`search_structures`

Pack: crystallography · Endpoint: https://gateway.pipeworx.io/crystallography/mcp

Search the Crystallography Open Database (COD), an open repository of crystal structures (inorganic, organic, metal-organic, and mineral). Search by compound name (free text), chemical formula, or mineral name; returns matching crystal structures with unit-cell parameters, space group, year, and a link to the CIF structure file. Keyless. Provide at least one of query, formula, or mineral.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`query`	string	no	Free-text search (compound/common name, title words, author, etc.). e.g. “quartz”, “aspirin”.
`formula`	string	no	Chemical formula in any common spelling — “NaCl”, “SiO2”, “CaCO3”, “C6H6”, or COD’s own “O2 Si”. It is converted to COD’s stored Hill form (C first, then H, then the rest alphabetically; counts of 1 omitted) before searching. Matches the whole stoichiometry exactly, so “SiO2” will not match “CaMgSi2O6”.
`mineral`	string	no	Mineral name, e.g. “Quartz”, “Calcite”, “Halite”. Matched against each structure’s mineral field (case-insensitive substring), so “Quartz” also returns “Quartz low” / “Quartz high”.
`limit`	number	no	Max structures to return (default 20, max 100).

Example call

Arguments

{
  "query": "quartz"
}

curl

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/crystallography/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_structures","arguments":{"query":"quartz"}}}'

TypeScript (@pipeworx/sdk)

import { Pipeworx } from '@pipeworx/sdk';
const pipeworx = new Pipeworx();

const result = await pipeworx.call('search_structures', {
  "query": "quartz"
});

More examples

{
  "formula": "SiO2",
  "limit": 10
}

{
  "mineral": "Calcite"
}

Connect

Add this to your MCP client config, or use one-click install buttons:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "crystallography": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/crystallography/mcp"
    }
  }
}

See Getting Started for client-specific install steps.

search_structures