Open Tree of Life

live Utility

Open Tree of Life MCP.

3 tools
0ms auth
free tier 50 calls/day

Tools

match_names

Resolve scientific (Latin binomial) names to Open Tree of Life taxon IDs (ott_id). The ott_id is the key needed by taxon_info and common_ancestor — start here. Returns the best match per name with its

No parameters required.

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taxon_info

Get full details for an Open Tree of Life taxon by ott_id (from match_names) — accepted name, rank, unique name, synonyms, source taxonomy, and the complete ancestry lineage from this taxon up to the

No parameters required.

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common_ancestor

Find the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of 2-10 taxa in the synthetic Tree of Life, by ott_id (from match_names). Returns the common-ancestor taxon (ott_id, name, rank). Keyless.

No parameters required.

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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/opentreeoflife/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/opentreeoflife/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"match_names","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("match_names", {});
ask_pipeworx 
// Or ask in plain English:
const answer = await px.ask("open tree of life mcp");