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Get Entity Summary

pubchem_get_summary
Read-onlyIdempotent

Fetch descriptive summaries for PubChem assays, genes, proteins, and taxonomy by ID, up to 10 per call, for quick entity overviews.

Instructions

Get descriptive summaries for PubChem entities by ID. Supports assays (AID), genes (Gene ID), proteins (UniProt accession), and taxonomy (Tax ID). Up to 10 per call; identifiers past that are returned in unprocessed for a follow-up call.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
entityTypeYesEntity type. Determines ID format and returned fields.
identifiersYesEntity identifiers. A comma-joined string is split into one identifier per piece, with whitespace trimmed. The per-call cap is 10 pieces: the first 10 are looked up, and any past that are returned in unprocessed, in input order, and reported in cappedInputs. More than 1000 pieces in all fails the call. ID form depends on entityType: - assay: AID, a positive integer, e.g. ["1000"] - gene: NCBI Gene ID, a positive integer, e.g. ["1956"] - protein: UniProt accession, e.g. ["P00533"] - taxonomy: NCBI Taxonomy ID, a positive integer, e.g. ["9606"] For assay, gene, and taxonomy, a piece that is not a positive integer written in digits is marked invalid and not looked up.

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
errorNoPresent when the call failed. Absent on success.
noticeNoRecovery guidance when identifiers were invalid or not found.
summariesNoSummary results, one per identifier piece looked up, in input order.
entityTypeNoEntity type queried.
foundCountNoIdentifiers resolved to a summary.
unprocessedNoIdentifier pieces past the per-call cap of 10, in input order, not looked up. Pass them in a follow-up call. Omitted when every piece was served.
cappedInputsNoInputs that asked for more than their per-call cap, with the value requested and the value served. An ID batch lists the IDs past the cap in unprocessed. Omitted when every input was within its cap.
requestedCountNoIdentifier pieces requested, counted after comma splitting.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

  1. Changed20 schema fields changedv0.7.0
    • changedInput schema / properties / identifiers / description
      Previous value: -"Entity identifiers (1-10). Type depends on entityType:\n- assay: AID (number), e.g. [1000]\n- gene: Gene ID (number), e.g. [1956]\n- protein: UniProt accession (string), e.g. [\"P00533\"]\n- taxonomy: Tax ID (number), e.g. [9606]"New value: +"Entity identifiers. A comma-joined string is split into one identifier per piece, with whitespace trimmed. The per-call cap is 10 pieces: the first 10 are looked up, and any past that are returned in unprocessed, in input order, and reported in cappedInputs. More than 1000 pieces in all fails the call. ID form depends on entityType:\n- assay: AID, a positive integer, e.g. [\"1000\"]\n- gene: NCBI Gene ID, a positive integer, e.g. [\"1956\"]\n- protein: UniProt accession, e.g. [\"P00533\"]\n- taxonomy: NCBI Taxonomy ID, a positive integer, e.g. [\"9606\"]\nFor assay, gene, and taxonomy, a piece that is not a positive integer written in digits is marked invalid and not looked up."
    • removedInput schema / properties / identifiers / items / anyOf
      Removed value: -[
      -  {
      -    "description": "String identifier (e.g. UniProt accession).",
      -    "type": "string"
      -  },
      -  {
      -    "description": "Numeric identifier (e.g. AID, Gene ID, Tax ID).",
      -    "type": "number"
      -  }
      -]
    • changedInput schema / properties / identifiers / items / description
      Previous value: -"Entity identifier — string or number depending on entityType."New value: +"Entity identifier, or several joined with commas."
    • addedInput schema / properties / identifiers / items / type
      Added value: +"string"
    • changedInput schema / properties / identifiers / maxItems
      Previous value: -10New value: +1000
    • addedOutput schema / properties / cappedInputs
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Inputs that asked for more than their per-call cap, with the value requested and the value served. An ID batch lists the IDs past the cap in unprocessed. Omitted when every input was within its cap.",
      +  "items": {
      +    "additionalProperties": false,
      +    "description": "One input served at its per-call cap.",
      +    "properties": {
      +      "input": {
      +        "description": "Input name, e.g. \"maxResults\" or \"cids\".",
      +        "type": "string"
      +      },
      +      "requested": {
      +        "description": "Value requested: the page size, or the number of IDs in the batch.",
      +        "type": "number"
      +      },
      +      "served": {
      +        "description": "Value served: the per-call cap.",
      +        "type": "number"
      +      },
      +      "unprocessed": {
      +        "description": "ID batches only: IDs past the cap, listed in unprocessed in input order.",
      +        "type": "number"
      +      }
      +    },
      +    "required": [
      +      "input",
      +      "requested",
      +      "served"
      +    ],
      +    "type": "object"
      +  },
      +  "type": "array"
      +}
    • changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / description
      Previous value: -"Machine-readable failure mode."New value: +"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `too_many_identifiers`: Comma splitting yields more than 1000 identifier pieces. `invalid_identifier`: No identifier piece is usable: every piece is blank, or, for assay, gene, or taxonomy, not a positive integer. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."
    • addedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / examples
      Added value: +[
      +  "too_many_identifiers",
      +  "invalid_identifier"
      +]
    • changedOutput schema / properties / notice / description
      Previous value: -"Recovery guidance when one or more identifiers were not found."New value: +"Recovery guidance when identifiers were invalid or not found."
    • changedOutput schema / properties / requestedCount / description
      Previous value: -"Identifiers requested."New value: +"Identifier pieces requested, counted after comma splitting."
    • changedOutput schema / properties / summaries / description
      Previous value: -"Summary results."New value: +"Summary results, one per identifier piece looked up, in input order."
    • addedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / properties / lastDataChange
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Date the assay's data last changed, YYYY-MM-DD (assay summaries).",
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
    • addedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / properties / method
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Assay method as PubChem labels it, e.g. \"confirmatory\" (dose-response) or \"screening\" (assay summaries). Omitted when PubChem records none.",
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
    • addedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / properties / numActiveCompounds
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Compounds (CIDs) the assay marked active (assay summaries).",
      +  "type": "number"
      +}
    • addedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / properties / numCompounds
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Compounds (CIDs) tested (assay summaries). List them with pubchem_search_compounds searchType \"assay\" and activeOnly: false — its default lists only the actives.",
      +  "type": "number"
      +}
    • addedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / properties / targetCount
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Number of targets PubChem lists for the assay (assay summaries).",
      +  "type": "number"
      +}
    • addedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / properties / targets
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Assay targets, the first 25 PubChem lists (assay summaries); targetCount gives the full number.",
      +  "items": {
      +    "additionalProperties": false,
      +    "description": "Assay target.",
      +    "properties": {
      +      "accession": {
      +        "description": "Target protein or gene accession.",
      +        "type": "string"
      +      },
      +      "name": {
      +        "description": "Target name.",
      +        "type": "string"
      +      }
      +    },
      +    "type": "object"
      +  },
      +  "type": "array"
      +}
    • changedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / identifier / description
      Previous value: -"Queried identifier."New value: +"Queried identifier: a number for assay, gene, and taxonomy; the accession for protein; the piece as sent when invalid."
    • addedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / invalid
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "True when the identifier is not in the form entityType expects; it was not looked up. Omitted otherwise.",
      +  "type": "boolean"
      +}
    • addedOutput schema / properties / unprocessed
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Identifier pieces past the per-call cap of 10, in input order, not looked up. Pass them in a follow-up call. Omitted when every piece was served.",
      +  "items": {
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "type": "array"
      +}
  2. Changed6 schema fields changedv0.6.1
    • changedInput schema / $schema
      Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
    • addedInput schema / additionalProperties
      Added value: +false
    • changedOutput schema / $schema
      Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"
    • addedOutput schema / anyOf
      Added value: +[
      +  {
      +    "not": {
      +      "required": [
      +        "error"
      +      ]
      +    },
      +    "required": [
      +      "entityType",
      +      "summaries",
      +      "requestedCount",
      +      "foundCount"
      +    ]
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "required": [
      +      "error"
      +    ]
      +  }
      +]
    • addedOutput schema / properties / error
      Added value: +{
      +  "additionalProperties": {},
      +  "description": "Present when the call failed. Absent on success.",
      +  "properties": {
      +    "code": {
      +      "description": "JSON-RPC error code for this failure.",
      +      "maximum": 9007199254740991,
      +      "minimum": -9007199254740991,
      +      "type": "integer"
      +    },
      +    "data": {
      +      "additionalProperties": {},
      +      "properties": {
      +        "reason": {
      +          "description": "Machine-readable failure mode.",
      +          "type": "string"
      +        },
      +        "recovery": {
      +          "additionalProperties": {},
      +          "description": "Actionable next step for the caller.",
      +          "properties": {
      +            "hint": {
      +              "type": "string"
      +            }
      +          },
      +          "required": [
      +            "hint"
      +          ],
      +          "type": "object"
      +        },
      +        "retryable": {
      +          "description": "Whether retrying may succeed.",
      +          "type": "boolean"
      +        }
      +      },
      +      "type": "object"
      +    },
      +    "message": {
      +      "description": "Human-readable description of what went wrong.",
      +      "type": "string"
      +    }
      +  },
      +  "required": [
      +    "code",
      +    "message"
      +  ],
      +  "type": "object"
      +}
    • removedOutput schema / required
      Removed value: -[
      -  "entityType",
      -  "summaries",
      -  "requestedCount",
      -  "foundCount"
      -]
  3. Changed1 schema field changedv0.6.0
    • changedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / properties / lineage / description
      Previous value: -"Parent taxonomy lineage (taxonomy summaries)."New value: +"Taxonomic lineage ordered from the most inclusive rank to the most specific, e.g. [\"Eukaryota\", \"Metazoa\", \"Chordata\"] (taxonomy summaries). Ranks that do not apply to the entity are omitted."
  4. Changed4 schema fields changedv0.2.2
    • addedOutput schema / properties / foundCount
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Identifiers resolved to a summary.",
      +  "type": "number"
      +}
    • addedOutput schema / properties / notice
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Recovery guidance when one or more identifiers were not found.",
      +  "type": "string"
      +}
    • addedOutput schema / properties / requestedCount
      Added value: +{
      +  "description": "Identifiers requested.",
      +  "type": "number"
      +}
    • changedOutput schema / required
      Previous value: -[
      -  "entityType",
      -  "summaries"
      -]New value: +[
      +  "entityType",
      +  "summaries",
      +  "requestedCount",
      +  "foundCount"
      +]
  5. Changed8 schema fields changedv0.1.22
    • changedInput schema / properties / identifiers / items / anyOf
      Previous value: -[
      -  {
      -    "type": "string"
      -  },
      -  {
      -    "type": "number"
      -  }
      -]New value: +[
      +  {
      +    "description": "String identifier (e.g. UniProt accession).",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "description": "Numeric identifier (e.g. AID, Gene ID, Tax ID).",
      +    "type": "number"
      +  }
      +]
    • addedInput schema / properties / identifiers / items / description
      Added value: +"Entity identifier — string or number depending on entityType."
    • addedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / description
      Added value: +"Per-identifier summary result."
    • changedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / additionalProperties
      Previous value: -{}New value: +false
    • changedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / description
      Previous value: -"Entity summary data (shape varies by type)."New value: +"Entity summary data. Populated fields depend on entityType."
    • addedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / properties
      Added value: +{
      +  "aid": {
      +    "description": "Assay ID — present on assay summaries.",
      +    "type": "number"
      +  },
      +  "commonName": {
      +    "description": "Common name (taxonomy summaries).",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "description": {
      +    "description": "Descriptive text when available.",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "geneId": {
      +    "description": "NCBI Gene ID (gene summaries).",
      +    "type": "number"
      +  },
      +  "lineage": {
      +    "description": "Parent taxonomy lineage (taxonomy summaries).",
      +    "items": {
      +      "type": "string"
      +    },
      +    "type": "array"
      +  },
      +  "name": {
      +    "description": "Primary display name.",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "numActive": {
      +    "description": "Substances marked active (assay summaries).",
      +    "type": "number"
      +  },
      +  "numSubstances": {
      +    "description": "Substances tested (assay summaries).",
      +    "type": "number"
      +  },
      +  "proteinAccession": {
      +    "description": "Protein accession (protein summaries).",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "rank": {
      +    "description": "Taxonomic rank (taxonomy summaries).",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "scientificName": {
      +    "description": "Scientific name (taxonomy summaries).",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "sourceName": {
      +    "description": "Data source attribution (assay summaries).",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "symbol": {
      +    "description": "Gene symbol (gene summaries).",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "synonyms": {
      +    "description": "Known synonyms / other names.",
      +    "items": {
      +      "type": "string"
      +    },
      +    "type": "array"
      +  },
      +  "taxonomy": {
      +    "description": "Taxonomy scientific name (gene/protein summaries).",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  "taxonomyId": {
      +    "description": "NCBI Taxonomy ID (gene/protein/taxonomy summaries).",
      +    "type": "number"
      +  }
      +}
    • removedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / data / propertyNames
      Removed value: -{
      -  "type": "string"
      -}
    • changedOutput schema / properties / summaries / items / properties / identifier / anyOf
      Previous value: -[
      -  {
      -    "type": "string"
      -  },
      -  {
      -    "type": "number"
      -  }
      -]New value: +[
      +  {
      +    "description": "String identifier (e.g. UniProt accession).",
      +    "type": "string"
      +  },
      +  {
      +    "description": "Numeric identifier (e.g. AID, Gene ID, Tax ID).",
      +    "type": "number"
      +  }
      +]
  6. First observedv0.1.11

TDQS

A3.5/5.0
Behavior3/5

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

Annotations already declare readOnly, idempotent, and openWorld, so the safety profile is covered. The description's cap/truncation behavior is genuinely useful context, but it largely restates what the input schema already documents (the 10-piece cap, unprocessed, cappedInputs).

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 compact sentences, with the core action front-loaded before the entity-type list and the cap caveat. Slight overlap with schema details on the cap keeps it from a perfect score.

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?

Given an output schema exists, return values need no explanation, and the description covers entity scope plus the batching limit. It is complete enough to call correctly, missing only routing guidance relative to the compound-focused siblings.

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% and the schema already details both parameters, including ID formats per entityType and the comma-splitting/cap rules. The description adds no parameter meaning beyond the schema, so the 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 descriptive summaries for PubChem entities by ID") and enumerates the entity types it covers, which distinguishes it from the compound-centric siblings. It does not name a specific sibling tool, but the entity-type scope makes its role clear.

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?

Usage is implied by the entity types listed, so an agent can infer when it applies, but there is no explicit when-to-use/when-not guidance or named alternative among the many pubchem_* siblings. The 10-per-call cap is the only operational constraint mentioned.

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