EU Trade Explorer

Get Specialisation

get_specialisation

Intra-EU revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) per member state -- a Balassa index benchmarked against the EU instead of the world. Runs -1 (under-specialised) to +1 (strongly specialised), value -based and intra-EU only. Treat with caution: intra-EU flows are distorted by the Rotterdam/Antwerp quasi-transit effect.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description
`year`	No	Year for the (cross-sectional) snapshot. Defaults to the latest full year with data.
`query`	Yes	The product/reporter/partner-set/period/frequency slice to query -- the same request body every tradedashboard.eu analytical endpoint takes. See its own field descriptions (product, reporter, partner_set, period_start, period_end, frequency, n_top, ...) for details; only `product` is required, everything else has a sensible default.
`compact`	No	If true, condense long numeric time series (more than ~6 points -- typically monthly/quarterly windows or wide multi-partner/multi-period breakdowns) into summary statistics (first, last, min, max, mean, pct_change) instead of returning every data point. Leave false for full-fidelity series (e.g. to actually plot a chart); set true when you just need the headline trend and want to save context.

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
No arguments

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Changed1 schema field changedSep 30, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / year / description

Previous value: -"Year for the snapshot. Defaults to the latest full year with data."New value: +"Year for the (cross-sectional) snapshot. Defaults to the latest full year with data."

Changed10 schema fields changedAug 5, 2026

removedInput schema / $defs

Removed value: -{
-  "DashboardQuery": {
-    "description": "Shared request body for every analytical endpoint.\n\nOne product (or a list of products to aggregate), one reporter (or group of\nreporters), a partner set, a period window and a frequency fully describe a\nslice of Eurostat Comext/PRODCOM data. Individual endpoints read extra,\nendpoint-specific options from the query string (e.g. ``entity_level``,\n``flow``, ``partner``) rather than from this body.",
-    "properties": {
-      "frequency": {
-        "default": "quarter",
-        "description": "Resampling frequency for the series: 'month', 'quarter' or 'year'.",
-        "title": "Frequency",
-        "type": "string"
-      },
-      "include_other": {
-        "default": true,
-        "description": "Bundle entities outside the top-N into a single 'Other' bucket.",
-        "title": "Include Other",
-        "type": "boolean"
-      },
-      "lang": {
-        "default": "en",
-        "description": "Language for translated labels in the response (en, de, fr, es, it, ro).",
-        "title": "Lang",
-        "type": "string"
-      },
-      "midpoint": {
-        "anyOf": [
-          {
-            "type": "string"
-          },
-          {
-            "type": "null"
-          }
-        ],
-        "default": null,
-        "description": "Split point 'YYYY-MM' for the Pattern Shifts tab: the window is cut in two here and the before/after change per entity is reported. Defaults to the middle of the period when omitted.",
-        "title": "Midpoint"
-      },
-      "n_top": {
-        "default": 7,
-        "description": "Number of top entities (by volume/value) to break out individually in charts.",
-        "title": "N Top",
-        "type": "integer"
-      },
-      "partner_set": {
-        "default": "non-EU countries",
-        "description": "Named partner preset, e.g. 'non-EU countries', 'EU countries', 'all countries', or a predefined partner group.",
-        "title": "Partner Set",
-        "type": "string"
-      },
-      "partners": {
-        "anyOf": [
-          {
-            "items": {
-              "type": "string"
-            },
-            "type": "array"
-          },
-          {
-            "type": "null"
-          }
-        ],
-        "default": null,
-        "description": "Explicit partner-country list that overrides 'partner_set' when present.",
-        "title": "Partners"
-      },
-      "period_end": {
-        "description": "Inclusive end of the analysis window, ISO month 'YYYY-MM'. Defaults to roughly three months ago — the latest period Eurostat typically has fully reported.",
-        "title": "Period End",
-        "type": "string"
-      },
-      "period_start": {
-        "default": "2015-01",
-        "description": "Inclusive start of the analysis window, ISO month 'YYYY-MM'.",
-        "title": "Period Start",
-        "type": "string"
-      },
-      "prodcom_code": {
-        "anyOf": [
-          {
-            "type": "string"
-          },
-          {
-            "type": "null"
-          }
-        ],
-        "default": null,
-        "description": "Specific PRODCOM dataset code to pin for the Net Import Reliance and Trade Intensity tabs, when a single CN code maps to several. Ignored elsewhere.",
-        "title": "Prodcom Code"
-      },
-      "product": {
-        "anyOf": [
-          {
-            "type": "string"
-          },
-          {
-            "items": {
-              "type": "string"
-            },
-            "type": "array"
-          }
-        ],
-        "description": "Combined Nomenclature customs code(s), 2–8 digits, or the literal 'TOTAL' meta-aggregate (all products combined). Pass a list to aggregate several codes: their volumes are summed and prices volume-weighted across every tab — except the Cross-section views, which keep each code separate.",
-        "examples": [
-          "3801",
-          [
-            "0901",
-            "0902"
-          ],
-          "TOTAL"
-        ],
-        "title": "Product"
-      },
-      "remove_outliers": {
-        "default": true,
-        "description": "Drop extreme unit-price outliers before computing weighted-average prices.",
-        "title": "Remove Outliers",
-        "type": "boolean"
-      },
-      "reporter": {
-        "default": "European Union",
-        "description": "Declaring entity: an EU member state, an EU candidate country, Northern Ireland ('XI'), or one of the three aggregate presets ('European Union', 'Euro area', 'EU candidate countries'), or a predefined reporter group name.",
-        "title": "Reporter",
-        "type": "string"
-      },
-      "reporter_members": {
-        "anyOf": [
-          {
-            "items": {
-              "type": "string"
-            },
-            "type": "array"
-          },
-          {
-            "type": "null"
-          }
-        ],
-        "default": null,
-        "description": "Explicit member countries for a custom reporter group. Each entry must be an EU member state, EU candidate country, or Northern Ireland. When more than one member is supplied the frame is aggregated into a synthetic group named after 'reporter'.",
-        "title": "Reporter Members"
-      }
-    },
-    "required": [
-      "product"
-    ],
-    "title": "DashboardQuery",
-    "type": "object"
-  }
-}

addedInput schema / additionalProperties
```
Added value: +false
```
removedInput schema / properties / compact / title
```
Removed value: -"Compact"
```
removedInput schema / properties / query / $ref
```
Removed value: -"#/$defs/DashboardQuery"
```

addedInput schema / properties / query / properties

Added value: +{
+  "frequency": {
+    "default": "quarter",
+    "description": "Resampling frequency for the series: 'month', 'quarter' or 'year'.",
+    "type": "string"
+  },
+  "include_other": {
+    "default": true,
+    "description": "Bundle entities outside the top-N into a single 'Other' bucket.",
+    "type": "boolean"
+  },
+  "lang": {
+    "default": "en",
+    "description": "Language for translated labels in the response (en, de, fr, es, it, ro).",
+    "type": "string"
+  },
+  "midpoint": {
+    "anyOf": [
+      {
+        "type": "string"
+      },
+      {
+        "type": "null"
+      }
+    ],
+    "default": null,
+    "description": "Split point 'YYYY-MM' for the Pattern Shifts tab: the window is cut in two here and the before/after change per entity is reported. Defaults to the middle of the period when omitted."
+  },
+  "n_top": {
+    "default": 7,
+    "description": "Number of top entities (by volume/value) to break out individually in charts.",
+    "type": "integer"
+  },
+  "partner_set": {
+    "default": "non-EU countries",
+    "description": "Named partner preset, e.g. 'non-EU countries', 'EU countries', 'all countries', or a predefined partner group.",
+    "type": "string"
+  },
+  "partners": {
+    "anyOf": [
+      {
+        "items": {
+          "type": "string"
+        },
+        "type": "array"
+      },
+      {
+        "type": "null"
+      }
+    ],
+    "default": null,
+    "description": "Explicit partner-country list that overrides 'partner_set' when present."
+  },
+  "period_end": {
+    "description": "Inclusive end of the analysis window, ISO month 'YYYY-MM'. Defaults to roughly three months ago — the latest period Eurostat typically has fully reported.",
+    "type": "string"
+  },
+  "period_start": {
+    "default": "2015-01",
+    "description": "Inclusive start of the analysis window, ISO month 'YYYY-MM'.",
+    "type": "string"
+  },
+  "prodcom_code": {
+    "anyOf": [
+      {
+        "type": "string"
+      },
+      {
+        "type": "null"
+      }
+    ],
+    "default": null,
+    "description": "Specific PRODCOM dataset code to pin for the Net Import Reliance and Trade Intensity tabs, when a single CN code maps to several. Ignored elsewhere."
+  },
+  "product": {
+    "anyOf": [
+      {
+        "type": "string"
+      },
+      {
+        "items": {
+          "type": "string"
+        },
+        "type": "array"
+      }
+    ],
+    "description": "Combined Nomenclature customs code(s), 2–8 digits, or the literal 'TOTAL' meta-aggregate (all products combined). Pass a list to aggregate several codes: their volumes are summed and prices volume-weighted across every tab — except the Cross-section views, which keep each code separate.",
+    "examples": [
+      "3801",
+      [
+        "0901",
+        "0902"
+      ],
+      "TOTAL"
+    ]
+  },
+  "remove_outliers": {
+    "default": true,
+    "description": "Drop extreme unit-price outliers before computing weighted-average prices.",
+    "type": "boolean"
+  },
+  "reporter": {
+    "default": "European Union",
+    "description": "Declaring entity: an EU member state, an EU candidate country, Northern Ireland ('XI'), or one of the three aggregate presets ('European Union', 'Euro area', 'EU candidate countries'), or a predefined reporter group name.",
+    "type": "string"
+  },
+  "reporter_members": {
+    "anyOf": [
+      {
+        "items": {
+          "type": "string"
+        },
+        "type": "array"
+      },
+      {
+        "type": "null"
+      }
+    ],
+    "default": null,
+    "description": "Explicit member countries for a custom reporter group. Each entry must be an EU member state, EU candidate country, or Northern Ireland. When more than one member is supplied the frame is aggregated into a synthetic group named after 'reporter'."
+  }
+}

addedInput schema / properties / query / required
```
Added value: +[
+  "product"
+]
```
addedInput schema / properties / query / type
```
Added value: +"object"
```
removedInput schema / properties / year / title
```
Removed value: -"Year"
```

removedInput schema / title

Removed value: -"get_specialisationArguments"

changedOutput schema / (root)

Previous value: -nullNew value: +{
+  "additionalProperties": true,
+  "type": "object"
+}

First observedJul 21, 2026

TDQS

A4/5.0

Behavior4/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

No annotations are provided, so the description carries the full burden. It discloses the value range (-1 to +1), that it is value-based, intra-EU only, and critically warns about the Rotterdam/Antwerp quasi-transit distortion—real behavioral context. It stops short of stating auth needs or rate limits, but for a read-only analytical endpoint the distortion caveat is the key disclosure.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness5/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

Three compact sentences: definition, value range, then the caution. Front-loaded with the core concept and waste-free. Every sentence earns its place.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness4/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

With an output schema present, the description needn't explain return values, and it covers the metric definition, scale, and a key interpretive caveat. It lacks explicit when-to-use-vs-alternatives guidance given many sibling analytical endpoints, leaving a small completeness gap.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema description coverage is 100%, so the schema already documents all three parameters (query, year, compact) thoroughly, including nested fields. The description adds no parameter-level syntax or format detail beyond what the schema provides. Baseline 3 is appropriate when the schema does the heavy lifting.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

States a precise verb+resource: intra-EU RSCA (Balassa index) per member state, benchmarked against the EU. Clearly distinguishes itself from siblings like get_concentration or get_export_propensity by naming the specific metric and its benchmark base, which no other sibling provides.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines3/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

The 'Treat with caution' note implies when the metric is reliable, but there is no explicit guidance on when to prefer this over alternative specialisation or benchmarking tools. No 'use X instead' routing to siblings, leaving the agent to infer.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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