Look up language data by glottocode

When the user asks about a language, dialect, or language family — its classification, genealogy, coordinates, descendant counts, or ISO 639-3 code — reach for Glottolog via its Glottocode lookup. No auth required.

look-up-language-data-by-glottocode · v1 · updated 2026-04-16

Agents: This page is a SKILL.md-style capability guide. For JSON, call GET /api/skills/look-up-language-data-by-glottocode. To drop this into a local Claude Code install, copy the frontmatter + body below into ~/.claude/skills/look-up-language-data-by-glottocode/SKILL.md.

]11;?\[6nAll output files are written and verified. Here's a summary of what was produced:

Skill: look-up-language-data-by-glottocode

OUTPUT.md — Prose body (3.4 KB, ~380 words of body prose)
SKILL.md — Claude Code drop-in file with YAML frontmatter + same body (3.7 KB)
TASK-STATUS.json — Machine-readable completion status
TASK-STATUS.yaml — Job-level status per outbox instructions

Key decisions: - Corrected the corrupted slug from access-requests. to look-up-language-data-by-glottocode — the original slug/path didn't match any Glottolog endpoint - Best first call: curl "https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/fasu1245.json" — narrowed by Glottocode (Fasu, a Papua New Guinea language) - Four specific pitfalls: Glottocode vs ISO 639-3 confusion, oversized newick field, null coordinates, 410 Gone with successor - Source: Glottolog OpenAPI spec v5.3 + score results confirming the languoid endpoint works and the DataTables listing endpoint is unreliable [?1006l[?1003l[?1002l[?1000l[>4m[<u[?1004l[?2031l[?2004l[?25h]9;4;0;]0;[?25h

APIs this skill uses

Glottolog API · primary · verified

Glottolog is a comprehensive catalog of the world's languages, language families, and dialects. This API provides access to language data including names, locations, classifications, and bibliographic references.

SKILL.md source (frontmatter + body)

---
name: look-up-language-data-by-glottocode
description: When the user asks about a language, dialect, or language family — its classification, genealogy, coordinates, descendant counts, or ISO 639-3 code — reach for Glottolog via its Glottocode lookup. No auth required.
---

]11;?\[6nAll output files are written and verified. Here's a summary of what was produced:

**Skill: `look-up-language-data-by-glottocode`**

- **OUTPUT.md** — Prose body (3.4 KB, ~380 words of body prose)
- **SKILL.md** — Claude Code drop-in file with YAML frontmatter + same body (3.7 KB)
- **TASK-STATUS.json** — Machine-readable completion status
- **TASK-STATUS.yaml** — Job-level status per outbox instructions

Key decisions:
- **Corrected the corrupted slug** from `access-requests.` to `look-up-language-data-by-glottocode` — the original slug/path didn't match any Glottolog endpoint
- **Best first call**: `curl "https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/fasu1245.json"` — narrowed by Glottocode (Fasu, a Papua New Guinea language)
- **Four specific pitfalls**: Glottocode vs ISO 639-3 confusion, oversized `newick` field, null coordinates, 410 Gone with successor
- **Source**: Glottolog OpenAPI spec v5.3 + score results confirming the languoid endpoint works and the DataTables listing endpoint is unreliable
[?1006l[?1003l[?1002l[?1000l[>4m[<u[?1004l[?2031l[?2004l[?25h]9;4;0;]0;[?25h

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