Catalogue of Life
live BioTaxonomyGlobal taxonomic index of known species (~2.2M accepted names). Keyless.
8 tools
0ms auth
free tier 50 calls/day
Tools
search
required: query Name-usage search.
Parameters
Name Type Description
query req string — dataset opt string — limit opt number — offset opt number — rank opt string — status opt string — Try it
Response
name_match
required: scientific_name Exact scientific-name match.
Parameters
Name Type Description
scientific_name req string — authorship opt string — dataset opt string — Try it
Response
usage
required: id Name-usage by id.
Parameters
Name Type Description
id req string — dataset opt string — Try it
Response
taxon
required: id Taxon by id.
Parameters
Name Type Description
id req string — dataset opt string — Try it
Response
classification
required: id Classification chain.
Parameters
Name Type Description
id req string — dataset opt string — Try it
Response
vernacular
required: id Vernacular (common) names.
Parameters
Name Type Description
id req string — dataset opt string — Try it
Response
synonyms
required: id Synonyms.
Parameters
Name Type Description
id req string — dataset opt string — Try it
Response
children
required: id Direct child taxa.
Parameters
Name Type Description
id req string — dataset opt string — limit opt number — Try it
Response
Test with curl
The gateway speaks JSON-RPC 2.0 over HTTP POST. You can test any pack directly from the terminal.
List available tools
bash
curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/catalogueoflife/mcp \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'Call a tool
bash
curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/catalogueoflife/mcp \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search","arguments":{"query": "hello"}}}'Use with the SDK
Install @pipeworx/sdk to call tools from any TypeScript/Node project.
TypeScript
import { Pipeworx } from '@pipeworx/sdk';
const px = new Pipeworx();
const result = await px.call("search", {"query":"example"}); ask_pipeworx
// Or ask in plain English:
const answer = await px.ask("global taxonomic index of known species (~2");