# PubMed Brief — Biomedical Literature Search & Summarization

> PubMed Brief — Biomedical Literature Search & Summarization is a paid API for AI agents from x402.agentutility.ai, paid per call via x402, $0.04/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-11-03).

Searches PubMed with a natural or structured query and returns AI-generated bullet-point summaries of the top matching papers

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://x402.agentutility.ai/pubmed-brief?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.04/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-11-03
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/pubmed-brief-biomedical-literature-search-summarization-e1e0bb2b
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_4IiQ62oIV_LETSt8nqevg

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability pubmed-brief-biomedical-literature-search-summarization-e1e0bb2b -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search PubMed for papers on CRISPR treatment for sickle cell disease and give me a bullet-point summary of the top 5 results.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when an agent needs to rapidly survey biomedical literature on a specific topic without maintaining a PubMed API key or building a multi-step search+summarize pipeline. It is ideal for research assistants, clinical decision-support agents, or scientific writing tools that need a quick evidence snapshot. Prefer it over raw PubMed API access when you want both retrieval and synthesis in a single pay-per-call step. Not suitable for downloading full-text papers, real-time clinical advice, or queries requiring more than 10 papers.

## Known failure modes

- Query exceeds 300 character limit — truncation or rejection
- max_results out of range (must be 1–10) — validation error
- PubMed API unavailable — degraded=true with partial results
- Summarization step fails — degraded response with search results only but no summary
- No papers found for query — empty papers array and empty summary
- Malformed query syntax — zero or unexpected results returned

## How this service works

817 pay-per-call APIs for AI agents. Every endpoint is POST /<name> and is payable in USDC over x402 on Base and Solana — no signup, no API key, just pay-per-call. GET https://x402.agentutility.ai/ returns the same catalog as machine-readable JSON.

## Output

Returns a JSON object containing: the echoed query string, a search object with total matching papers count, number returned, and an array of paper PMIDs and titles, a summary object with style ('bullets') and a multi-line bullet-point synthesis of the retrieved papers, a boolean 'degraded' flag indicating partial failures, an array of internal component timings (pubmed-search and summarize-text steps), a disclaimer clarifying this is not medical advice, and a 'composed_of' list of sub-services used.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method",
    "bodyType",
    "body"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "body": {
     "required": [
      "query"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "query": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "PubMed query. Supports field tags, boolean operators, MeSH terms. Max 300 chars."
      },
      "max_results": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Papers to retrieve and summarize. 1-10. Default 5."
      }
     }
    },
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "POST"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "bodyType": {
     "enum": [
      "json",
      "form-data",
      "text"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "query": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "search": {
       "type": "object",
       "properties": {
        "total": {
         "type": "integer"
        },
        "papers": {
         "type": "array",
         "items": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
           "pmid": {
            "type": "string"
           },
           "title": {
            "type": "string"
           }
          }
         }
        },
        "returned": {
         "type": "integer"
        }
       }
      },
      "summary": {
       "type": "object",
       "properties": {
        "style": {
         "type": "string"
        },
        "summary": {
         "type": "string"
        }
       }
      },
      "degraded": {
       "type": "boolean"
      },
      "components": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
         "ms": {
          "type": "integer"
         },
         "ok": {
          "type": "boolean"
         },
         "name": {
          "type": "string"
         }
        }
       }
      },
      "disclaimer": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "composed_of": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "string"
       }
      }
     }
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "query": "CRISPR sickle cell",
  "search": {
   "total": 451,
   "papers": [
    {
     "pmid": "33283989",
     "title": "CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing for Sickle Cell Disease and β-Thalassemia."
    }
   ],
   "returned": 3
  },
  "summary": {
   "style": "bullets",
   "summary": "- Exa-cel showed durable results in trials\n- ..."
  },
  "degraded": false,
  "components": [
   {
    "ms": 2100,
    "ok": true,
    "name": "pubmed-search"
   },
   {
    "ms": 3300,
    "ok": true,
    "name": "summarize-text"
   }
  ],
  "disclaimer": "Biomedical literature synthesis only — not medical advice. Consult a qualified clinician for health decisions.",
  "composed_of": [
   "pubmed-search",
   "summarize-text"
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/pubmed-brief-biomedical-literature-search-summarization-e1e0bb2b/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from x402.agentutility.ai](https://www.zero.xyz/host/x402.agentutility.ai/llms.txt)