taxtastic requires Python 2.7. The simplest method of installing is using pip:

pip2 install taxtastic

If you don't have pip, try:

easy_install taxtastic

Either of these commands will install taxtastic along with required dependencies.

Taxtastic is software written in python used to build and maintain reference packages-- i.e. collections of reference trees, reference alignments, profiles, and associated taxonomic information.

• quickstart
• full documentation

A script named taxit provides a command line interface:

% ./taxit  --help

usage: taxit [-h] [-V] [-v] [-q]
             {help,add_nodes,add_to_taxtable,check,composition,count_taxids,create,findcompany,info,lonelynodes,merge,merge_taxtables,new_database,refpkg_intersection,reroot,rollback,rollforward,rp,strip,taxids,taxtable,update,update_taxids}
             ...

Creation, validation, and modification of reference packages for use with
`pplacer` and related software.

positional arguments:
  {help,add_nodes,add_to_taxtable,check,composition,count_taxids,create,findcompany,info,lonelynodes,merge,merge_taxtables,new_database,refpkg_intersection,reroot,rollback,rollforward,rp,strip,taxids,taxtable,update,update_taxids}
    help                Detailed help for actions using `help <action>`
    add_nodes           Add new nodes to a database
    add_to_taxtable     Add nodes to an existing taxtable csv
    check               Validate a reference package
    composition         Show taxonomic composition of a reference package
    count_taxids        Count tax_id appearances in a taxtable lineage
    create              Create a reference package
    findcompany         Find company for lonely nodes
    info                Show information about reference packages.
    lonelynodes         Extracts tax ids of all lonely nodes in a taxtable
    merge               Identify merged taxids and provide replacements
    merge_taxtables     Combine two or more taxtables
    new_database        Download NCBI taxonomy and create a database
    refpkg_intersection
                        Find the intersection of a taxtable and a refpkg's
                        taxonomy.
    reroot              Taxonomically reroots a reference package
    rollback            Undo an operation performed on a refpkg
    rollforward         Restore a change to a refpkg immediately after being
                        reverted
    rp                  Resolve path; get the path to a file in the reference
                        package
    strip               Remove rollback and rollforward information from a
                        refpkg
    taxids              Convert a list of taxonomic names into a list of
                        tax_ids
    taxtable            Create a tabular representation of taxonomic lineages
    update              Add or modify files or metadata in a refpkg
    update_taxids       Update obsolete tax_ids

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -V, --version         Print the version number and exit
  -v, --verbose         Increase verbosity of screen output (eg, -v is
                        verbose, -vv more so)
  -q, --quiet           Suppress output