Use the Tallyfy Answers recommendation endpoint to find objects similar to a reference object…
Search
How does search work in Tallyfy Answers?
Section titled “How does search work in Tallyfy Answers?”In Tallyfy Answers, search combines AI understanding with keyword matching to find the most relevant results.
Search allows you to find specific objects within your Tallyfy Answers collections1 using natural language queries or specific terms. The system understands both the meaning behind your query and exact keyword matches.
What makes Tallyfy Answers search different?
Section titled “What makes Tallyfy Answers search different?”Tallyfy Answers uses hybrid search technology2 that combines:
- Semantic Understanding - Understands the meaning and context of your search query
- Keyword Matching - Finds exact terms and phrases in each object’s title, content and snippet
- Source Filtering - Filter results by source
How do you perform a search?
Section titled “How do you perform a search?”Here’s how to search:
GET /collections/{collection_name}/search/{query}Search needs no API key. The query goes in the URL path, so URL-encode it: a space becomes %20.
Optional parameters:
source- Limit results to one or more sources. Each name is a capital letter followed by lowercase letters, and several names are joined by commas with no spaces, such asProorPro,Answers. Any other value gets a400.limit- How many results to return, up to 20. A larger value is treated as 20, and a value below 1 gets a422. Leave it out to get the default, which is 5 unless Tallyfy has changed it.ai_overview- Set totrueto ask for a short AI overview of the top results, written by Claude. It’s written in the background, an organization can have it turned off, and there’s a daily limit, so a response may not include one.user_session_id,org_idanduser_id- Optional identifiers recorded with the search.org_idalso decides whether that organization’s policy allows an AI overview.
If you leave out source, search uses a default source list set on the server, which is Pro unless Tallyfy has changed it. Objects with any other source won’t appear, so pass source whenever you search your own collection.
Example:
curl "https://answers.tallyfy.com/collections/docs/search/workflow%20automation?source=Documentation"What does a search return?
Section titled “What does a search return?”A search returns 200 OK with these fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
results | Matching objects, best match first |
results[].id | The object’s uid |
results[].title, url, content, source | Copied from the object. A root-relative url, such as /docs/guide, gets a trailing slash. A full URL comes back unchanged. |
results[].hierarchy | A list of the values in the object’s hierarchy, in key order. When there are two or more, the last one is left out. |
results[].snippet | An extract of content around your search terms, with each term wrapped in <mark> |
results[].score | The relevance score from reranking, or null when results weren’t reranked |
total | How many results this search can return, up to 20. If results holds fewer, a larger limit gets more. |
query | Your query as you sent it |
normalized_query | Present only when punctuation was removed from your query. It’s what was searched. |
ai_overview | false when you didn’t ask for an overview, it isn’t allowed, or the daily limit is reached. While one is being written, it’s an object with status set to generating and a cache_key. When a finished overview is cached, it holds that overview. It can be missing when the query doesn’t suit an overview. |
session_id | An id for this search, present when the service recorded it |
A query made only of punctuation gets a 400. A collection that doesn’t exist gets a 200 with no results, the same as a search that matched nothing.
What search features are available?
Section titled “What search features are available?”- Natural Language Queries - Ask questions like “How do I automate workflows?”
- Multi-word Search - Search with full sentences or phrases
- Source Filtering - Narrow results to specific content sources
- Related Suggestions - Get recommendations for similar content from the find similar objects endpoint, which needs the API key
Related articles
Section titled “Related articles” Tallyfy Answers is a hosted search service that matches the JSON objects you send it by meaning…
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Collections in Tallyfy Answers group similar objects together, like database tables. You can…
Footnotes
Section titled “Footnotes”About Tallyfy