clinicaltrials

name	clinicaltrials
description	Search the ClinicalTrials.gov registry through its version 2 REST API for interventional and observational studies, their phases, enrolment, endpoints, sponsors, and posted results. Use this skill to survey who is developing what against an indication, date a competitor's programme, read primary and secondary outcome measures, find eligibility criteria, and distinguish a study that completed from one that was terminated or withdrawn. Also trigger on ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT number, trial registry, study phase, enrolment, primary outcome measure, recruiting status, trial sponsor, or competitive landscape.
license	MIT
allowed-tools	Read Write Edit Bash
compatibility	Requires Python 3.10+ and outbound HTTPS access to clinicaltrials.gov. The bundled client uses only the Python standard library and needs no API key or account. The version 2 API replaced the retired classic API in June 2024. Registry entries are sponsor-submitted and are not independently verified.
metadata	{"version":"1.0","skill-author":"K-Dense Inc.","openclaw":{"emoji":"🧾","homepage":"https://clinicaltrials.gov/data-api/api"},"hermes":{"category":"research"}}

ClinicalTrials.gov

The world's largest trial registry: roughly 560 000 studies, sponsor-submitted, going back to 2000. It answers the question that no bench assay can — has anyone already tried this in people, and what happened to them when they did. For a target or an indication it is the cheapest competitive and feasibility intelligence available.

Base URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/api/v2 — REST, no key. Docs: data-api · search areas Checked against: the live v2 API, August 2026. The classic API was retired in June 2024.

Read references/api-reference.md before writing a query by hand, references/study-structure.md before reaching for a field, and references/reading-a-registry.md before drawing a conclusion from anything you find — that one is judgement, not syntax.

The three scripts

Script	Answers
ct_search.py	What is registered against this condition or drug, and how much of it?
ct_study.py	What exactly did this one study set out to do?
ct_landscape.py	Who else is in this indication, and what stops trials here?

COMPLETED does not mean it worked

This is the single thing to get right. overallStatus: COMPLETED means the study finished running. It says nothing about whether the intervention succeeded — a trial that comprehensively missed its primary endpoint completes normally.

Three separate facts, routinely conflated:

	Means
overallStatus: COMPLETED	the study finished
hasResults: true	results were posted to the registry
whether the endpoint was met	not recorded in the registry at all

hasResults is a top-level sibling of protocolSection, not part of the status module, and it is the easiest useful field to miss. ct_study.py show prints a warning when a study completed without posting results.