iNaturalist

live ScienceBiodiversity

Citizen-science species observations — observation search, taxa lookup, top species at a place. No auth.

3 tools
0ms auth
free tier 50 calls/day

Tools

search_observations

Search citizen-science observations. Filter by taxon name (common or scientific), place, year, threatened status, or quality grade. Auto-resolves taxon and place names. Returns photographed sightings with coordinates and observer info.

Parameters
Name Type Description
taxon_name opt string Scientific or common name
place opt string Place name (auto-resolved)
year opt number Filter to a year
threatened opt boolean IUCN-threatened only
quality_grade opt string casual | needs_id | research (default research)
per_page opt number 1-200 (default 20)
▶ Try it
search_taxa required: query

Search iNaturalist taxa by name. Returns taxon ID, rank, ancestry, conservation status, photo.

Parameters
Name Type Description
query req string Common or scientific name
rank opt string Restrict to a rank
per_page opt number 1-30 (default 10)
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top_species required: place

Most-observed species in a place over an optional date range. Auto-resolves place name.

Parameters
Name Type Description
place req string Place name
year opt number Optional year filter
per_page opt number 1-50 (default 20)
▶ Try it

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/inaturalist/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/inaturalist/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_observations","arguments":{}}}'

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_observations", {});
ask_pipeworx 
// Or ask in plain English:
const answer = await px.ask("citizen-science species observations — observation search, taxa lookup, top species at a place");