pyBLoCXS is a sophisticated Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) based algorithm designed to carry out Bayesian Low-Count X-ray Spectral (BLoCXS) analysis in the Sherpa environment. The code is a Python extension to Sherpa that explores parameter space at a suspected minimum using a predefined Sherpa model to high-energy X-ray spectral data. pyBLoCXS includes a flexible definition of priors and allows for variations in the calibration information. It can be used to compute posterior predictive p-values for the likelihood ratio test. The pyBLoCXS code has been tested with a number of simple single-component spectral models; it should be used with great care in more complex settings.

LIRA (Low-counts Image Reconstruction and Analysis) deconvolves any unknown sky components, provides a fully Poisson 'goodness-of-fit' for any best-fit model, and quantifies uncertainties on the existence and shape of unknown sky. It does this without resorting to χ2 or rebinning, which can lose high-resolution information. It is written in R and requires the FITSio package.