Full-text search across a MusicBrainz entity type (artist, release-group, release, recording, work, label) using a Lucene query string. Returns ranked matches with MBID, name/title, disambiguation, type, and a 0–100 relevance score (100 = exact). Starting point when resolving a name to an MBID — chain the returned MBID into the matching musicbrainz_get_* tool. Results are in MusicBrainz score-descending order. Supports field-scoped Lucene syntax (e.g. `artist:radiohead AND country:GB`).
Artist profile by MBID: type (person/group/…), country, life span, gender, area, aliases, tags/genres, plus the discography (release-groups) and band-membership / collaboration relationships and external links (Wikidata QID, Discogs, official site — surfaced as url-rels chainable to those servers). The 80% artist-detail call. Discography and relationships are capped at one page (25); for a prolific artist's complete release-group list, call musicbrainz_browse_entities with target_type=release-group and the artist link.
Release-group ("the album" above specific pressings) by MBID: primary type (Album/Single/EP) and secondary types (Live/Compilation), first-release date, artist credit, the list of releases (editions), tags/genres, and a cover-art availability flag from the WS/2 payload (use musicbrainz_get_cover_art for actual image URLs). For a specific edition's tracklist, take a release MBID from the releases list and call musicbrainz_get_release.
One edition's full detail by MBID: the tracklist (media → tracks → recordings with lengths and recording MBIDs), label + catalog number, barcode, country, release date, format, packaging, text representation (language/script), and a cover-art availability stub. Track lengths are rendered m:ss (stored as milliseconds upstream). For the actual cover image URLs, call musicbrainz_get_cover_art with this release MBID.
Recording (a specific performance/track, distinct from the abstract work) by MBID: length, artist credits, ISRCs, the releases it appears on, the work(s) it performs (work-rels — chain to musicbrainz_get_work), and performance/production relationships (who played, produced, engineered, conducted — each with the role and the credited artist MBID). Relationships are capped at one page; for a heavily-covered recording call musicbrainz_browse_entities with target_type=recording and link.work.
Work (a composition — the song as written, distinct from any specific recording) by MBID: type, language(s), ISWCs (the work-level standard identifier), writer/composer/lyricist relationships (with the credited artist MBID), aliases, tags, and the recordings that perform it. Recording relations are capped at one page; for the complete list of recordings of a work, call musicbrainz_browse_entities with target_type=recording and link.work.
Label by MBID: type (Original Production, Reissue, Imprint, …), country, life span, label code (the LC number), area, aliases, tags, and external links (url-rels — Wikidata, Discogs, official site). A label's releases are a potentially huge linked set (a major label can have tens of thousands), so they are NOT embedded here — enumerate them with musicbrainz_browse_entities (target_type=release, link.label).
Resolve a standard identifier to MusicBrainz entities without a name search — the deterministic path when you already hold an ID. id_type=isrc → recordings (a recording-level code, often shared by several recordings); id_type=iswc → works (a composition-level code); id_type=barcode → releases (UPC/EAN). ISRC and ISWC hit dedicated exact endpoints; barcode is a Lucene search filter so results are ranked (exact match scores 100). The output kind field tells you which entity type came back.
Paginate the COMPLETE set of entities linked to a parent MBID — every release-group by an artist, every release on a label, every recording of a work, every release in a release-group. This is the only complete-enumeration path: the get_* tools embed at most one page (25) of any linked list, so use this tool whenever a linked set may exceed a page (a prolific artist, a major label with thousands of releases, a heavily-covered work). Provide exactly ONE link MBID matching a valid parent→child relationship for the target_type. Pages arbitrarily deep via offset; totalCount is the true upstream total.
Cover Art Archive images for a release or release-group MBID: front/back flags, image types, full-resolution URLs, and 250/500/1200px thumbnail URLs. Returns an empty image set (NOT an error) when the entity has no art — absence of art is information. Art is served at the release level; a release-group MBID resolves to a representative release's art automatically. URLs are linked, never rehosted — image copyright stays with the rights holders (only MusicBrainz core metadata is CC0).