# /iso/standards/search

`POST /api/iso/standards/search`

Price: 20 credits

Search the ISO catalogue of international standards by free text over the reference, the title and the scope abstract, optionally restricting the match to one of those fields and narrowing by the year the catalogue page was last maintained. Each result carries the reference, the title, the scope abstract and the catalogue number that /iso/standards takes.

## How to use it

Use this to turn a subject or a reference like 'ISO 9001' into the catalogue number `id` that /iso/standards needs — that endpoint takes the number, never the reference. Set `search_scope` to reference when the query is a document number, otherwise a reference query also matches every standard whose abstract mentions it. Results are the ISO website's search index, which covers the standards published on iso.org rather than every deliverable ISO has ever issued, and it carries no committee, ICS or stage information — call /iso/standards on a result's `id` for those. `page_updated` mirrors the `updated_from_year`/`updated_to_year` filters above, not a publication date. `count` tops out at 1000 with no further pages beyond that, so split a broad subject into narrower phrases rather than raising it.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `query` (string, nullable) — Free text matched against the reference, the title and the scope abstract (examples: "quality management", "ISO 9001", "information security"; minLength: 1)
- `search_scope` (string) — Which part of the record the query is matched against: all three fields, only the reference ('ISO 9001' then matches the 9001 family rather than every standard mentioning quality), only the title, or only the scope abstract (default: "all"; one of: "all", "reference", "title", "abstract")
- `updated_from_year` (integer, nullable) — Earliest year the catalogue page was last updated. This is ISO's content-maintenance year, not the year the standard was published — read the year in `reference` for that (min: 1900; max: 2100)
- `updated_to_year` (integer, nullable) — Latest year the catalogue page was last updated, on the same content-maintenance scale (min: 1900; max: 2100)
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of results to return (min: 1; max: 1000)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "IsoStandardCard")
- `id` (string, nullable)
- `reference` (string, nullable)
- `standard_title` (string, nullable)
- `abstract` (string, nullable)
- `url` (string, nullable)
- `record_status` (string, nullable)
- `page_updated` (string, nullable)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

updated_from_year is later than updated_to_year, or search_scope was set without a query

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

No ISO standard matched the query

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.