II-Commons

Overview

II-Commons provides deterministic retrieval for research agents across arXiv, PubMed/PMC, and supported US policy corpora. Use it when a task needs reproducible search, metadata lookup, full-document Markdown retrieval, or a freshness check before answering with recent evidence.

The upstream project publishes a Node.js CLI as @intelligentinternet/ii-commons and a full agent skill at skills/ii-commons/.

When to Use This Skill

• Use when searching arXiv, PubMed/PMC, or supported US policy corpora for evidence.
• Use when the user asks for latest or recent research and corpus freshness matters.
• Use when you need stable identifiers, metadata, or full-document Markdown for downstream analysis.
• Use when comparing evidence across scientific literature and policy documents.

How It Works

Step 1: Check Corpus Freshness

Run cutoff before freshness-sensitive searches:

npx @intelligentinternet/ii-commons cutoff

Report the relevant cutoff date before interpreting recent results.

Step 2: Search the Right Corpus

Use this argv shape. Literal examples can be typed as shown, but when the query comes from a user prompt, pass it as an argument array through the runner API instead of interpolating it into a shell string. Double quotes do not protect against command substitution in generated shell commands.

npx @intelligentinternet/ii-commons search arxiv "large language model inference" --max-results 10
npx @intelligentinternet/ii-commons search pubmed "type 2 diabetes review" --start 20240000 --max-results 10
npx @intelligentinternet/ii-commons search policy "state overtime rule for agricultural workers" --jurisdictions US-CA --max-results 10

spawnSync("npx", [
  "@intelligentinternet/ii-commons",
  "search",
  "arxiv",
  userQuery,
  "--max-results",
  "10",
]);

Choose arxiv for preprints and technical research, pubmed for biomedical and clinical literature, and policy for supported US policy corpora.

Step 3: Retrieve Metadata or Markdown

Use stable identifiers from search results:

npx @intelligentinternet/ii-commons meta "arXiv:2402.03578"
npx @intelligentinternet/ii-commons markdown "PMCID:PMC11152602"

Build summaries from search results first, then request Markdown when detailed inspection or full-document grounding is needed.

Installation

Run the CLI with npx:

npx @intelligentinternet/ii-commons --help

Or install globally:

npm install -g @intelligentinternet/ii-commons
ii-commons cutoff

To install the full upstream agent skill, install the skills/ii-commons/ folder from:

https://github.com/Intelligent-Internet/II-Commons-Skills

Best Practices

• Prefer server-side date filters such as --start and --end for time-bounded arXiv and PubMed searches.
• Preserve canonical identifiers such as arXiv:<id>, PMID:<id>, PMCID:PMC<id>, and policy:<jurisdiction>:<id>.
• Use cutoff as the authoritative freshness boundary for each corpus.
• Keep non-time filters conservative until initial search results show the right scope.

Limitations

• Requires Node.js 18 or newer and outbound network access to commons.ii.inc.
• Basic usage works without authentication; higher usage limits may require an API token from https://commons.ii.inc/.
• Supported policy coverage is limited to the policy corpora exposed by II-Commons.

Security & Safety Notes

• Do not print or expose IICOMMONSAPI_KEY values.
• Treat outputs as retrieval evidence, not expert review. For medical, legal, or policy-sensitive work, cite sources and preserve uncertainty.
• Commands call an external API service; confirm network access is allowed in the user's environment before running them.

Related Skills

• Use broader web-search or deep-research skills when evidence is outside arXiv, PubMed/PMC, or supported policy corpora.
• Use citation-management skills after II-Commons has identified stable source records.