col.species.suggest
Autocomplete a partial species or taxon name against the Catalogue of Life working draft, returning up to 25 ranked suggestions. Each suggestion includes the usage ID (for passing to col.species.detail or col.species.children), the matched name string, taxonomic rank, status (accepted/synonym), t...
This record as markdown: /tools/io-github-whiteknightonhorse-apibase/col.species.suggest.md
What col.species.suggest does on Apibase
AI agents call col.species.suggest 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.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
rank | string | — | Restrict suggestions to a specific taxonomic rank (e.g. SPECIES, GENUS, FAMILY). Omit to return suggestions across all ranks. |
limit | integer | — | Maximum number of autocomplete suggestions to return (1–25, default 10). |
query | string | Yes | Partial or full name prefix for autocomplete (e.g. "Homo", "Pinus syl", "Pan tr"). Returns ranked suggestions from the COL working draft. |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why col.species.suggest is rated Low
Retrieves and ranks species name suggestions from a taxonomy database without modification.
From the tool's definition autocomplete, returning suggestions, taxonomic data retrieval, no side effects
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs col.species.suggest safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Apibase, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For col.species.suggest, this is the rule to start with:
col.species.suggest is read-only, so it stays allowed. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
The button opens the PolicyLayer dashboard: create your workspace, connect Apibase, apply this rule, and every col.species.suggest call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about col.species.suggest
Autocomplete a partial species or taxon name against the Catalogue of Life working draft, returning up to 25 ranked suggestions. Each suggestion includes the usage ID (for passing to col.species.detail or col.species.children), the matched name string, taxonomic rank, status (accepted/synonym), taxonomic group (e.g. "insects", "flowering plants", "birds"), higher-taxon context (e.g. "Hominidae"), and a human-readable suggestion string. Ideal for type-ahead name disambiguation in scientific workflows, species identification pipelines, or biodiversity data cleaning tasks. Optionally restrict suggestions to a specific rank (e.g. GENUS to return only genus-level matches). It is categorised as a Read tool in the Apibase MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
col.species.suggest accepts 3 parameters: rank, limit, query. Required: query. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the Apibase MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for col.species.suggest: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches Apibase. Nothing to install.
col.species.suggest is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the col.species.suggest rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.
Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for col.species.suggest. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.
col.species.suggest is provided by the Apibase MCP server (apibase-mcp-client). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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