@pipeworx/isrctn

Connect: https://pipeworx.io/mcp — every tool in the catalog, including @pipeworx/isrctn’s. Install: one-click buttons

No MCP client? Skip the connection: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs {"query":"..."} to find a tool below, GET /v1/tools/<name> for its schema, POST the same URL with arguments for the data — see For AI agents.

Tools: 2

ISRCTN (isrctn.com) is a primary clinical trial registry recognised by WHO and ICMJE, operated by Springer Nature/BMC. It covers UK and international trials — including many non-US studies that never appear on ClinicalTrials.gov — and assigns a permanent ISRCTN number to every registered study. Free, keyless, public XML query API.

Why this matters for AI agents

ClinicalTrials.gov is US-centric. A question like “what trials exist on psilocybin for stroke recovery” is only half-answered without ISRCTN, since several UK/EU-sponsored studies register here instead of (or in addition to) ClinicalTrials.gov. Use this pack alongside clinicaltrials for international coverage, not in place of it.

Two flows:

1. Search. “Studies on X and Y” → isrctn_search({query: "psilocybin depression"}) or, to require BOTH a registered condition and a registered intervention, isrctn_search({condition: "stroke", intervention: "psilocybin"}). Combining condition and intervention is an AND, not an OR — a real zero means no ISRCTN trial currently pairs that condition with that intervention, and the response echoes query_used so the caller can see exactly what was searched.

2. Single record. isrctn_trial({id: "ISRCTN37167117"}) → full structured record: title, condition(s), intervention(s)/phase, sponsor, funder, dates, countries, and whether a results report has been posted.

Status is DERIVED, not a registry field

ISRCTN’s XML feed carries no “overall trial status” string — unlike ClinicalTrials.gov. Every returned trial computes status from its recruitment-window dates (recruitment_start, recruitment_end, overall_end_date) relative to the current date, and status_basis names exactly which date drove the call (e.g. “overall trial end date (2025-01-23T00:00:00.000Z) has passed”). isrctn_search’s status filter matches against this derived value and is applied client-side over a fetched batch (status_filter_scanned reports how many trials were scanned), since the upstream has no server-side status field to filter on.

Search syntax

query is free text (ISRCTN’s search is a Lucene index over the full record — title, summary, eligibility criteria, etc.). Multiple words are ANDed by default (“psilocybin depression” matches trials containing both terms, not either), confirmed against the live API: psilocybin depression and psilocybin AND depression return identical counts, "psilocybin depression" (a phrase) returns zero. condition and intervention match ISRCTN’s indexed condition: / intervention: fields specifically — these are narrower than a free-text match on the same word (e.g. condition:stroke returns ~1/4 the hits of a bare stroke search, because it excludes trials that only mention “stroke” in eligibility criteria or elsewhere).

At least one of query, condition, intervention is required.

Auth

Keyless. Public, unauthenticated XML query API.

Data sources

• https://www.isrctn.com/api/query/format/default?q={lucene_query}&limit={n} — search (e.g. q=psilocybin+depression&limit=10); also used for single-record lookup (isrctn_trial queries by the canonical ISRCTN37167117-shaped id with limit=1).

Notes for the next person

• The single-record URL shape /api/query/ISRCTN37167117/format/default documented informally elsewhere 404s live (verified 2026-10-09) — the working path for one record is the SAME search endpoint, queried by id.
• A non-existent ISRCTN id returns HTTP 200 with an empty allTrials element (totalCount of zero) — a legitimate empty result, surfaced as {found: false}, not an error.
• A malformed Lucene query (e.g. unbalanced quotes) also silently returns totalCount="0" rather than an HTTP error — user input going into query, condition, and intervention is Lucene-escaped before being sent, so a caller’s literal text (parentheses, colons, quotes) can’t accidentally produce a false zero from broken query syntax.
• A response that is HTTP 200 but has no allTrials/totalCount root element, or that claims totalCount > 0 with zero parseable fullTrial blocks, is thrown as a loud upstream_parse error — never silently returned as an empty result.

Tools

• isrctn_search — Search the ISRCTN registry (isrctn.com) — the UK-based international clinical trial registry — by free text and/or by condition/intervention. Use for “studies on and <drug/intervention>”,
• isrctn_trial — Look up a single ISRCTN trial by its registry number. Accepts “ISRCTN12345678”, “isrctn12345678”, or the bare number “12345678”. Returns title, condition(s), intervention(s)/phase, derived recruitment