---
title: "Search an assistant's passages"
description: "Search an assistant's passages. Needs the query scope. Request and response shapes come from the OpenAPI description."
canonical: "https://lookio.app/docs/api/assistants/search-assistant"
updated: "2026-10-29"
---

# Search an assistant's passages



```http
POST https://api.lookio.app/v1/assistants/{assistant_id}/search
```

## Authorizations

- `Authorization` (bearer, in header, required)

## Path parameters

- `assistant_id` (`string`, required, pattern: `^ast_[abcdefghjkmnpqrstuvwxyz23456789]{12}$`)

## Header parameters

- `Idempotency-Key` (`string`, length: `1–255 chars`): A unique key for this request, such as a UUID, 1 to 255 visible ASCII characters. Send the same key when you retry: the first response is returned (with `Idempotent-Replayed: true`) instead of running the request again, for 24 hours, per credential. The same key on a different request is a 409 `conflict`. A streamed answer is not recorded.

## Body

`application/json`, required

- `question` (`string`, required, length: `1–4000 chars`): What to search for, in any language.
- `history` (`object[]`, items: `≤ 20 items`): The previous turns of your conversation, oldest first: the last question is searched with this one, so a follow-up ("and for Germany?") finds the right passages.
- `history.role` (`enum<string>`, required, one of: `user, assistant`)
- `history.content` (`string`, required, length: `≤ 12000 chars`)
- `limit` (`integer`, range: `1–20`): How many passages, 1 to 20 (default 8).

## Response

**200**: Search an assistant's passages

- `data` (`object`, required)
- `data.assistant_id` (`string`, required, pattern: `^ast_[abcdefghjkmnpqrstuvwxyz23456789]{12}$`)
- `data.passages` (`object[]`, required)
- `data.passages.n` (`integer`, required): 1-based position in the returned list, ordered from the best-matching document down.
- `data.passages.title` (`string`, required)
- `data.passages.text` (`string`, required): The passage, expanded to surrounding sentences or its section in document order. Passages come from hybrid semantic and lexical rank fusion, so no numeric similarity score is returned: read `text` to judge relevance.
- `data.passages.section` (`string[]`, required): The headings above it, outermost first.
- `data.passages.page` (`integer`)
- `data.passages.url` (`string`)
- `data.passages.source` (`string`): The resource's source line, when it has one.
- `data.credit_cost` (`integer`, required): Credits this search cost: 1.
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "data": {
    "assistant_id": "ast_66xcnwtzj8vt",
    "passages": [
      {
        "n": 1,
        "title": "Refund policy",
        "text": "You can return an item within 30 days of delivery.",
        "section": [
          "Returns"
        ],
        "url": "https://docs.acme.com/refunds"
      }
    ],
    "credit_cost": 1
  },
  "request_id": "req_01K9X7M2Q4"
}
```

**400**: Possible codes: invalid_request, unknown_field, invalid_parameter, invalid_cursor

- `error` (`object`, required)
- `error.type` (`string`, required)
- `error.code` (`string`, required)
- `error.message` (`string`, required)
- `error.param` (`string`)
- `error.docs_url` (`string`, required)
- `error.action_url` (`string<uri>`)
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "code": "<string>",
    "message": "<string>",
    "param": "<string>",
    "docs_url": "<string>",
    "action_url": "<string>"
  },
  "request_id": "<string>"
}
```

**401**: Possible codes: authentication_required, invalid_api_key, api_key_expired, api_key_revoked, invalid_access_key

- `error` (`object`, required)
- `error.type` (`string`, required)
- `error.code` (`string`, required)
- `error.message` (`string`, required)
- `error.param` (`string`)
- `error.docs_url` (`string`, required)
- `error.action_url` (`string<uri>`)
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "code": "<string>",
    "message": "<string>",
    "param": "<string>",
    "docs_url": "<string>",
    "action_url": "<string>"
  },
  "request_id": "<string>"
}
```

**402**: Possible codes: insufficient_credits

- `error` (`object`, required)
- `error.type` (`string`, required)
- `error.code` (`string`, required)
- `error.message` (`string`, required)
- `error.param` (`string`)
- `error.docs_url` (`string`, required)
- `error.action_url` (`string<uri>`)
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "code": "<string>",
    "message": "<string>",
    "param": "<string>",
    "docs_url": "<string>",
    "action_url": "<string>"
  },
  "request_id": "<string>"
}
```

**403**: Possible codes: insufficient_scope, feature_not_available, admin_required, permission_denied

- `error` (`object`, required)
- `error.type` (`string`, required)
- `error.code` (`string`, required)
- `error.message` (`string`, required)
- `error.param` (`string`)
- `error.docs_url` (`string`, required)
- `error.action_url` (`string<uri>`)
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "code": "<string>",
    "message": "<string>",
    "param": "<string>",
    "docs_url": "<string>",
    "action_url": "<string>"
  },
  "request_id": "<string>"
}
```

**404**: Possible codes: resource_not_found

- `error` (`object`, required)
- `error.type` (`string`, required)
- `error.code` (`string`, required)
- `error.message` (`string`, required)
- `error.param` (`string`)
- `error.docs_url` (`string`, required)
- `error.action_url` (`string<uri>`)
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "code": "<string>",
    "message": "<string>",
    "param": "<string>",
    "docs_url": "<string>",
    "action_url": "<string>"
  },
  "request_id": "<string>"
}
```

**409**: Possible codes: conflict, assistant_has_no_resources

- `error` (`object`, required)
- `error.type` (`string`, required)
- `error.code` (`string`, required)
- `error.message` (`string`, required)
- `error.param` (`string`)
- `error.docs_url` (`string`, required)
- `error.action_url` (`string<uri>`)
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "code": "<string>",
    "message": "<string>",
    "param": "<string>",
    "docs_url": "<string>",
    "action_url": "<string>"
  },
  "request_id": "<string>"
}
```

**413**: Possible codes: request_too_large

- `error` (`object`, required)
- `error.type` (`string`, required)
- `error.code` (`string`, required)
- `error.message` (`string`, required)
- `error.param` (`string`)
- `error.docs_url` (`string`, required)
- `error.action_url` (`string<uri>`)
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "code": "<string>",
    "message": "<string>",
    "param": "<string>",
    "docs_url": "<string>",
    "action_url": "<string>"
  },
  "request_id": "<string>"
}
```

**429**: Possible codes: rate_limited

- `error` (`object`, required)
- `error.type` (`string`, required)
- `error.code` (`string`, required)
- `error.message` (`string`, required)
- `error.param` (`string`)
- `error.docs_url` (`string`, required)
- `error.action_url` (`string<uri>`)
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "code": "<string>",
    "message": "<string>",
    "param": "<string>",
    "docs_url": "<string>",
    "action_url": "<string>"
  },
  "request_id": "<string>"
}
```

**500**: Possible codes: internal_error

- `error` (`object`, required)
- `error.type` (`string`, required)
- `error.code` (`string`, required)
- `error.message` (`string`, required)
- `error.param` (`string`)
- `error.docs_url` (`string`, required)
- `error.action_url` (`string<uri>`)
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "code": "<string>",
    "message": "<string>",
    "param": "<string>",
    "docs_url": "<string>",
    "action_url": "<string>"
  },
  "request_id": "<string>"
}
```

**503**: Possible codes: service_unavailable

- `error` (`object`, required)
- `error.type` (`string`, required)
- `error.code` (`string`, required)
- `error.message` (`string`, required)
- `error.param` (`string`)
- `error.docs_url` (`string`, required)
- `error.action_url` (`string<uri>`)
- `request_id` (`string`, required)

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "<string>",
    "code": "<string>",
    "message": "<string>",
    "param": "<string>",
    "docs_url": "<string>",
    "action_url": "<string>"
  },
  "request_id": "<string>"
}
```

**Example request**

```bash
curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://api.lookio.app/v1/assistants/<assistant_id>/search' \
  --header 'Authorization: <api-key>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
  "question": "<string>"
}'
```