openPMD is an open metadata format for open data workflows in open science. This library provides a common high-level API for openPMD writing and reading. It provides a common interface to I/O libraries and file formats such as HDF5 and ADIOS. Where supported, openPMD-api implements both serial and MPI parallel I/O capabilities.

Supported by the Exascale Computing Project (17-SC-20-SC), a collaborative effort of two U.S. Department of Energy organizations (Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration). Supported by the Consortium for Advanced Modeling of Particles Accelerators (CAMPA), funded by the U.S. DOE Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. This work was partially funded by the Center of Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), which is financed by Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the Saxon Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (SMWK) with tax funds on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament.