rcsb_search_fulltext

Search the PDB by free-text keywords (e.g. "CRISPR Cas9", "hemoglobin"), optionally refined with structured attribute filters.

Best for broad or exploratory keyword lookups. Pass attributes to AND/OR the keyword with structured conditions (organism, resolution, method, dates, ...) in one query. When a request has NO keyword (only attributes), use rcsb_search_by_attribute; when it resolves to a clear attribute/value, prefer structured search (call rcsb_list_pdb_search_attributes for the exact path — more precise, avoids spurious keyword matches). For a sequence, structure, chemical or motif match, use the matching rcsb_search_by_* tool (each also takes attributes).

BEFORE keyword-searching a biological CONCEPT (disease/function/domain/enzyme/organism), resolve it to an ontology id and filter on the annotation instead — see the resolver and assembly/multimer guidance in the server instructions. Matching spans ALL text annotations, so judge each hit yourself; a high score is text-relevance, NOT biological importance — never tell the user one hit is better than another because its score is higher.

Args: query: Free-text terms matched (case-insensitively) against all text annotations. Quote a phrase to require adjacency (e.g. '"DNA polymerase"'); separate words narrow the results; trailing '' is a prefix wildcard. AND/OR/NOT are NOT boolean operators here. attributes: Optional structured conditions combined with the keyword — AttributeFilter {attribute, operator, value, negation?, case_sensitive?} (see rcsb_search_by_attribute / rcsb_list_pdb_search_attributes for paths and operators). logical_operator: Combine the keyword with the attribute conditions (default "and"). return_type: What to return (default "entry"); see the "Return types and fetching details" note in the server instructions. limit: Max number of hits to return (1-100). offset: Number of hits to skip, for paging; pass the response's next_offset back with the same query to fetch the next page. all_hits: Return the COMPLETE result set in one call, for an explicit "ALL ..." request. Ignores limit and omits paging; can't be combined with offset (the Search API rejects pagination here); refused above 10000 hits — narrow, aggregate with facets, or page. include_computed_models: Also search computed structure models (AlphaFold etc.). chemical: Set True when attributes target chemical-component attributes (the text_chem service; usually pair with return_type="mol_definition"). facets: Optional aggregation specs to return a breakdown / distribution instead of hits (see the faceting note in the server instructions for the spec). sort_by: Attribute path to order the hits by; omit to sort by relevance score. Only SORTABLE attributes work: those listing exact_match (strings) or equals (numbers/ dates) in rcsb_list_pdb_search_attributes; full-text-only attributes (e.g. struct.title) and return_type="mol_definition" are rejected. sort_direction: "asc" (default) or "desc"; applies only when sort_by is set. group_by, group_by_ranking: Collapse redundant polymer_entity hits into clusters, one representative each (needs return_type="polymer_entity") — see the grouping note in the server instructions. Returns: {total_count, returned, offset, has_more, next_offset, hits:[{id, score}], editor}; hits are ids only — batch them into rcsb_get_entries (or the rcsb_get_ tool matching return_type). all_hits/facets response variants: see the server instructions.