openalex_resolve_name
Resolve a name or partial name to an OpenAlex ID. Returns up to 10 matches with disambiguation hints. ALWAYS use this before filtering by entity — names are ambiguous, IDs are not. Also accepts DOIs directly for quick lookup. Response time ~200ms.
openalex_search_entities
Search, filter, sort, or retrieve by ID. Covers all OpenAlex entity types (works, authors, sources, institutions, topics, keywords, publishers, funders). Pass `id` to retrieve a single entity (free, unlimited API calls). Otherwise, use `query` and/or `filters` for discovery. Supports keyword search with boolean operators, exact phrase matching, and AI semantic search. Use openalex_resolve_name to resolve names to IDs before filtering. Searches return a curated set of fields by default; pass `select` to override with specific fields.
openalex_analyze_trends
Aggregate OpenAlex entities into groups and count them. Use for trend analysis (group works by publication_year), distribution analysis (group by oa_status, type, country), and comparative analysis (group by institution or topic). Combine with filters to scope the analysis. Returns up to 200 groups per page — use cursor pagination for fields with many distinct values.