The RAST (Rapid Annotations using Subsystems Technology) [23] service provides access to high-throughput, high-quality annotation of prokaryotic genomes, and routinely processes ,25-75 genomes a day, with peak throughputs that have exceeded 200 genomes per day. This service is accessible for individual genome submission via a graphical web interface, and the next generation SEED servers provide new access for programmatic batch submission of genomes via the RAST submission and retrieval server. This server supports programmatic submission of genomes to the RAST Server, retrieval of job status, and retrieval of the final set of annotations. These scripts and the underlying application programming interface (API) enable users to submit genomes to the RAST Server, test the status of submitted jobs, and retrieve the output (i.e., annotated genomes).