Onboard Analysis pipeline consists of decoded transcript counts and morphology images (also see Archiving Xenium data). These data reduce low-level internal image sensor data, preserving details needed to assess decoded transcript quality (learn more at Overview of Xenium Algorithms).
Output bundle files
Raw output and other standard output files derived from them are included in the Xenium output directory for each selected region. These files are listed below and described in more detail on the Understanding Xenium Outputs page.
The following files are provided in the output directory. See the release notes for descriptions of output file changes in each software version.
| File type | File and description | Read by Xenium Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Experiment file | experiment.xenium: Experiment manifest file. | Required |
| Interactive summary | analysis_summary.html: Summary metrics, graphs, and images to QC your run data in HTML format. | |
| Image files | morphology.ome.tif: The 3D nuclei-stained (DAPI) morphology image in OME-TIFF format. | |
morphology_focus/: A directory containing the multi-focus projection of morphology image(s) in a multi-file OME-TIFF format (2D). The directory will contain the nuclei DAPI stain image, as well as three additional stain images for Xenium outputs generated with the multimodal cell segmentation assay workflow. | ||
| Cell summary | cells.csv.gz: Cell summary file. | |
cells.parquet: Cell summary file in Parquet format. | ||
| Cell segmentation masks and polygons | cells.zarr.zip: Cell summary file in zipped Zarr format, only file that contains the nucleus and cell segmentation masks and boundaries used for transcript assignment. | |
| Cell boundary polygons | cell_boundaries.csv.gz: Cell boundary file. | |
cell_boundaries.parquet: Cell boundary file in Parquet format. | ||
| Nucleus boundary polygons | nucleus_boundaries.csv.gz: Nucleus boundary file. | |
nucleus_boundaries.parquet: Nucleus boundary file in Parquet format. | ||
| Transcript data | transcripts.parquet: Transcripts data in Parquet format. | |
transcripts.zarr.zip: Transcript data in zipped Zarr format. | ||
| Cell-feature matrix | cell_feature_matrix/: Directory of the cell-feature matrix files in Market Exchange format. | |
cell_feature_matrix.h5: Cell-feature matrix file in HDF5 format. | ||
cell_feature_matrix.zarr.zip: Cell-feature matrix file in zipped Zarr format. | ||
| Metric summary | metrics_summary.csv: Summary of key metrics. | |
| Secondary analysis | analysis/: Directory of secondary analysis results. | |
analysis.zarr.zip: Secondary analysis outputs in zipped Zarr format. | ||
| Gene panel | gene_panel.json: Copy of input gene panel file. | |
Auxiliary data (aux_outputs/) | morphology_fov_locations.json: Field of view (FOV) name and position information (in microns).overview_scan_fov_locations.json: FOV name and position information (in pixels).per_cycle_channel_images/: Directory of downsampled RNA image files in TIFF format from each cycle and channel.overview_scan.png: Full resolution image of entire slide sample.background_qc_images/: Directory of autofluorescence images (downsampled, TIFF format) that are subtracted from the raw stain images to produce the morphology_focus/ images if Cell Segmentation Staining protocol used. |