The Protein Data Bank (PDB), managed by the Worldwide PDB organization, is the single global archive of three-dimensional macromolecular structures of biological importance determined using crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance and three-dimensional electron microscopy methods. It provides a key information resource for the structural biology community. A software framework has been developed that supports automation and scalability, and that meets current requirements for findability, accessibility, interoperability and re-usability of scientific data. The PDBx/mmCIF data dictionary and accompanying extension dictionaries specific to different experimental methods and applications provide the necessary ontology that forms the basis for software development. Associated software tools exchange and validate data, create and load databases, translate data formats, and serve application program interfaces. They are made available to the scientific community through an open-source licence.