Dbsnp Database

Gives Claude programmatic access to NCBI's dbSNP database for querying single nucleotide polymorphism data. You'll want this if you're working on genomics research, variant analysis, or anything that needs to look up SNP information without leaving your coding environment. It handles NCBI API rate limiting gracefully and supports optional API keys to bump from 3 to 10 requests per second. The skill follows good security practices by using the credentials protocol for API key management and notifies users about NCBI's terms on first use. From DeepMind's science-skills collection, so it's built by people who actually use this stuff for research work.

skills.sh installs: 2.2K
GitHub stars: 3.4K
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add google-deepmind/science-skills --skill dbsnp-database --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

dbSNP Database Integration

Prerequisites

uv: Read the uv skill and follow its Setup instructions to ensure uv is installed and on PATH.
User Notification: If .licenses/dbsnp_database_LICENSE.txt does not already exist in the workspace root directory then (1) prominently notify the user to check the terms at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/snp/, then (2) create the file recording the notification text and timestamp.
.env file: Make sure the .env file exists in your home directory. Create one if it does not exist.
NCBI_API_KEY (optional): Raises the NCBI rate limit from 3 to 10 requests/second. The skill works without it, but a key is recommended if the user plans many queries or encounters a 429 error. You can register for a key for free at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/settings/. You MUST use the safe credentials protocol in the credentials skill to check for and request this key if this skill looks relevant to the user's request.