The authentication and invocation methods for the Knowledge Base API are consistent with the Application Service API. However, a single Knowledge Base API token generated has the authority to operate on all visible knowledge bases under the same account. Please pay attention to data security.

Advantages of Utilizing Knowledge Base API

Leveraging the API for knowledge base maintenance significantly enhances data processing efficiency. It enables seamless data synchronization via command-line interfaces, facilitating automated operations instead of manipulating the user interface.

Key advantages include:

  • Automated Synchronization: Enables seamless integration between data systems and the Dify knowledge base, fostering efficient workflow construction.
  • Comprehensive Management: Offers functionalities such as knowledge base listing, document enumeration, and detailed querying, facilitating the development of custom data management interfaces.
  • Flexible Content Ingestion: Accommodates both plain text and file upload methodologies, supporting batch operations for addition and modification of content chunks.
  • Enhanced Productivity: Minimizes manual data handling requirements, thereby optimizing the overall user experience on the Dify platform.

How to Use

Navigate to the knowledge base page, and you can switch to the API ACCESS page from the left navigation. On this page, you can view the dataset API documentation provided by Dify and manage the credentials for accessing the dataset API in API Keys.

API Requesting Examples

Create a document from text

This api is based on an existing Knowledge and creates a new document through text based on this Knowledge.

Request example:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/document/create_by_text' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{"name": "text","text": "text","indexing_technique": "high_quality","process_rule": {"mode": "automatic"}}'

Response example:

{
  "document": {
    "id": "",
    "position": 1,
    "data_source_type": "upload_file",
    "data_source_info": {
        "upload_file_id": ""
    },
    "dataset_process_rule_id": "",
    "name": "text.txt",
    "created_from": "api",
    "created_by": "",
    "created_at": 1695690280,
    "tokens": 0,
    "indexing_status": "waiting",
    "error": null,
    "enabled": true,
    "disabled_at": null,
    "disabled_by": null,
    "archived": false,
    "display_status": "queuing",
    "word_count": 0,
    "hit_count": 0,
    "doc_form": "text_model"
  },
  "batch": ""
}

Create a Document from a file

This API is based on an existing knowledge and creates a new document through a file based on this knowledge.

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/document/create-by-file' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--form 'data="{"indexing_technique":"high_quality","process_rule":{"rules":{"pre_processing_rules":[{"id":"remove_extra_spaces","enabled":true},{"id":"remove_urls_emails","enabled":true}],"segmentation":{"separator":"###","max_tokens":500}},"mode":"custom"}}";type=text/plain' \
--form 'file=@"/path/to/file"'
{
  "document": {
    "id": "",
    "position": 1,
    "data_source_type": "upload_file",
    "data_source_info": {
      "upload_file_id": ""
    },
    "dataset_process_rule_id": "",
    "name": "Dify.txt",
    "created_from": "api",
    "created_by": "",
    "created_at": 1695308667,
    "tokens": 0,
    "indexing_status": "waiting",
    "error": null,
    "enabled": true,
    "disabled_at": null,
    "disabled_by": null,
    "archived": false,
    "display_status": "queuing",
    "word_count": 0,
    "hit_count": 0,
    "doc_form": "text_model"
  },
  "batch": ""
}

Create Documents from a File

This api is based on an existing Knowledge and creates a new document through a file based on this Knowledge.

Request example:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/document/create-by-file' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--form 'data="{"indexing_technique":"high_quality","process_rule":{"rules":{"pre_processing_rules":[{"id":"remove_extra_spaces","enabled":true},{"id":"remove_urls_emails","enabled":true}],"segmentation":{"separator":"###","max_tokens":500}},"mode":"custom"}}";type=text/plain' \
--form 'file=@"/path/to/file"'

Response example:

{
  "document": {
    "id": "",
    "position": 1,
    "data_source_type": "upload_file",
    "data_source_info": {
      "upload_file_id": ""
    },
    "dataset_process_rule_id": "",
    "name": "Dify.txt",
    "created_from": "api",
    "created_by": "",
    "created_at": 1695308667,
    "tokens": 0,
    "indexing_status": "waiting",
    "error": null,
    "enabled": true,
    "disabled_at": null,
    "disabled_by": null,
    "archived": false,
    "display_status": "queuing",
    "word_count": 0,
    "hit_count": 0,
    "doc_form": "text_model"
  },
  "batch": ""
}

Create an Empty Knowledge Base

Only used to create an empty knowledge base.

Request example:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{"name": "name", "permission": "only_me"}'

Response example:

{
  "id": "",
  "name": "name",
  "description": null,
  "provider": "vendor",
  "permission": "only_me",
  "data_source_type": null,
  "indexing_technique": null,
  "app_count": 0,
  "document_count": 0,
  "word_count": 0,
  "created_by": "",
  "created_at": 1695636173,
  "updated_by": "",
  "updated_at": 1695636173,
  "embedding_model": null,
  "embedding_model_provider": null,
  "embedding_available": null
}

Get Knowledge Base List

Request example:

curl --location --request GET 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets?page=1&limit=20' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}'

Response example:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "",
      "name": "name",
      "description": "desc",
      "permission": "only_me",
      "data_source_type": "upload_file",
      "indexing_technique": "",
      "app_count": 2,
      "document_count": 10,
      "word_count": 1200,
      "created_by": "",
      "created_at": "",
      "updated_by": "",
      "updated_at": ""
    },
    ...
  ],
  "has_more": true,
  "limit": 20,
  "total": 50,
  "page": 1
}

Delete a Knowledge Base

Request example:

curl --location --request DELETE 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}'

Response example:

204 No Content

Update a Document with Text

This api is based on an existing Knowledge and updates the document through text based on this Knowledge

Request example:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/documents/{document_id}/update_by_text' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{"name": "name","text": "text"}'

Response example:

{
  "document": {
    "id": "",
    "position": 1,
    "data_source_type": "upload_file",
    "data_source_info": {
      "upload_file_id": ""
    },
    "dataset_process_rule_id": "",
    "name": "name.txt",
    "created_from": "api",
    "created_by": "",
    "created_at": 1695308667,
    "tokens": 0,
    "indexing_status": "waiting",
    "error": null,
    "enabled": true,
    "disabled_at": null,
    "disabled_by": null,
    "archived": false,
    "display_status": "queuing",
    "word_count": 0,
    "hit_count": 0,
    "doc_form": "text_model"
  },
  "batch": ""
}

Update a document with a file

This api is based on an existing Knowledge, and updates documents through files based on this Knowledge.

Request example:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/documents/{document_id}/update-by-file' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--form 'data="{"name":"Dify","indexing_technique":"high_quality","process_rule":{"rules":{"pre_processing_rules":[{"id":"remove_extra_spaces","enabled":true},{"id":"remove_urls_emails","enabled":true}],"segmentation":{"separator":"###","max_tokens":500}},"mode":"custom"}}";type=text/plain' \
--form 'file=@"/path/to/file"'

Response example:

{
  "document": {
    "id": "",
    "position": 1,
    "data_source_type": "upload_file",
    "data_source_info": {
      "upload_file_id": ""
    },
    "dataset_process_rule_id": "",
    "name": "Dify.txt",
    "created_from": "api",
    "created_by": "",
    "created_at": 1695308667,
    "tokens": 0,
    "indexing_status": "waiting",
    "error": null,
    "enabled": true,
    "disabled_at": null,
    "disabled_by": null,
    "archived": false,
    "display_status": "queuing",
    "word_count": 0,
    "hit_count": 0,
    "doc_form": "text_model"
  },
  "batch": "20230921150427533684"
}

Get Document Embedding Status (Progress)

Request example:

curl --location --request GET 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/documents/{batch}/indexing-status' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}'

Response example:

{
  "data":[{
    "id": "",
    "indexing_status": "indexing",
    "processing_started_at": 1681623462.0,
    "parsing_completed_at": 1681623462.0,
    "cleaning_completed_at": 1681623462.0,
    "splitting_completed_at": 1681623462.0,
    "completed_at": null,
    "paused_at": null,
    "error": null,
    "stopped_at": null,
    "completed_segments": 24,
    "total_segments": 100
  }]
}

Delete a Document

Request example:

curl --location --request DELETE 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/documents/{document_id}' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}'

Response example:

{
  "result": "success"
}

Get the Document List of a Knowledge Base

Request example:

curl --location --request GET 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/documents' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}'

Response example:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "",
      "position": 1,
      "data_source_type": "file_upload",
      "data_source_info": null,
      "dataset_process_rule_id": null,
      "name": "dify",
      "created_from": "",
      "created_by": "",
      "created_at": 1681623639,
      "tokens": 0,
      "indexing_status": "waiting",
      "error": null,
      "enabled": true,
      "disabled_at": null,
      "disabled_by": null,
      "archived": false
    },
  ],
  "has_more": false,
  "limit": 20,
  "total": 9,
  "page": 1
}

Add Chunks to a Document

Request example:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/documents/{document_id}/segments' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{"segments": [{"content": "1","answer": "1","keywords": ["a"]}]}'

Response example:

{
  "data": [{
    "id": "",
    "position": 1,
    "document_id": "",
    "content": "1",
    "answer": "1",
    "word_count": 25,
    "tokens": 0,
    "keywords": [
        "a"
    ],
    "index_node_id": "",
    "index_node_hash": "",
    "hit_count": 0,
    "enabled": true,
    "disabled_at": null,
    "disabled_by": null,
    "status": "completed",
    "created_by": "",
    "created_at": 1695312007,
    "indexing_at": 1695312007,
    "completed_at": 1695312007,
    "error": null,
    "stopped_at": null
  }],
  "doc_form": "text_model"
}

Get Chunks from a Document

Request example:

curl --location --request GET 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/documents/{document_id}/segments' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'

Response example:

{
  "data": [{
    "id": "",
    "position": 1,
    "document_id": "",
    "content": "1",
    "answer": "1",
    "word_count": 25,
    "tokens": 0,
    "keywords": [
        "a"
    ],
    "index_node_id": "",
    "index_node_hash": "",
    "hit_count": 0,
    "enabled": true,
    "disabled_at": null,
    "disabled_by": null,
    "status": "completed",
    "created_by": "",
    "created_at": 1695312007,
    "indexing_at": 1695312007,
    "completed_at": 1695312007,
    "error": null,
    "stopped_at": null
  }],
  "doc_form": "text_model"
}

Delete a Chunk in a Document

Request example:

curl --location --request DELETE 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/documents/{document_id}/segments/{segment_id}' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'

Response example:

{
  "result": "success"
}

Update a Chunk in a Document

Request example:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/documents/{document_id}/segments/{segment_id}' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'\
--data-raw '{"segment": {"content": "1","answer": "1", "keywords": ["a"], "enabled": false}}'

Response example:

{
  "data": [{
    "id": "",
    "position": 1,
    "document_id": "",
    "content": "1",
    "answer": "1",
    "word_count": 25,
    "tokens": 0,
    "keywords": [
        "a"
    ],
    "index_node_id": "",
    "index_node_hash": "",
    "hit_count": 0,
    "enabled": true,
    "disabled_at": null,
    "disabled_by": null,
    "status": "completed",
    "created_by": "",
    "created_at": 1695312007,
    "indexing_at": 1695312007,
    "completed_at": 1695312007,
    "error": null,
    "stopped_at": null
  }],
  "doc_form": "text_model"
}

Retrieve Chunks from a Knowledge Base

Request example:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/retrieve' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}'\
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'\
--data-raw '{
    "query": "test",
    "retrieval_model": {
        "search_method": "keyword_search",
        "reranking_enable": false,
        "reranking_mode": null,
        "reranking_model": {
            "reranking_provider_name": "",
            "reranking_model_name": ""
        },
        "weights": null,
        "top_k": 1,
        "score_threshold_enabled": false,
        "score_threshold": null
    }
}'

Response example:

{
  "query": {
    "content": "test"
  },
  "records": [
    {
      "segment": {
        "id": "7fa6f24f-8679-48b3-bc9d-bdf28d73f218",
        "position": 1,
        "document_id": "a8c6c36f-9f5d-4d7a-8472-f5d7b75d71d2",
        "content": "Operation guide",
        "answer": null,
        "word_count": 847,
        "tokens": 280,
        "keywords": [
          "install",
          "java",
          "base",
          "scripts",
          "jdk",
          "manual",
          "internal",
          "opens",
          "add",
          "vmoptions"
        ],
        "index_node_id": "39dd8443-d960-45a8-bb46-7275ad7fbc8e",
        "index_node_hash": "0189157697b3c6a418ccf8264a09699f25858975578f3467c76d6bfc94df1d73",
        "hit_count": 0,
        "enabled": true,
        "disabled_at": null,
        "disabled_by": null,
        "status": "completed",
        "created_by": "dbcb1ab5-90c8-41a7-8b78-73b235eb6f6f",
        "created_at": 1728734540,
        "indexing_at": 1728734552,
        "completed_at": 1728734584,
        "error": null,
        "stopped_at": null,
        "document": {
          "id": "a8c6c36f-9f5d-4d7a-8472-f5d7b75d71d2",
          "data_source_type": "upload_file",
          "name": "readme.txt",
          "doc_type": null
        }
      },
      "score": 3.730463140527718e-05,
      "tsne_position": null
    }
  ]
}

Add Metadata Fields to the Knowledge Base

Request example:

curl --location 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/metadata' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--data '{
    "type":"string",
    "name":"test"
}'

Response example:

{
    "id": "9f63c91b-d60e-4142-bb0c-c81a54dc2db5",
    "type": "string",
    "name": "test"
}

Modify Metadata Fields in the Knowledge Base

Request example:

curl --location --request PATCH 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/metadata/{metadata_id}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}' \
--data '{
    "name":"test"
}'

Response example:

{
    "id": "9f63c91b-d60e-4142-bb0c-c81a54dc2db5",
    "type": "string",
    "name": "test"
}

Delete Metadata Fields in the Knowledge Base

Request example:

curl --location --request DELETE 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/document/metadata/{metadata_id}' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}'

Response example:

200 success

Enable/Disable Built-in Fields in the Knowledge Base

Request example:

curl --location --request DELETE 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/document/metadata/built-in/{action}' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}'

Response example:

200 success

Modify Metadata for a Single Document (Assignment)

Request example:

curl --location 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/documents/metadata' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}'
--data '{
    "operation_data":[
        {
            "document_id": "3e928bc4-65ea-4201-87c8-cbcc5871f525",
            "metadata_list": [
                    {
                    "id": "1887f5ec-966f-4c93-8c99-5ad386022f46",
                    "value": "dify",
                    "name": "test"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}'

Response example:

200 success

Metadata List of the Dataset

Request example:

curl --location 'https://api.dify.ai/v1/datasets/{dataset_id}/metadata' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {api_key}'

Response example:

{
  "doc_metadata": [
    {
      "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
      "type": "string",
      "name": "title",
      "use_count": 42
    },
    {
      "id": "6ba7b810-9dad-11d1-80b4-00c04fd430c8",
      "type": "number",
      "name": "price",
      "use_count": 28
    },
    {
      "id": "7ba7b810-9dad-11d1-80b4-00c04fd430c9",
      "type": "time",
      "name": "created_at",
      "use_count": 35
    }
  ],
  "built_in_field_enabled": true
}

Error message

Response example:

  {
    "code": "no_file_uploaded",
    "message": "Please upload your file.",
    "status": 400
  }

codestatusmessage
no_file_uploaded400Please upload your file.
too_many_files400Only one file is allowed.
file_too_large413File size exceeded.
unsupported_file_type415File type not allowed. Supported format: txt, markdown, md, pdf, html, html, xlsx, docx, csv
high_quality_dataset_only400Current operation only supports ‘high-quality’ datasets.
dataset_not_initialized400The dataset is still being initialized or indexing. Please wait a moment.
archived_document_immutable403The archived document is not editable.
dataset_name_duplicate409The dataset name already exists. Please modify your dataset name.
invalid_action400Invalid action.
document_already_finished400The document has been processed. Please refresh the page or go to the document details.
document_indexing400The document is being processed and cannot be edited.
invalid_metadata400The metadata content is incorrect. Please check and verify.