Question regarding which MP database version is exposed via OPTIMADE API

Materials Project
1

Hi MP devs,

I’m using the MP OPTIMADE API to continuously screen new materials as they are added to MP. In doing this, I’m realising that either a) new entries in MP database releases are not being exposed via the OPTIMADE API, or b) last_modified timestamps in the OPTIMADE API are being incorrectly computed.

Sorting the MP by last_modified date via OPTIMADE (https://optimade.materialsproject.org/v1/structures?sort=-last_modified) seems to indicate that the OPTIMADE API is stuck in March 2023. Outside of GNome MP IDs (which may not being exposed via OPTIMADE for other reasons), I’m struggling to find an MP-ID that has been added in e.g., 2024 to test this out.

Is this a bug or has the OPTIMADE API not been updated, and if no, are there plans to continue supporting OPTIMADE for new entries? Thanks!

2

Hi @ml-evs,

Our OPTIMADE endpoint was last updated prior to the start of the GNoME dataset being incorporated into MP and due to access control restrictions we won’t be able to serve any licensed data (datasets like GNoME) through our OPTIMADE endpoint.

For your main question though, we have planned on trying to update our OPTIMADE endpoint when we have sufficient amounts of new data and available development cycles.

If you need the most up-to-date data we recommend using the mp_api client as that is where we can guarantee that we can serve all of our data products amidst any internal infrastructure or data changes.