
Connects Claude to the Encyclopedia of Life's biodiversity database with four straightforward tools: search by common or scientific name, fetch taxon pages with synonyms and hierarchies, look up page IDs by exact scientific name, and traverse full taxonomic trees. Runs as a streamable HTTP service through Pipeworx's gateway, so no local installation needed. Useful when you're building natural history apps, need to validate species names, or want to pull taxonomic context into research workflows. The ask_pipeworx wrapper lets you query in plain English instead of calling tools directly, which speeds up exploratory work.
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) MCP — biodiversity taxa, common names, images, and trait data from eol.org. Keyless.
Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1476+ live data sources.
search(query, limit?) — search EOL for a name (common or scientific)get_page(id, detail?) — fetch a taxon page by EOL id (synonyms, common names, hierarchy)pages_by_name(name) — find EOL page id(s) for an exact scientific namehierarchy(taxon_id) — taxonomic hierarchy for a given EOL hierarchy entry idhttps://eol.org/api/
Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):
{
"mcpServers": {
"eol": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/eol/mcp"
}
}
}
tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/eol/mcp returns the tools in the table
above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx,
discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the
gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a
single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the
pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and
is the authoritative answer for a given day.
This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a
scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via
ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a
second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without
them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth,
connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.
Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pipeworx": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
}
}
}
Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1476+ data sources. The
only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx
reaches all of them from either one.
Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:
ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Eol data" })
The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.
MIT