Search Dataset | Captain

import requests
import json
BASE_URL = "https://api.captain.dev"
API_KEY = "your_api_key"
headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}",
}
# Search a single dataset
response = requests.get(
    f"{BASE_URL}/v2/datasets/nytimes/search",
    headers=headers,
    params={"q": "artificial intelligence", "limit": 5},
    timeout=75.0
)
print(json.dumps(response.json(), indent=2))

{
  "dataset": "nytimes",
  "query": "artificial intelligence",
  "limit": 5,
  "results": [
    {
      "title": "Meta Lays Off 700 Employees, While Rewarding Top Executives",
      "url": "https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/technology/meta-layoffs-ai-executives.html",
      "author": "Eli Tan",
      "date": "03/25/2026, 07:22 PM, +0000 UTC",
      "snippet": null,
      "source": "New York Times"
    },
    {
      "title": "People Loved the Dot-Com Boom. The A.I. Boom, Not So Much.",
      "url": "https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/technology/ai-boom-dot-com.html",
      "author": "David Streitfeld",
      "date": "03/15/2026, 08:00 AM, +0000 UTC",
      "snippet": null,
      "source": "New York Times"
    }
  ],
  "total_results": 100
}

Search for articles within a news dataset.

Performs search constrained to the dataset’s domain.

Supported Datasets:

nytimes: New York Times (nytimes.com)
washpost: Washington Post (washingtonpost.com)
sfstandard: SF Standard (sfstandard.com)
sacbee: Sacramento Bee (sacbee.com)
sfchronicle: San Francisco Chronicle (sfchronicle.com)
newyorker: The New Yorker (newyorker.com)
theatlantic: The Atlantic (theatlantic.com)
sjmercury: San Jose Mercury News (mercurynews.com)
latimes: Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
wired: WIRED (wired.com)
scientificamerican: Scientific American (scientificamerican.com)

Headers:

Authorization: Bearer {api_key} - Captain API key for authentication
X-Organization-ID: Organization UUID

Query Parameters:

q: Search query (required)
limit: Maximum results to return (default: 10, max: 100)

Returns: List of search results with title, URL, snippet, and date.

Example:

GET /v2/datasets/nytimes/search?q=artificial+intelligence&limit=5

Path parameters

datasetstringRequired

The news dataset to search

Query parameters

qstringRequired

Search query

limitintegerOptional1-100Defaults to 10

Maximum number of results to return

authorstring or nullOptional

Filter by author/byline name (appended as quoted phrase to search)

Response

Successful Response

datasetstring

querystring

errorstring or nullOptional

Error message if search failed

limitintegerOptionalDefaults to 10

resultslist of objectsOptional

total_resultsintegerOptionalDefaults to 0

Errors

400

Bad Request Error

401

Unauthorized Error

403

Forbidden Error

500

Internal Server Error

502

Bad Gateway Error

503

Service Unavailable Error

504

Gateway Timeout Error