scientific-skills/database-lookup/references/pdb.md
https://data.rcsb.org/rest/v1https://search.rcsb.org/rcsbsearch/v2/queryhttps://data.rcsb.org/graphqlhttps://files.rcsb.orgNone required. Fully public API.
No published hard limits; be courteous (a few requests/second). Bulk downloads available via FTP.
GET https://data.rcsb.org/rest/v1/core/entry/{entry_id}
Example:
GET https://data.rcsb.org/rest/v1/core/entry/4HHB
Returns JSON with resolution, method, deposition date, title, authors, etc.
GET https://data.rcsb.org/rest/v1/core/polymer_entity/{entry_id}/{entity_id}
Example:
GET https://data.rcsb.org/rest/v1/core/polymer_entity/4HHB/1
GET https://data.rcsb.org/rest/v1/core/assembly/{entry_id}/{assembly_id}
POST https://search.rcsb.org/rcsbsearch/v2/query
Content-Type: application/json
Example — search by UniProt accession:
{
"query": {
"type": "terminal",
"service": "text",
"parameters": {
"attribute": "rcsb_polymer_entity_container_identifiers.reference_sequence_identifiers.database_accession",
"operator": "exact_match",
"value": "P69905"
}
},
"return_type": "entry"
}
{
"query": {
"type": "terminal",
"service": "sequence",
"parameters": {
"evalue_cutoff": 0.1,
"identity_cutoff": 0.9,
"sequence_type": "protein",
"value": "MVLSPADKTNVKAAWGKVGAHAGEYGAEALERMFLSFPTTKTYFPHFDLSH"
}
},
"return_type": "polymer_entity"
}
{
"query": {
"type": "terminal",
"service": "structure",
"parameters": {
"value": {"entry_id": "4HHB", "assembly_id": "1"},
"operator": "strict_shape_match"
}
},
"return_type": "assembly"
}
GET https://files.rcsb.org/download/{entry_id}.cif
GET https://files.rcsb.org/download/{entry_id}.pdb
POST https://data.rcsb.org/graphql
Body example:
{
"query": "{ entry(entry_id: \"4HHB\") { rcsb_entry_info { resolution_combined } struct { title } } }"
}
All REST/Search endpoints return JSON. File downloads return PDB/mmCIF text.
return_type Values for Searchentry — PDB IDspolymer_entity — entity-level results (e.g., 4HHB_1)assembly — biological assembly results"type": "group" and "logical_operator": "and"/"or"."request_options": {"paginate": {"start": 0, "rows": 25}}.