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RxNorm Drug Classes

rxnorm_classes
Read-onlyIdempotent

Get therapeutic and pharmacologic classes for a drug.

Use this tool to:

  • Find the drug class (e.g., "Beta-blockers", "NSAIDs")

  • Identify therapeutic categories

  • Look up mechanism of action classifications

Returns class IDs, names, and classification sources.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
rxcuiYesRxCUI of the drug

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
rxcuiYes
classesYes
provenanceYesProvenance block: source, URL, data vintage, extraction instant, origin diagnostics, citation, license
attributionYesCanonical source URLs of this response (attribution list)

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
    • addedInput schema / properties / rxcui / anyOf
      Added value: +[
      +  {
      +    "pattern": "^\\d+$",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +    "minimum": 0,
      +    "type": "integer"
      +  }
      +]
    • removedInput schema / properties / rxcui / pattern
      Removed value: -"^\\d+$"
    • removedInput schema / properties / rxcui / type
      Removed value: -"string"
  5. 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"
      +]
  6. Changed1 schema field changed
    • addedInput schema / additionalProperties
      Added value: +false
  7. First observed

TDQS

A3.5/5.0
Behavior3/5

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

Annotations already declare readOnlyHint=true, idempotentHint=true, openWorldHint=true and destructiveHint=false, so the safety profile is fully covered without the description. The description adds only that results include classification sources, which is largely return-value information already carried by the output schema; no auth, rate-limit, or coverage caveats are given.

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-loaded purpose sentence followed by a short bulleted list; nothing is padded. The bullets largely restate the opening sentence's scope rather than adding new constraints, which is the only minor waste.

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?

A one-parameter, read-only lookup with full annotation coverage and an output schema; the description is sufficient for correct invocation. Only the sibling routing (which RxNorm/ATC class tool to pick) is left unaddressed.

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?

With a single parameter at 100% schema description coverage ('RxCUI of the drug', with a numeric pattern), the schema does the documentation work. The description adds no format hints or guidance about supplying a name versus an RxCUI, so it meets the baseline without exceeding it.

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 therapeutic and pharmacologic classes for a drug,' with concrete examples of the class types returned. It is clearly distinct from rxnorm_search/rxnorm_concept in kind, but it never explicitly contrasts itself with the other class-oriented siblings (atc_members, atc_classify, atc_lookup), so an agent must infer the boundary.

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 alternatives. There is no guidance on when to prefer atc_classify/atc_members or what to do if no classes are found, so usage is implied rather than directed.

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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