search API methods

Search for content in accounts, statuses and hashtags.

Perform a search 

GET /api/v2/search HTTP/1.1

Perform a search for content in accounts, statuses and hashtags with the given parameters.

Returns: Search
OAuth: Public (without resolve or offset), or User token + read:search
Version history:
2.4.1 - added, limit hardcoded to 5
2.8.0 - add type, limit, offset, min_id, max_id, account_id
3.0.0 - add exclude_unreviewed param
3.3.0 - min_id and max_id can be used together
4.0.0 - no longer requires a user token. Without a valid user token, you cannot use the resolve or offset parameters.

Request

Headers
Authorization
required Provide this header with Bearer <user_token> to gain authorized access to this API method.
Query parameters
q
required String. The search query.
type
String. Specify whether to search for only accounts, hashtags, statuses
resolve
Boolean. Only relevant if type includes accounts or if query is a HTTPS URL. In the first case, if true and (a) the search query is for a remote account (e.g., someaccount@someother.server) and (b) the local server does not know about the account, WebFinger is used to try and resolve the account at someother.server. This provides the best recall at higher latency. If false, only accounts the server knows about are returned. In the second case, if true, resolving the URL and returning the matching status is attempted. If false, this resolving logic is circumvented and a regular search is performed instead.
following
Boolean. Only include accounts that the user is following? Defaults to false.
account_id
String. If provided, will only return statuses authored by this account.
exclude_unreviewed
Boolean. Filter out unreviewed tags? Defaults to false. Use true when trying to find trending tags.
max_id
String. All results returned will be lesser than this ID. In effect, sets an upper bound on results.
min_id
String. Returns results immediately newer than this ID. In effect, sets a cursor at this ID and paginates forward.
limit
Integer. Maximum number of results to return, per type. Defaults to 20 results per category. Max 40 results per category.
offset
Integer. Skip the first n results.

Response

200: OK

Truncated results of a sample search for “cats” with limit=2.

{
  "accounts": [
    {
      "id": "180744",
      "username": "catstar",
      "acct": "catstar@catgram.jp",
      "display_name": "catstar",
      // ...
    },
    {
      "id": "214293",
      "username": "catsareweird",
      "acct": "catsareweird",
      "display_name": "Cats Are Weird",
      // ...
    }
  ],
  "statuses": [
    {
      "id": "103085519055545958",
      "created_at": "2019-11-05T13:23:09.000Z",
      // ...
      "content": "<p>cats<br>cats never change</p>",
      // ...
    },
    {
      "id": "101068121469614510",
      "created_at": "2018-11-14T06:31:48.000Z",
      // ...
      "spoiler_text": "Cats",
      // ...
      "content": "<p>Cats are inherently good at self-care. </p><p><a href=\"https://mspsocial.net/tags/cats\" class=\"mention hashtag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">#<span>cats</span></a></p>",
      // ...
  ],
  "hashtags": [
    {
      "id": "205",
      "name": "cats",
      "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/cats",
      "history": [
        {
          "day": "1574553600",
          "uses": "10",
          "accounts": "9"
        },
        // ...
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "708",
      "name": "catsofmastodon",
      "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/catsofmastodon",
      "history": [
        {
          "day": "1574553600",
          "uses": "6",
          "accounts": "5"
        },
        // ...
      ]
    }
  ]
}
401: Unauthorized

Invalid or missing Authorization header.

{
  "error": "The access token is invalid"
}

Perform a search (v1) removed 

GET /api/v1/search HTTP/1.1

Returns: Search, but hashtags is an array of strings instead of an array of Tag.
OAuth: User token + read:search
Version history:
1.1 - added, limit hardcoded to 5
1.5.0 - now requires authentication
2.4.1 - deprecated in favor of v2 search
2.8.0 - added limit, pagination, and account options
3.0.0 - removed; use v2 search instead

Request

Headers
Authorization
required Provide this header with Bearer <user_token> to gain authorized access to this API method.
Query parameters
q
required String. The search query.
type
String. Specify whether to search for only accounts, hashtags, statuses
resolve
Boolean. Attempt WebFinger lookup? Defaults to false.
account_id
String. If provided, will only return statuses authored by this account.
max_id
String. All results returned will be lesser than this ID. In effect, sets an upper bound on results.
min_id
String. Returns results immediately newer than this ID. In effect, sets a cursor at this ID and paginates forward.
limit
Integer. Maximum number of results to return, per type. Defaults to 20 results per category. Max 40 results per category.
offset
Integer. Offset in search results, used for pagination. Defaults to 0.

Response

200: OK

v1 search was deprecated because hashtags were returned as strings instead of as Tag entities.

{
  "accounts": [...],
  "statuses": [...],
  "hashtags": ["cats","catsofmastodon"]
}
401: Unauthorized

Invalid or missing Authorization header.

{
  "error": "The access token is invalid"
}

See also

GET /api/v1/accounts/search
GET /api/v1/accounts/lookup
app/controllers/api/v2/search_controller.rb

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