Smart Search

Welcome to Our New API Docs! This is the new home for all things API (previously at Canvas LMS REST API Documentation).

Smart Search API

BETA: This API resource is not finalized, and there could be breaking changes before its final release.

API for AI-powered course content search. NOTE: This feature has limited availability at present.

A SearchResult object looks like:

// Reference to an object that matches a smart search
{
  // The ID of the matching object.
  "content_id": 2,
  // The type of the matching object.
  "content_type": "WikiPage",
  // The title of the matching object.
  "title": "Nicolaus Copernicus",
  // The body of the matching object.
  "body": "Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance-era mathematician and astronomer who...",
  // The Canvas URL of the matching object.
  "html_url": "https://canvas.example.com/courses/123/pages/nicolaus-copernicus",
  // The distance between the search query and the result. Smaller numbers
  // indicate closer matches.
  "distance": 0.212
}

Search course content

SmartSearchController#search

BETA: This API endpoint is not finalized, and there could be breaking changes before its final release.

GET /api/v1/courses/:course_id/smartsearch

Scope: url:GET|/api/v1/courses/:course_id/smartsearch

Find course content using a meaning-based search

Request Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
q	Required string	The search query
filter[]	string	Types of objects to search. By default, all supported types are searched. Supported types include pages, assignments, announcements, and discussion_topics.
include[]	string	Optional information to include with each search result: modules An array of module objects that the search result belongs to. status The published status for all results and the due_date for all assignments. Allowed values: status, modules

Returns a list of SearchResult objects.

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This documentation is generated directly from the Canvas LMS source code, available on Github.