PubMed

PubMed History API

Operations for managing sets of records on the Entrez History server

Documentation GitHub OpenAPI

Operations 1

POST /epost.fcgi EPost - Upload UIDs to History server #

Work with this as data

Every API here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.

MCP server

One button, every client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and the rest.

https://apis.io/mcp

Tools for apis

7 MCP tools reach this

find_apisBrowse and filter every API in the catalog.
get_api_artifactsOne API's artifacts, grouped by type.
get_openapiThe primary OpenAPI for this API.
find_similar_apisAPIs that look like this one.
apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.

All 92 tools →

Call it yourself

curl for this page

This API

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/apis/pubmed:pubmed-history-api"

All apis

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/apis?limit=25"

Calls without X-API-Key need no key. Calls with it need a paid plan — get a key.

Get an API key

Free tier, no form to fill in. Signing in shares your email address with us — we store it to create your key and to recognise you if you sign in with another provider. See our Privacy Policy and Terms.

GitHub Google LinkedIn

A second provider on the same verified email joins the account you already have.

OpenAPI Specification

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: NCBI Entrez E-utilities History API
  description: The Entrez Programming Utilities (E-utilities) provide a stable interface to the NCBI Entrez query and database system. Nine server-side programs allow searching, fetching, posting, linking, and summarizing records across PubMed and 38 NCBI databases including PubMed Central, Gene, Nuccore, and Protein. Supports searching 35M+ biomedical citations, retrieving abstracts, full-text links, MeSH terms, and related article metadata.
  version: v1.0.0
  termsOfService: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/about/policies.shtml
  contact:
    name: NCBI Help Desk
    url: https://support.nlm.nih.gov/
    email: info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  license:
    name: NCBI Data Use Policies
    url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/home/about/policies.shtml
servers:
- url: https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils
  description: NCBI E-utilities production server
tags:
- name: History
  description: Operations for managing sets of records on the Entrez History server
paths:
  /epost.fcgi:
    post:
      summary: EPost - Upload UIDs to History server
      description: Accepts a list of UIDs from a given database and stores them on the Entrez History server. The stored set can then be used by subsequent ESearch, ESummary, EFetch, or ELink calls.
      operationId: EPost
      tags:
      - History
      requestBody:
        content:
          application/x-www-form-urlencoded:
            schema:
              type: object
              required:
              - db
              - id
              properties:
                db:
                  type: string
                  description: Database name.
                  example: pubmed
                id:
                  type: string
                  description: Comma-delimited list of UIDs.
                  example: 36328499,36328500,36328501
                WebEnv:
                  type: string
                  description: Existing web environment to append UIDs to.
                tool:
                  type: string
                  description: Name of application making the call.
                email:
                  type: string
                  description: Contact email address.
                api_key:
                  type: string
                  description: API key to enable higher request rate.
      responses:
        '200':
          description: WebEnv and query_key for use in subsequent calls
          content:
            application/xml:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/EPostResult'
components:
  schemas:
    EPostResult:
      type: object
      properties:
        epostresult:
          type: object
          properties:
            querykey:
              type: string
              description: Integer query key for the uploaded UIDs.
            webenv:
              type: string
              description: Web environment string for History server.
  securitySchemes:
    ApiKeyAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: query
      name: api_key
      description: 'Optional NCBI API key. Without a key: 3 requests/second. With a key: 10 requests/second. Register at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/'