# col.species.children

List the immediate child taxa of a given taxon in the Catalogue of Life taxonomic tree. For example: pass the ID for a family to get its genera; pass a genus ID to list its species; pass an order ID to enumerate its families. Returns paginated results with up to 100 children per call, each including taxon ID, scientific name, rank, status, and higher classification. Use offset for pagination over large groups (e.g. Coleoptera has 400K+ species). Obtain the taxon_id from col.species.search or col.species.suggest. CC BY 4.0 — ~10 million taxa across all kingdoms including Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Bacteria, Archaea, Protista, Chromista, and Viruses.

Agent View of the PolicyLayer registry record for `col.species.children`. HTML page: https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/col.species.children

## Facts

- Tool: `col.species.children`
- Server: Apibase (`apibase-mcp-client`) — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase.md
- Install: `npx -y apibase-mcp-client`
- Homepage: https://github.com/whiteknightonhorse/APIbase
- Risk category: Read (Low risk)
- Registry record: grade F, identity unverified
- Server auth posture: open
- Server rate-limited: no
- Parameters: 3 (1 required)
- Recommended policy verdict: Allowed

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `limit` | integer | no | Maximum number of child taxa to return (1–100, default 20). |
| `offset` | integer | no | Zero-based pagination offset for large genera with many species (default 0). |
| `taxon_id` | string | yes | Catalogue of Life usage ID of the parent taxon whose immediate children to list (e.g. the ID for a family returns its genera; a genus returns its species). Obta |

Parameters from the server's own tool schema.

## Example call (MCP tools/call, JSON-RPC 2.0)

```json
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "col.species.children",
    "arguments": {
      "taxon_id": "<taxon_id>"
    }
  }
}
```

## Why col.species.children is rated Low

Retrieves taxonomic data from Catalogue of Life without modifying, executing, or deleting anything.

From the tool's own definition: "List the immediate child taxa, returns paginated results, no modification or deletion"

## Use case

AI agents call col.species.children to retrieve information from Apibase without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.

## Recommended policy (PolicyLayer)

Verdict: **Allowed**. Enforced by the PolicyLayer MCP gateway (https://policylayer.com/mcp-gateway) before a call reaches Apibase:

```json
{
  "version": "1",
  "default": "deny",
  "tools": {
    "col.species.children": {}
  }
}
```

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## For agents

This record is a snapshot. Live verdicts and the full registry:

- Check every server in your MCP config at once: `npx -y policylayer stack`
- Vet a server before you add it: install the mcp-precheck skill — `npx skills add https://policylayer.com` (skill text: https://policylayer.com/skill.md)
- Query the registry over MCP: endpoint `https://api.policylayer.com/mcp` — tools `check_mcp_server`, `check_mcp_stack`, `check_tool`, `search_registry`, `get_change_events`

---

Source: the PolicyLayer MCP registry — one continuously verified record per MCP server. Full record: https://policylayer.com/registry?q=io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase · API: https://policylayer.com/registry/api · Policy library: https://policylayer.com/policies/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase