Islam West Africa Collection (IWAC)

Search publications

search_publications

Read-onlyIdempotent

Search Islamic publications (periodical issues, books). keyword matches title, subject, table of contents, and full OCR text (TOC hits come back as matching_toc_entries); use French concept keywords regardless of the user's report language. Filter by newspaper/series, subject, country and year. Use list_periodicals to discover series titles, and get_publication_fulltext for keyword excerpts from a single issue.

Input Schema

Name	Required	Description
`exact`	No	AND values. Fields: subject/spatial/author/language/country/newspaper/topic_id/min_prob/scored_by; country_raw=whole cell; polarity:<model>.
`limit`	No	Default 20, max 100
`offset`	No
`country`	No	Exact country name: Benin \| Burkina Faso \| Côte d'Ivoire \| Niger \| Togo (accents optional)
`date_to`	No	Latest year, YYYY
`keyword`	No	French concept keyword; every word must occur in the title, subject, table of contents or OCR; "quote" a phrase
`subject`	No	Subject tag (~87% of issues are tagged)
`date_from`	No	Earliest year, YYYY
`newspaper`	No	Periodical/series title (see list_periodicals)
`hijri_year`	No	Islamic (Umm al-Qura) year, e.g. 1445
`hijri_month`	No	Islamic lunar month: 1-12, or a name (Ramadan, Chaabane, Chawwal, Dhu al-Hijja). Matches only issues with a full YYYY-MM-DD date — ~83% of them.
`keyword_mode`	No	literal: the whole keyword as one substring
`keyword_aliases`	No

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Changed3 schema fields changedOct 29, 2026

addedInput schema / additionalProperties
```
Added value: +false
```

changedInput schema / properties / keyword / description

Previous value: -"French concept keyword; substring match on title + subject + table of contents + OCR (accent-insensitive)"New value: +"French concept keyword; every word must occur in the title, subject, table of contents or OCR; \"quote\" a phrase"

addedInput schema / properties / keyword_mode / description

Added value: +"literal: the whole keyword as one substring"

Changed9 schema fields changedOct 6, 2026

addedInput schema / properties / exact

Added value: +{
+  "additionalProperties": {
+    "items": {
+      "type": "string"
+    },
+    "maxItems": 20,
+    "minItems": 1,
+    "type": "array"
+  },
+  "description": "AND values. Fields: subject/spatial/author/language/country/newspaper/topic_id/min_prob/scored_by; country_raw=whole cell; polarity:<model>.",
+  "propertyNames": {
+    "type": "string"
+  },
+  "type": "object"
+}

removedInput schema / properties / hijri_year / maximum
```
Removed value: -9007199254740991
```
removedInput schema / properties / hijri_year / minimum
```
Removed value: --9007199254740991
```

addedInput schema / properties / keyword_aliases

Added value: +{
+  "items": {
+    "minLength": 1,
+    "type": "string"
+  },
+  "maxItems": 12,
+  "type": "array"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / keyword_mode

Added value: +{
+  "enum": [
+    "literal",
+    "all_terms"
+  ],
+  "type": "string"
+}

removedInput schema / properties / limit / maximum
```
Removed value: -9007199254740991
```
removedInput schema / properties / limit / minimum
```
Removed value: --9007199254740991
```
removedInput schema / properties / offset / maximum
```
Removed value: -9007199254740991
```
removedInput schema / properties / offset / minimum
```
Removed value: --9007199254740991
```

Changed2 schema fields changedJul 31, 2026

addedInput schema / properties / hijri_month

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Islamic lunar month: 1-12, or a name (Ramadan, Chaabane, Chawwal, Dhu al-Hijja). Matches only issues with a full YYYY-MM-DD date — ~83% of them.",
+  "type": "string"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / hijri_year

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Islamic (Umm al-Qura) year, e.g. 1445",
+  "maximum": 9007199254740991,
+  "minimum": -9007199254740991,
+  "type": "integer"
+}

Changed1 schema field changedJul 29, 2026

changedInput schema / $schema

Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"

Changed1 schema field changedJul 24, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / keyword / description

Previous value: -"French concept keyword; substring match on title + subject + OCR (accent-insensitive)"New value: +"French concept keyword; substring match on title + subject + table of contents + OCR (accent-insensitive)"

Changed6 schema fields changedJul 6, 2026

removedInput schema / additionalProperties
```
Removed value: -false
```

changedInput schema / properties / keyword / description

Previous value: -"Substring match on title + subject + OCR (accent-insensitive)"New value: +"French concept keyword; substring match on title + subject + OCR (accent-insensitive)"

addedInput schema / properties / limit / maximum
```
Added value: +9007199254740991
```
addedInput schema / properties / limit / minimum
```
Added value: +-9007199254740991
```
addedInput schema / properties / offset / maximum
```
Added value: +9007199254740991
```
addedInput schema / properties / offset / minimum
```
Added value: +-9007199254740991
```

First observedJul 5, 2026

TDQS

A4.3/5.0

Behavior4/5

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

Annotations already declare readOnly/idempotent/non-destructive, so the bar is lower; the description still adds real behavior by disclosing that keyword matches span title, subject, TOC and full OCR text, and that TOC hits surface as matching_toc_entries. It does not discuss pagination behavior or result ordering, which limits it to a 4.

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?

Three sentences, front-loaded with purpose then search semantics then alternatives; no filler. The parenthetical about matching_toc_entries is somewhat embedded and could have been surfaced more cleanly, 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?

For a 13-parameter, read-only search with a rich schema and no output schema, the description covers the mental model an agent needs: what is searched, what can be filtered, and which tools to chain. Gaps are the pagination/date semantics and the nested `exact` filter, both documented in the schema instead.

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

Parameters4/5

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

Schema coverage is 85%, so the baseline is 3; the description earns an extra point by explaining what `keyword` actually searches across and that any newspaper/series, subject, country and year filters combine. The nested `exact` object and keyword_mode/keyword_aliases interplay are left entirely to the schema.

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 specific verb and resource ("Search Islamic publications") and immediately narrows the corpus to "periodical issues, books", which separates it from search_articles, search_documents and search_images in the sibling list. An agent can pick this tool without opening any schema.

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

Usage Guidelines4/5

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

Explicitly routes the agent to list_periodicals for series discovery and get_publication_fulltext for excerpts from a single issue, and gives a working rule ("use French concept keywords regardless of the user's report language"). It stops short of saying when to prefer the semantic_search_publications sibling, which is the one obvious alternative left unaddressed.

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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Search publications

Input Schema

Schema Changelog

TDQS

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