# /fourchan/boards/search

`POST /api/fourchan/boards/search`

Price: 1 credit

List 4chan's boards with their slug, title, description and posting rules: page count, threads per page, bump and image limits, file size and comment limits, posting cooldowns, whether the board is work-safe, keeps an archive, shows poster ids or country flags, and its board-flag codes

## How to use it

Start here: every other 4chan endpoint needs a board slug, and `alias` is that slug. `has_archive` tells you whether a board's dead threads survive a few days more, so it narrows which boards fourchan/threads/archive serves without promising it — `/r/` declares an archive and is refused there. `shows_poster_ids` and `shows_country_flags` explain why `poster_id` and `country` are populated on some boards and absent on the rest, and `board_flags` maps that board's flag codes to their labels. `query`, `worksafe_only` and `archived_only` are applied to the directory after it is read, so they never reach 4chan as a search.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of boards to return (min: 1)
- `query` (string, nullable) — Keep only boards whose slug, title or description contains this text, matched case-insensitively (examples: "technology", "video games"; minLength: 1)
- `worksafe_only` (boolean) — Keep only boards 4chan marks as work-safe, excluding its adult boards (default: false)
- `archived_only` (boolean) — Keep only boards that keep an archive of dead threads (default: false)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "FourchanBoard")
- `alias` (string, required)
- `url` (string, nullable)
- `description` (string, nullable)
- `is_worksafe` (boolean, nullable)
- `has_archive` (boolean, nullable)
- `page_count` (integer, nullable)
- `threads_per_page` (integer, nullable)
- `bump_limit` (integer, nullable)
- `image_limit` (integer, nullable)
- `max_file_size` (integer, nullable)
- `max_webm_file_size` (integer, nullable)
- `max_webm_duration` (integer, nullable)
- `max_comment_chars` (integer, nullable)
- `min_image_width` (integer, nullable)
- `min_image_height` (integer, nullable)
- `cooldown_threads` (integer, nullable)
- `cooldown_replies` (integer, nullable)
- `cooldown_images` (integer, nullable)
- `has_spoilers` (boolean, nullable)
- `custom_spoiler_count` (integer, nullable)
- `shows_poster_ids` (boolean, nullable)
- `shows_country_flags` (boolean, nullable)
- `board_flags` (object) (default: {})
  - `*` (string)
- `has_webm_audio` (boolean, nullable)
- `has_oekaki` (boolean, nullable)
- `has_code_tags` (boolean, nullable)
- `has_math_tags` (boolean, nullable)
- `has_sjis_tags` (boolean, nullable)
- `requires_subject` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_text_only` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_forced_anon` (boolean, nullable)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

The entity was not found, or a precondition failed

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.