# Database Lookup

Queries documented public database APIs with explicit endpoints, filters, pagination...

- Repository: https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills (55651 stars)
- Category: Data and ML
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-26
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills --skill database-lookup -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills --skill database-lookup -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills --skill database-lookup -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills --skill database-lookup -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Queries documented public database APIs with explicit endpoints, filters, pagination, and provenance. Used when a scientific, regulatory, financial, or other database-backed fact must be retrieved reproducibly from a named source rather than inferred from general knowledge.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Database Lookup

This skill catalogs 80 databases with public, registered, or licensed access patterns. Your job is to turn the user's intent into a reproducible retrieval: select the authoritative database(s), make bounded and rate-limited API calls, verify counts when completeness matters, and return results with enough provenance that another agent or human can repeat the lookup.

For complex biomedical retrievals, assume small filtering differences can change downstream conclusions. Prefer deterministic APIs, explicit identifiers, exhaustive pagination, and auditable logs over broad searching or plausible summaries.

## Core Workflow

1. **Define the retrieval contract**, Identify the target entity, accepted identifiers, organism/taxon/build/date constraints, filters, expected output fields, and whether the user needs an exhaustive dataset or a targeted lookup. If a required scientific constraint is missing and affects correctness, ask a clarifying question rather than guessing.

2. **Select authoritative database(s)**, Use the database selection guide below. Prefer the primary database for the user's intent, then add cross-check databases only for identifier resolution, validation, or known coverage gaps. Do not fan out across many APIs just because they are available.

3. **Read the reference file and retrieval contract**, Each database has a reference file in `references/` with endpoint details, query formats, and example calls. Read the relevant file(s) and `references/retrieval-contract.md` before making API calls.

4. **Plan filter semantics before calling**, Separate filters the API enforces server-side from filters that must be checked locally. Note identifier conversions, fields with ambiguous meanings, pagination strategy, rate limits, and any data-source conventions such as RefSeq vs GenBank or genome build.

The rest: https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/database-lookup/SKILL.md