Eol Tools#

Configuration File: eol_tools.json Tool Type: Local Tools Count: 4

This page contains all tools defined in the eol_tools.json configuration file.

Available Tools#

EOL_get_collection (Type: EOLTool)#

Get a curated collection from the Encyclopedia of Life: name, description and member items (speci…

EOL_get_collection tool specification

Tool Information:

  • Name: EOL_get_collection

  • Type: EOLTool

  • Description: Get a curated collection from the Encyclopedia of Life: name, description and member items (species pages, images, articles) with their page IDs. NOTE (checked 2026-09-22): every collection sampled from id 1-200 had 0 items (‘total_items’: 0, ‘items’: []) – EOL’s collection-membership listing looks abandoned/broken upstream, so expect an empty ‘items’ list even for a valid collection. IDs above roughly 200 mostly answer HTTP 500 (checked up to 55868). Use EOL_search or EOL_get_page for real species content.

Parameters:

  • collection_id (integer) (required) EOL collection ID. Verified examples: 4 (Backyard Animals in CT), 100 (Gulf of Mexico Sea Turtles), 50 (Recently Discovered Species) – all real collections but with 0 items.

  • page (integer) (optional) Page number for paginated results.

  • per_page (integer) (optional) Number of items per page (max 500).

  • filter (string) (optional) Filter items by type: ‘taxa’, ‘text’, ‘image’, ‘sound’, ‘video’, ‘collection’, ‘community’, ‘user’. Leave empty for all types.

Example Usage:

query = {
    "name": "EOL_get_collection",
    "arguments": {
        "collection_id": 10
    }
}
result = tu.run(query)

EOL_get_hierarchy_entry (Type: EOLTool)#

Get a taxonomy hierarchy entry from a specific Encyclopedia of Life classification. Returns the f…

EOL_get_hierarchy_entry tool specification

Tool Information:

  • Name: EOL_get_hierarchy_entry

  • Type: EOLTool

  • Description: Get a taxonomy hierarchy entry from a specific Encyclopedia of Life classification. Returns the full ancestor lineage, pageable direct children, synonyms, and source classification (NCBI, GBIF, ITIS, Catalogue of Life). Metadata reports the true child total, truncation state, and next child offset so high-branching taxa are not silently cut off. Use EOL_get_page first to find hierarchy_entry_id values.

Parameters:

  • hierarchy_entry_id (integer) (required) EOL hierarchy entry ID from a specific classification system. Get this from EOL_get_page ‘classifications’ field. Examples: 70872770 (Homo sapiens in NCBI), 86685972 (Homo sapiens in GBIF), 147191154 (Homo sapiens in ITIS).

  • child_limit (integer) (optional) Maximum number of direct child taxa to return on this page.

  • child_offset (integer) (optional) Zero-based offset into all direct child taxa. Continue with metadata.next_child_offset while metadata.children_truncated is true.

Example Usage:

query = {
    "name": "EOL_get_hierarchy_entry",
    "arguments": {
        "hierarchy_entry_id": 10
    }
}
result = tu.run(query)

EOL_get_page (Type: EOLTool)#

Get detailed species/taxon information from an Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) page. Common names, syn…

EOL_get_page tool specification

Tool Information:

  • Name: EOL_get_page

  • Type: EOLTool

  • Description: Get detailed species/taxon information from an Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) page. Common names, synonyms, and source classifications are independently pageable with true totals and next offsets; requested image/text descriptions are preserved in full. Use EOL_search_species first to get page_id.

Parameters:

  • page_id (integer) (required) EOL page identifier. Get this from EOL_search_species. Examples: 327955 (Homo sapiens), 583954 (Arabidopsis thaliana), 328672 (Panthera leo), 1045608 (Apis mellifera).

  • images_per_page (integer) (optional) Number of image data objects to return (0-75).

  • texts_per_page (integer) (optional) Number of text description objects to return (0-75).

  • common_names (boolean) (optional) Include vernacular/common names in multiple languages.

  • synonyms (boolean) (optional) Include taxonomic synonyms.

  • details (boolean) (optional) Include detailed data object information (media, descriptions).

  • common_name_limit (integer) (optional) Maximum common names to return on this page.

  • common_name_offset (integer) (optional) Zero-based offset into all common names.

  • synonym_limit (integer) (optional) Maximum taxonomic synonyms to return on this page.

  • synonym_offset (integer) (optional) Zero-based offset into all taxonomic synonyms.

  • classification_limit (integer) (optional) Maximum source classifications to return on this page.

  • classification_offset (integer) (optional) Zero-based offset into all source classifications.

Example Usage:

query = {
    "name": "EOL_get_page",
    "arguments": {
        "page_id": 10
    }
}
result = tu.run(query)

EOL_search_species (Type: EOLTool)#

Search the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) for species and taxa by name using verified TLS. Returns ma…

EOL_search_species tool specification

Tool Information:

  • Name: EOL_search_species

  • Type: EOLTool

  • Description: Search the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) for species and taxa by name using verified TLS. Returns matching page IDs, scientific names, and name variants. Pagination metadata exposes the authoritative total, current start index, has_more, next_page, requested-page completeness, and stalled states; continue with next_page while available. exact must be a real boolean and page must be a positive integer. Use EOL_get_page for details.

Parameters:

  • query (string) (required) Search string for species or taxon name. Supports scientific names, common names, and partial matches. Examples: ‘Homo sapiens’, ‘Arabidopsis thaliana’, ‘Panthera leo’, ‘honey bee’.

  • page (integer) (optional) Page number for paginated results (1-based).

  • exact (boolean) (optional) Pass EOL’s upstream exact=true search flag. This is not strict string equality: the live API may still return capitalization variants, infraspecific taxa, and related names, so callers must compare returned titles if strict equality is required.

Example Usage:

query = {
    "name": "EOL_search_species",
    "arguments": {
        "query": "example_value"
    }
}
result = tu.run(query)