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MeSH Descriptor Details

mesh_descriptor
Read-onlyIdempotent

Get detailed information about a MeSH descriptor by ID.

Use this tool to:

  • Get the full definition (scope note) of a MeSH term

  • View tree numbers showing hierarchy location

  • See related concepts and synonyms

Provide a MeSH Descriptor ID like "D015242" (Ofloxacin). Set language to request NLM's official translations where they exist (e.g. language: "pt").

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
mesh_idYesMeSH Descriptor ID (e.g., D015242, D003920)
languageNoLanguage code (default: en). Returns the source's OFFICIAL translation when it exists (e.g. 'pt' for official Portuguese); content is never machine-translated.en

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
idYes
uriYes
labelYes
conceptsYes
provenanceYesProvenance block: source, URL, data vintage, extraction instant, origin diagnostics, citation, license
qualifiersYes
scope_noteYes
attributionYesCanonical source URLs of this response (attribution list)
tree_numbersYes

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

  1. Changed1 schema field changed
    • changedOutput schema / properties / provenance / properties / notices / description
      Previous value: -"Notices the source publishes alongside the data (license statements, caveats), verbatim. Absent when there is none"New value: +"Caveats the source publishes about the data, verbatim (license statements are not repeated here; see the info://licenses resource). Absent when there is none"
  2. Changed7 schema fields changed
    • changedOutput schema / properties / provenance / description
      Previous value: -"Provenance block (contract v1.1): source, URL, data vintage, extraction instant, origin diagnostics, citation, license"New value: +"Provenance block: source, URL, data vintage, extraction instant, origin diagnostics, citation, license"
    • addedOutput schema / properties / provenance / properties / derivation_note
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "What this server computed; present together with derived",
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
    • addedOutput schema / properties / provenance / properties / derived
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Present (true) only when this server computed the value (e.g. a ranking or summary statistics) instead of passing on what the source returned",
      +  "type": "boolean"
      +}
    • changedOutput schema / properties / provenance / properties / field_sources / description
      Previous value: -"Present only when the response joins parts from different origins or extraction instants (contract v1.2): for each group of fields, its URL, extraction instant and whether it came from cache. Absent in single-origin responses"New value: +"Present only when the response joins parts from different origins or extraction instants: for each group of fields, its URL, extraction instant and whether it came from cache. Absent in single-origin responses"
    • addedOutput schema / properties / provenance / properties / notices
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Notices the source publishes alongside the data (license statements, caveats), verbatim. Absent when there is none",
      +  "items": {
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "minItems": 1,
      +  "type": "array"
      +}
    • changedOutput schema / properties / provenance / properties / retrieval / description
      Previous value: -"Origin diagnostics of THIS source in this call (contract v1.1): requests made to the upstream, attempts summed across retries, anomalies worked around (kind + count); unstable=true when any anomaly happened. null when nothing was measured (bundled dataset, or response served entirely from cache)"New value: +"Origin diagnostics of THIS source in this call: requests made to the upstream, attempts summed across retries, anomalies worked around (kind + count); unstable=true when any anomaly happened. null when nothing was measured (bundled dataset, or response served entirely from cache)"
    • addedOutput schema / properties / provenance / properties / revision
      Added value: +{
      +  "additionalProperties": false,
      +  "description": "Whether the data can still change at the source: current = the version in force, the source may revise it; provisional = preliminary; final = will not change. Absent when unknown",
      +  "properties": {
      +    "note": {
      +      "description": "O específico da fonte: o que revisa, quando, por quê",
      +      "type": [
      +        "string",
      +        "null"
      +      ]
      +    },
      +    "status": {
      +      "description": "current = versão vigente, a fonte pode revisá-la; provisional = preliminar, incompleta ou sujeita a mudança (não compare como se fosse fechada); final = não muda mais, declarado pela fonte",
      +      "enum": [
      +        "current",
      +        "provisional",
      +        "final"
      +      ],
      +      "type": "string"
      +    }
      +  },
      +  "required": [
      +    "status",
      +    "note"
      +  ],
      +  "type": "object"
      +}
  3. Changed1 schema field changed
    • addedOutput schema / properties / provenance / properties / field_sources
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Present only when the response joins parts from different origins or extraction instants (contract v1.2): for each group of fields, its URL, extraction instant and whether it came from cache. Absent in single-origin responses",
      +  "items": {
      +    "additionalProperties": false,
      +    "description": "Proveniência de um grupo de campos da resposta: de onde veio e quando foi extraído",
      +    "properties": {
      +      "data_vintage": {
      +        "description": "Vintage/competência da sub-fonte",
      +        "type": [
      +          "string",
      +          "null"
      +        ]
      +      },
      +      "dataset_id": {
      +        "description": "Identificador do conjunto da sub-fonte",
      +        "type": [
      +          "string",
      +          "null"
      +        ]
      +      },
      +      "fields": {
      +        "description": "Campos do payload atribuídos a esta sub-fonte",
      +        "items": {
      +          "type": "string"
      +        },
      +        "minItems": 1,
      +        "type": "array"
      +      },
      +      "retrieved_at": {
      +        "description": "ISO-8601 da extração desta sub-fonte na origem",
      +        "type": [
      +          "string",
      +          "null"
      +        ]
      +      },
      +      "served_from_cache": {
      +        "description": "true se esta sub-fonte veio do cache do servidor (retrieved_at é o da extração original); false se foi buscada nesta chamada; null se o servidor não distingue",
      +        "type": [
      +          "boolean",
      +          "null"
      +        ]
      +      },
      +      "source_url": {
      +        "description": "URL canônica da sub-fonte que originou estes campos",
      +        "type": "string"
      +      }
      +    },
      +    "required": [
      +      "fields",
      +      "source_url",
      +      "dataset_id",
      +      "data_vintage",
      +      "retrieved_at"
      +    ],
      +    "type": "object"
      +  },
      +  "minItems": 1,
      +  "type": "array"
      +}
  4. Changed3 schema fields changed
    • changedOutput schema / properties / provenance / description
      Previous value: -"Provenance block (contract v1.0): source, URL, data vintage, extraction instant, citation, license"New value: +"Provenance block (contract v1.1): source, URL, data vintage, extraction instant, origin diagnostics, citation, license"
    • addedOutput schema / properties / provenance / properties / retrieval
      Added value: +{
      +  "anyOf": [
      +    {
      +      "additionalProperties": false,
      +      "properties": {
      +        "anomalies": {
      +          "description": "Anomalias superadas até o sucesso, somadas por classe, em ordem fixa; [] se nenhuma",
      +          "items": {
      +            "additionalProperties": false,
      +            "properties": {
      +              "count": {
      +                "description": "Ocorrências desta classe na chamada",
      +                "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +                "minimum": 1,
      +                "type": "integer"
      +              },
      +              "kind": {
      +                "description": "Classe da anomalia (vocabulário fechado do contrato)",
      +                "enum": [
      +                  "timeout",
      +                  "network",
      +                  "http_4xx",
      +                  "http_5xx",
      +                  "rate_limited",
      +                  "malformed_body"
      +                ],
      +                "type": "string"
      +              }
      +            },
      +            "required": [
      +              "kind",
      +              "count"
      +            ],
      +            "type": "object"
      +          },
      +          "type": "array"
      +        },
      +        "attempts": {
      +          "description": "Tentativas somadas, incluindo as repetidas (>= requests)",
      +          "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +          "minimum": 1,
      +          "type": "integer"
      +        },
      +        "requests": {
      +          "description": "Idas distintas à origem que compõem esta resposta (fatias, páginas)",
      +          "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +          "minimum": 1,
      +          "type": "integer"
      +        },
      +        "unstable": {
      +          "description": "true se houve repetição (attempts > requests) ou alguma anomalia",
      +          "type": "boolean"
      +        }
      +      },
      +      "required": [
      +        "requests",
      +        "attempts",
      +        "anomalies",
      +        "unstable"
      +      ],
      +      "type": "object"
      +    },
      +    {
      +      "type": "null"
      +    }
      +  ],
      +  "description": "Origin diagnostics of THIS source in this call (contract v1.1): requests made to the upstream, attempts summed across retries, anomalies worked around (kind + count); unstable=true when any anomaly happened. null when nothing was measured (bundled dataset, or response served entirely from cache)"
      +}
    • changedOutput schema / properties / provenance / required
      Previous value: -[
      -  "source",
      -  "source_url",
      -  "data_vintage",
      -  "retrieved_at",
      -  "citation",
      -  "license"
      -]New value: +[
      +  "source",
      +  "source_url",
      +  "data_vintage",
      +  "retrieved_at",
      +  "retrieval",
      +  "citation",
      +  "license"
      +]
  5. Changed1 schema field changed
    • addedInput schema / additionalProperties
      Added value: +false
  6. First observed

TDQS

A3.7/5.0
Behavior4/5

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

Annotations already declare readOnly, idempotent, non-destructive and openWorld, so the safety profile is covered. The description adds a meaningful behavioral nuance: translations are the source's OFFICIAL translation only and never machine-translated, which an agent cannot infer from annotations.

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

Conciseness4/5

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

Front-loads the one-line purpose, then scopes usage with bullets, then gives the ID example — a clean top-down structure. Slight redundancy between the 'Provide a MeSH Descriptor ID' line and the schema, but nothing is wasted.

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, return values need not be explained, and annotations cover safety; the description adds the translation caveat and ID format. The only real gap is routing guidance relative to mesh_search for obtaining the ID.

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 coverage is 100%: mesh_id already documents its pattern and examples, and language already documents the enum, default, and official-translation behavior. The description's examples (D015242, language: 'pt') merely restate the schema, so baseline 3 applies.

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

Purpose4/5

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

States a specific verb and resource ('Get detailed information about a MeSH descriptor by ID') and enumerates the concrete payload (scope note, tree numbers, synonyms). The 'by ID' framing implicitly separates it from mesh_search and mesh_tree, but no sibling is named explicitly.

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 'Use this tool to:' bullets describe what the tool returns rather than when to choose it over mesh_search (to find the ID) or mesh_tree (hierarchy browsing). Usage is implied by output content but no condition or alternative is stated.

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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