epo

name

epo

description

Use this skill when working with EPO Open Patent Services (OPS) data through the local `epo` CLI: authentication, published-data retrieval/search, family analysis, register/legal lookups, CPC classification queries, number-format conversion, usage/quota checks, and agent-oriented JSON extraction workflows. Use it for patent research tasks that require reproducible terminal commands and structured outputs.

EPO OPS CLI

Use this skill to run patent research and CLI QA against the local epo binary with reproducible commands and structured output.

Recipes

Find recent patents by a company:

epo pub search --query 'pa="SAP SE" and pd within "20250101 20260307"' --summary -f json -q

Get the patent family:

epo family summary EP4610885A1 -f json -q

Check prosecution/legal status:

epo status EP.4610885.A1 --register-ref EP22198765 -f json -q

Normalize a messy patent number:

epo number normalize EP04610885 -f json -q

Browse recent grants in a CPC class:

epo pub recent --cpc G06N --days 30 --summary -f json -q

Quick Start

1. Configure credentials:

• epo config set-creds --from-env
• epo config set-creds --from-dotenv .env
• or epo auth configure --client-id ... --client-secret ...

2. Inspect config when needed:

epo config show -f json -q

3. Use machine-readable output for all agent flows:

epo <command> -f json -q

4. Use the command catalog as source of truth:

epo methods --json -f json -q

Workflow

1. Classify task:

• publication search/retrieval
• family/legal/register timeline
• CPC/number conversion
• usage/quota diagnostics

2. Pick the smallest command that answers the question.

3. Start narrow, then fan out:

• search with bounded range or precise date window
• confirm schema with one item
• use --all only after confirming throttle headroom

4. Use agent-friendly projections:

• --summary, --flat, --pick, and stdin batch mode where useful

5. Handle throttle/errors with bounded retries.

6. Return concise evidence:

• key fields
• exact command used
• explicit unresolved gaps if endpoint fails

Research Defaults

• Prefer -f json -q.
• Prefer pub search --summary for quick answerability.
• Prefer family summary before family get for triage.
• Prefer legal get --flat and register get --summary for diligence timelines.
• Use status to merge legal + register + procedural data in one response.
• Use usage quota before large fan-out runs.
• Do not spend a turn on epo auth check before normal commands; the CLI already reports missing or invalid credentials.

Reference Files

• Command routing: references/commands.md
• End-to-end workflows: references/workflows.md
• Query/identifier patterns: references/query-patterns.md
• Error and throttle handling: references/errors-throttling.md