World Bank API Skill

An Agent Skill that teaches AI agents (Claude Code, Claude.ai, and other skill-compatible agents) how to use the free World Bank Indicators API.

The API exposes ~30,000 time-series indicators — GDP, population, inflation, unemployment, life expectancy, CO2 emissions, poverty, trade and more — for 217 economies and 78 aggregates, some series back to 1960. No API key, no signup.

What the skill enables

Once loaded, an agent can reliably:

• Answer "GDP of X" / "compare Y across countries" in one step with the bundled wb_data.py script (zero dependencies, Python stdlib only)
• Query any indicator for any mix of countries, aggregates, or all economies
• Use the right time selectors (date ranges, mrv, mrnev, gapfill) and know why mrnev beats mrv for "the latest number"
• Find indicator codes by keyword despite the API having no server-side search
• Discover indicators via topics (21) and sources (~70), and fetch country metadata (region, income level, capital)
• Pull the few monthly/quarterly series (Global Economic Monitor, quarterly debt)
• Get localized labels (en, es, fr, ar, zh)
• Avoid real-world pitfalls (XML default without format=json, errors arriving as HTTP 200 message envelopes, archived indicator codes like the old CO2 series, aggregates mixed into country/all, economies the World Bank doesn't cover, transient HTML error pages)

All request/response examples and every indicator code in the skill were verified against the live API.

Repository layout

skills/
└── worldbank-api/
    ├── SKILL.md                  # Entry point: workflow, top indicator codes, errors, tips
    ├── scripts/
    │   └── wb_data.py            # Zero-dependency CLI: indicator + countries → formatted series
    └── references/
        ├── endpoints.md          # Full endpoint catalog + all query parameters
        └── indicators.md         # Verified indicator codes grouped by topic

Installation

Claude Code (plugin marketplace — recommended)

This plugin is distributed through the NanookAI/skills marketplace. Inside Claude Code, run:

/plugin marketplace add NanookAI/skills
/plugin install worldbank-api@nanookai-skills

The skill is then available in every project, and /plugin marketplace update picks up new versions.

Claude Code (per-project)

Copy the skill folder into your project's .claude/skills/ directory:

cp -r skills/worldbank-api /path/to/your-project/.claude/skills/

Claude Code (personal, all projects)

cp -r skills/worldbank-api ~/.claude/skills/

Claude.ai / other agents

Package the skill folder (respecting .skillignore) into a .skill bundle, or upload the skills/worldbank-api/ folder contents wherever your agent platform accepts skills. The skill is self-contained; the bundled script needs only a Python 3.8+ standard library (no packages to install), and everything else is plain documentation.

Try it

After installing, ask your agent things like:

• "Compare GDP per capita of Japan, Korea, and Germany over the last 20 years"
• "What's the current population of the world?"
• "Which countries have the highest inflation right now?"
• "Plot China's CO2 emissions per capita since 2000"
• "What share of people in India use the internet?"

About the API

• Base URL: https://api.worldbank.org/v2 (always add format=json)
• Free and keyless, no documented rate limit — but be gentle with concurrency; the server throttles bursts
• Official docs: Indicators API Documentation
• Data licensed under CC BY 4.0 (attribution: World Bank)

License

The skill documentation in this repository is provided as-is. World Bank data is subject to the World Bank's own terms of use.