list_categories

List the top-level product categories and their subcategories covered by this service. Subcategories are enumerable: each carries a human-readable name and a stable subcategory_id you can pass directly to get_top100.

When to use: always call this first — every category-scoped tool takes a category_id or subcategory_id returned here.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
(none)	—	—	—

Example call

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 3, "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {"name": "list_categories", "arguments": {}}
}

Response shape

{
  "categories": [
    {
      "category_id": "all-departments",
      "name": "All Departments",
      "subcategories": [
        {"subcategory_id": "7073960011", "name": "Portable Power Banks"},
        {"subcategory_id": "...", "name": "On-Dash Cameras"}
      ],
      "coverage_status": "covered"
    }
  ],
  "notes": {"confidence": "...", "data_as_of": "...", "...": "..."}
}

*(abbreviated for readability)*

Field notes

Field	Description
`categories[].category_id`	Slug identifier for top-level category tools (`get_top100(category_id)`, `get_category_brief`)
`categories[].name`	Display name, mirrors Amazon's public department naming
`categories[].subcategories[].subcategory_id`	Numeric node identifier; pass it verbatim to `get_top100(subcategory_id=...)`
`categories[].subcategories[].name`	Human-readable subcategory name
`coverage_status`	`"covered"` — the category is in active coverage

Tool note

Subcategory names mirror Amazon's public category tree. Use get_top100 with either the parent category_id (whole department) or a specific subcategory_id (single list).

Related tools

get_top100 — rankings for a category or a single subcategory
get_category_brief — structured market brief for a top-level category