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FunctionalGroups (identify_functional_groups)

Molecule Molecular Information RDKit SMILES
Table of Contents
Version: 0.1.0 Last Update: 2025/06/05 MCP Support Python Calling Support
Identify functional groups in a molecule.

Example

Input:

smiles: 'CCO'

Text Input (used for the run_text function in the Python calling mode):

smiles: 'CCO'

Output:

'This molecule contains alcohol groups, and side-chain hydroxyls.'

Usage

The tool supports both MCP mode and Python calling mode.

MCP Mode

Configure your MCP client following its instructions with something like:

{
    "command": "/ABSTRACT/PATH/TO/uv",  // Use `which uv` to get its path
    "args": ["--directory", "/ABSTRACT/PATH/TO/ChemMCP", "run", "--tools", "FunctionalGroups"],
    "toolCallTimeoutMillis": 300000,
    "env": {}
}

Python Calling Mode

import os
from chemmcp.tools import FunctionalGroups

# Initialize the tool
tool = FunctionalGroups()

# The tool has two alternative ways to run:
# 1. Run with separate input domains (recommended)
output = tool.run_code(
    smiles='CCO'
)
# 2. Run with text-only input
output = tool.run_text(
    smiles='CCO'
)

Each tool in ChemMCP has two ways to run:

  • run_code (recommended): The inputs contain one or more domains, each of which can be a str, an int, a float, etc.
  • run_text: The inputs are a single string in a specific format. The tool will parse the string to extract the input domains. This is useful in scenarios where an agent framework calls tools only with text input. The output is the same in both cases.

For the input and output domains, please refer to the tool’s signature.

Tool Signature

Input

Used in the MCP mode, as well as the run_code function in the Python calling mode.

NameTypeDefaultDescription
smilesstrN/ASMILES string of the molecule.

Text Input

Used in the run_text function in the Python calling mode.

NameTypeDefaultDescription
smilesstrN/ASMILES string of the molecule.

Output

The output is the same in both input cases.

NameTypeDescription
fgsstrA description of functional groups in the molecule.

Envs

No required environment variables for this tool.

Implementation Details

  • Implementation Description: Uses RDKit’s SMARTS patterns to identify functional groups in a molecule. The tool checks for a comprehensive list of common functional groups including alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and many others.
  • Open-source dependencies (code source or required libraries):
  • Hosted services and software (required for running the tool): None