Clinicaltables Nlm Nih Gov NIH Clinical Table Search Service - NCBI Genes API
72
AI ReadinessAI-Aware (A-)72/100
Agent-ready OpenAPI document · curated by JenticHealthcareClinical Datanone1 EndpointsREST
Know of an official OpenAPI document? Contribute it →
For Agents
Search NCBI's human gene dataset by name, symbol, or synonym. One unauthenticated GET endpoint returning gene IDs and official symbols.
Use for: Search NCBI for the gene symbol BRCA1, Find all synonyms recorded for the TP53 gene, Look up the NCBI gene ID for KRAS, Validate whether a given gene symbol exists in the NCBI dataset
Not supported: Does not handle non-human organisms, gene-variant interpretation, or other NLM clinical tables - use for human gene name and symbol lookup only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for NIH Clinical Table Search Service - NCBI Genes API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. This public API from the US National Library of Medicine returns matching human gene records from NCBI's gene_info dataset. The single GET /api/ncbi_genes/v3/search endpoint accepts a query string and returns gene IDs, official symbols, and synonyms - useful for autocomplete on clinical forms, variant research tooling, and any agent that needs to resolve a gene name to a structured record. No API key is required.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the NIH Clinical Table Search Service - NCBI Genes API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the NIH Clinical Table Search Service - NCBI Genes API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fclinicaltables.nlm.nih.gov%2Fclinicaltables-nlm" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fclinicaltables.nlm.nih.gov%2Fclinicaltables-nlm" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with NIH Clinical Table Search Service - NCBI Genes API.
Search human gene records by official symbol, full name, or synonym
Resolve a free-text gene mention to a structured NCBI gene record
Power autocomplete and typeahead widgets for gene-name input fields
Validate that a candidate gene symbol exists in NCBI's curated dataset
Retrieve a list of matching gene IDs and symbols for a research query
Use Cases
Patterns agents use NIH Clinical Table Search Service - NCBI Genes API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Gene-Name Autocomplete in Clinical Forms
Clinical and research forms that ask users to enter a gene name need to validate and disambiguate the input. GET /api/ncbi_genes/v3/search returns matching gene records as the user types, so the form can show official symbols and offer completion. The endpoint is public and unauthenticated, which removes the credential plumbing usually required for clinical reference APIs.
GET /api/ncbi_genes/v3/search?terms=BRCA and return the top matching official symbols for typeahead display
Variant Research Mention Resolution
Variant research pipelines often ingest free text that mentions genes by inconsistent names (HER2, ERBB2). Querying NCBI's curated dataset resolves each mention to a single NCBI gene ID and official symbol so downstream analysis is consistent regardless of which synonym appeared in the source text.
For each gene mention in the input text, GET /api/ncbi_genes/v3/search?terms=<mention> and store the canonical official symbol and NCBI ID
Agent-Driven Gene Lookup
An AI agent answering biology questions uses Jentic to resolve gene names mentioned in a user query. Jentic returns the NCBI Genes search endpoint, the agent loads the schema, executes the unauthenticated GET, and uses the response to ground its answer in NCBI's curated gene record rather than relying on its training data.
Use Jentic to search for find gene by name, load the schema for GET /api/ncbi_genes/v3/search, and execute with the user-mentioned gene symbol
Key Endpoints
1 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for nih clinical table search service - ncbi genes api, keeping it validated and agent-ready.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/api/ncbi_genes/v3/search
Search human gene records by symbol, name, or synonym
GET
/api/ncbi_genes/v3/search
Search human gene records by symbol, name, or synonym
Jentic AI Readiness Score
This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.
N
NIH Clinical Table Search Service - NCBI Genes API
- AI-Aware (A-)72/100
74
Foundational Compliance58
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility55
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience94
Agent Usability100
Security100
AI DiscoverabilityPowered by JenticScoring Framework 1.0.0 | Scoring Engine 0.4.0
Show dimension breakdown
74
Foundational Compliance
Base layer of spec validity and structural soundness.
Grade: A-Signals: 4
95%
Lint Results
Aggregated quality score from linter diagnostics, weighted by severity.
100%
Resolution Completeness
Percentage of `$ref` references that resolve successfully.
0%
Specification Validity
Checks whether the API description parses successfully and conforms to its declared specification (e.g., OpenAPI).
100%
Structural Integrity
Structural correctness score based on schema issues using logarithmic dampening.
58
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility
Clarity, completeness, and ingestion readiness for developers and tooling.
Grade: C+Signals: 4
8%
Example Density
How richly the API is illustrated with examples.
100%
Example Validity
Percentage of examples that conform to their schemas.
25%
Response Coverage
Percentage of operations with complete response definitions (success, client error, server error).
100%
Tooling Readiness
Health of API ingestion, bundling, and resolution within Jentic pipelines.
55
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience
Semantic breadth, depth, and agent comprehension for AI systems.
Grade: CSignals: 4
70%
Description Coverage
Coverage of descriptions across API elements.
0%
Error Standardization
Coverage of RFC 9457 Problem Details for error responses.
100%
OperationId Quality
Coverage, uniqueness, and casing consistency of operationIds for AI inference.
50%
Summary Coverage
Coverage of summaries across operations/tags/info.
94
Agent Usability
Functional utility, complexity comfort, and AI orchestration readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
94%
Complexity Comfort
Agent comfort level based on API operational and structural complexity.
100
Security
Trust, risk posture, and security compliance.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
100%
Authentication Strength
Average quality of security schemes based on authentication method strength (weakest link for OAuth2).
100
AI Discoverability
Findability, semantic richness, and reasoning readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
100%
Descriptive Richness
Clarity and depth of descriptions across API elements.
Score it yourself
Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring the NIH NCBI Genes lookup by hand means reading the query and result-field conventions off an endpoint with no published docs and building your own request handling against clinicaltables.nlm.nih.gov. Through Jentic you install once, import the NCBI Genes API from the API Directory, and your agent calls it, with no credential to configure since the service is public.
Permission scoping
The NCBI Genes API is a single read-only gene search endpoint with no credentials, so scoping is about the operation the agent may call, gene name and symbol lookup, and nothing beyond it. You choose that operation, so it stays a read-only lookup.
Credential isolation
The NCBI Genes API needs no credential, so there is nothing to store, and Jentic routes the call through the same execution flow as authenticated tools. No secret enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'find a gene by name or symbol', and Jentic returns GET /api/ncbi_genes/v3/search with its query parameter schema, so the agent calls the right endpoint even though there are no official docs published.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using NIH Clinical Table Search Service - NCBI Genes API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for NIH Clinical Table Search Service - NCBI Genes API?
The NIH Clinical Table Search Service does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call NIH Clinical Table Search Service - NCBI Genes API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.
What authentication does the NCBI Genes API require?
None. This is a public, unauthenticated API provided by the US National Library of Medicine. You can call GET /api/ncbi_genes/v3/search directly from a browser or any HTTP client without an API key. Through Jentic the request is still routed through the standard execution flow so observability and retries are uniform.
Can I search gene synonyms with this API?
Yes. The /api/ncbi_genes/v3/search endpoint matches against official symbols, full names, and synonyms in NCBI's gene_info dataset. A query for HER2 returns the canonical ERBB2 record, for example.
What are the rate limits for the NCBI Genes API?
The OpenAPI spec does not publish numeric rate limits. NLM operates this as a public service, so behave responsibly: cache responses, add a small delay between bulk lookups, and back off on transient errors rather than retrying immediately.
How do I look up a gene through Jentic?
Run pip install jentic, search Jentic for find gene by name, load the schema for GET /api/ncbi_genes/v3/search, and execute with the gene symbol or partial name. No credentials are needed because the API is public. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.
Does this API include non-human genes?
No. The dataset is restricted to human genes from NCBI's gene_info.gz. For other organisms or non-gene clinical reference data, NLM offers separate Clinical Table Search Service endpoints that are not covered by this OpenAPI spec.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the NCBI Genes API?
Yes. Because Jentic One is self-hosted, you decide which operations your agent can call, and this API exposes only one: the read-only GET /api/ncbi_genes/v3/search gene lookup. By importing just that operation, you keep the agent scoped to searching human gene records by symbol, name, or synonym and nothing more. The service is public with no credentials, so there are no secrets to grant, and the agent can never do more than the single read-only lookup you allowed.
GET STARTED