zulip/templates/zerver/api/get-messages.md

Get messages

Fetch message history from a Zulip server.

GET {{ api_url }}/v1/messages

This GET /api/v1/messages endpoint is the primary way to fetch message history from a Zulip server. It is useful both for Zulip clients (e.g. the web, desktop, mobile, and terminal clients) as well as bots, API clients, backup scripts, etc.

By specifying a narrow filter, you can use this endpoint to fetch the messages matching any search query that is supported by Zulip's powerful full-text search backend.

When a narrow is not specified, it can be used to fetch a user's message history (We recommend paginating to 1000 messages at a time).

In either case, you specify an anchor message (or ask the server to calculate the first unread message for you and use that as the anchor), as well as a number of messages before and after the anchor message. The server returns those messages, sorted by message ID, as well as some metadata that makes it easy for a client to determine whether there are more messages matching the query that were not returned due to the num_before and num_after limits.

We recommend using num_before <= 1000 and num_after <= 1000 to avoid generating very large HTTP responses. A maximum of 5000 messages can be obtained per request; attempting to exceed this will result in an error.

Usage examples

{start_tabs} {tab|python}

{generate_code_example(python)|/messages:get|example}

{tab|js}

More examples and documentation can be found here.

const zulip = require('zulip-js');

// Pass the path to your zuliprc file here.
const config = {
    zuliprc: 'zuliprc',
};

zulip(config).then((client) => {
    const readParams = {
        stream,
        type: 'stream',
        anchor: res.id,
        num_before: 1,
        num_after: 1,
    };

    // Fetch messages anchored around id (1 before, 1 after)
    return client.messages.retrieve(readParams);
}).then(console.log);

{tab|curl}

curl -X GET {{ api_url }}/v1/messages \
    -u BOT_EMAIL_ADDRESS:BOT_API_KEY \
    -d "anchor=42" \
    -d "use_first_unread_anchor=false" \
    -d "num_before=3" \
    -d "num_after=14" \
    -d 'narrow=[{"operator":"stream", "operand":"party"}]' \

{end_tabs}

Arguments

{generate_api_arguments_table|zulip.yaml|/messages:get}

Response

Return values

When a request is successful, this endpoint returns a dictionary containing the following (in addition to the msg and result keys present in all Zulip API responses).

• anchor: the same anchor specified in the request.
• found_newest: whether the messages list includes the latest message in the narrow.
• found_oldest: whether the messages list includes the oldest message in the narrow.
• found_anchor: whether it was possible to fetch the requested anchor, or the closest in the narrow has been used.
• messages: an array of message objects, each containing the following fields:
  • avatar_url: The URL of the user's avatar.
  • client: A Zulip "client" string, describing what Zulip client sent the message.
  • content: The content/body of the message.
  • content_type: The HTTP content_type for the message content. This will be text/html or text/x-markdown, depending on whether apply_markdown was set.
  • display_recipient: Data on the recipient of the message; either the name of a stream or a dictionary containing data on the users who received the message.
  • flags: The user's message flags for the message.
  • id: The unique message ID. Messages should always be displayed sorted by ID.
  • is_me_message: Whether the message is a /me status message
  • reactions: Data on any reactions to the message.
  • recipient_id: A unique ID for the set of users receiving the message (either a stream or group of users). Useful primarily for hashing.
  • sender_email: The email address of the message's sender.
  • sender_full_name: The full name of the message's sender.
  • sender_id: The user ID of the message's sender.
  • sender_realm_str: A string identifier for the realm the sender is in.
  • sender_short_name: Reserved for future use.
  • stream_id: Only present for stream messages; the ID of the stream.
  • subject: The topic of the message (only present for stream messages). The name is a legacy holdover from when topics were called "subjects".
  • subject_links: Data on any links to be included in the topic line (these are generated by custom linkification filters that match content in the message's topic.)
  • submessages: Data used for certain experimental Zulip integrations.
  • timestamp: The UNIX timestamp for when the message was sent, in UTC seconds.
  • type: The type of the message: stream or private.

Example response

A typical successful JSON response may look like:

{generate_code_example|/messages:get|fixture(200)}