Use the Python API

The CLI and the MCP server are thin wrappers around seven resolver functions. You can call them directly from code that has dicom-standard-kb installed.

Example

values.py

from pathlib import Path

from dicom_kb.db.models import read_sqlite
from dicom_kb.query.markdown import render_markdown
from dicom_kb.query.resolver import attribute_values

db = Path.home() / ".cache/dicom-standard-kb/db/2026d.sqlite"
with read_sqlite(db) as connection:
    response = attribute_values(connection, name="PatientSex", edition="2026d")
    print(response.status)
    print(render_markdown(response))

read_sqlite opens the database read-only and closes it afterwards.

Resolvers

All are importable from dicom_kb.query.resolver. Each takes an open sqlite3.Connection as its first argument and keyword-only arguments after it, including the edition the database holds.

Function	Arguments	Tool
element_usage	name, edition, iod=None	dicom_element
iod_modules	name, edition, expand=False, types=None, usage=None, module=None, page=1	dicom_iod
module_attributes	name, edition, detail="outline", types=None, page=1	dicom_module
attribute_values	name, edition, within=None, page=1	dicom_values
code_lookup	query, edition, scheme=None, page=1	dicom_code
search_standard	query, edition, part=None, limit=10	dicom_search
read_standard	reference, edition, page=1	dicom_read

The response

Each resolver returns a ToolResponse from dicom_kb.query.answer_contracts:

Field	Meaning
status	ok, not_found or validation_error
result	The answer’s data; for anything but ok, a message and maybe candidates
refs	StandardRef entries: part, section or table, and edition
warnings	Present only when the answer is missing something the source has

The shape of result differs by resolver and is not a stable interface. Use render_markdown(response) from dicom_kb.query.markdown for the same text the CLI and MCP server return.