Find similar objects

How do you find similar objects in Tallyfy Answers?

The recommendation endpoint allows you to discover objects similar to a specified reference object.

This similarity search uses vector embeddings to find objects with related characteristics, which is useful for recommendation systems, content discovery, and finding related items.

How does similarity search work in Tallyfy Answers?

Tallyfy Answers uses semantic similarity to find related objects through this process:

1. Each object’s text content is converted into vector embeddings (numerical representations)
2. When searching for similar objects, Tallyfy compares vector distances
3. Objects with closer vector distances are considered more similar
4. Results are ranked by similarity score from most to least similar

API endpoint

GET /collections/{collection_name}/recommend/{object_id}

Path parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
collection_name	string	Yes	Name of the collection to search in
object_id	string	Yes	ID of the reference object to find similar objects to

Query parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
limit	integer	No	4	Maximum number of similar objects to return (1-20)

Response

A successful similarity search request returns a 200 OK status code and a JSON response containing:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "product-456",
      "score": 0.89,
      "document": {
        "name": "Bluetooth Speaker",
        "description": "Portable waterproof speaker with 20-hour battery life",
        "price": 129.99,
        "categories": ["electronics", "audio"]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "product-789",
      "score": 0.72,
      "document": {
        "name": "Wireless Earbuds",
        "description": "Premium noise-canceling earbuds with charging case",
        "price": 99.99,
        "categories": ["electronics", "audio"]
      }
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "limit": 10,
    "found": 2
  }
}

Response fields

Field	Type	Description
results	array	List of similar objects with similarity scores
results[].id	string	Unique identifier of the similar object
results[].score	float	Similarity score (0.0-1.0)1 where higher is more similar
results[].document	object	Full content of the similar object
meta.limit	integer	Maximum number of results requested
meta.found	integer	Total number of similar objects found

Error scenarios

Status	Description
404	Collection or reference object not found
400	Invalid parameters or filter syntax

Example request

# Find objects similar to article-123, limit to 5 results
curl -X GET "https://answers.tallyfy.com/collections/docs/recommend/article-123?limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key"

What are common use cases for similarity search?

• Product recommendations: “Customers who viewed this also viewed…”
• Content discovery: Finding related articles or documentation
• Similarity matching: Identifying near-duplicate content
• Alternative suggestions: Offering similar options when an item is unavailable

What are best practices for similarity search?

• Start with a lower min_score threshold and adjust based on result quality
• Use the filter parameter to combine similarity with business rules
• For better recommendations, ensure your objects contain rich, descriptive text
• Include diverse object attributes to improve similarity matching accuracy

Related articles

Answers > Collections

Collections in Tallyfy Answers are organizational structures that group similar objects together like database tables and provide features for searching filtering and managing data with automatic schema detection and complete CRUD operations.

Objects > Get an object

The Tallyfy Answers API endpoint retrieves complete individual object data from collections using unique identifiers through a GET request that returns full object properties including system-generated timestamps.

Answers > Search

Tallyfy Answers search combines AI semantic understanding with traditional keyword matching to deliver relevant results through natural language queries and exact term searches with smart filtering and instant results.

Objects > Delete an object

The DELETE endpoint permanently removes specific objects from Tallyfy Answers collections using unique identifiers and returns confirmation upon successful deletion with no recovery option available.

Footnotes

1. Cosine similarity scoring where perfect match equals 1.0, high similarity above 0.8, low below 0.5 ↩