/lobsters/tags/search

POST /api/lobsters/tags/search

Price: 1 credit

List the Lobsters tag vocabulary: each tag's name, one-line description, category, hotness modifier, and whether it is still accepting stories, reserved to moderators, or a media tag

How to use it

Read this before calling lobsters/stories/search with `tags`: a tag that is not in this list is a 412 there, not an empty result. `hotness_modifier` is the ranking weight Lobsters applies to a tag, so a negative value marks a topic the site deliberately pushes down the front page. An inactive tag still has stories filed under it historically and still resolves.

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 tags to return (min: 1)
• query string nullable — Keep only tags whose name or description contains this text, matched case-insensitively (examples: "rust", "security"; minLength: 1)
• category string nullable — Keep only tags in this category, such as languages, practices or os (examples: "languages", "practices"; minLength: 1)
• active_only boolean — Keep only tags stories can still be filed under (default: false)

Response

• @type string (default: "LobstersTag")
• alias string required
• url string nullable
• description string nullable
• category string nullable
• hotness_modifier number nullable
• is_active boolean nullable
• is_media boolean nullable
• is_privileged boolean nullable

Errors

• 422 — The request body did not validate Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.
• 408 — The request ran past its time limit 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 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 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 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 Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

Response 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.