Get messages

Fetch message history from a Zulip server.

GET https://zulip.dioco.io/api/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

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import zulip

# Pass the path to your zuliprc file here.
client = zulip.Client(config_file="~/zuliprc")

# Get the 100 last messages sent by "iago@zulip.com" to the stream "Verona"
request: Dict[str, Any] = {
    'anchor': 'newest',
    'num_before': 100,
    'num_after': 0,
    'narrow': [{'operator': 'sender', 'operand': 'iago@zulip.com'},
               {'operator': 'stream', 'operand': 'Verona'}],
}
result = client.get_messages(request)
print(result)

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

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

Zulip(config).then(async (client) => {
    const readParams = {
        anchor: "newest",
        num_before: 100,
        num_after: 0,
        narrow: [
            {operator: "sender", operand: "iago@zulip.com"},
            {operator: "stream", operand: "Verona"},
        ],
    };

    // Get the 100 last messages sent by "iago@zulip.com" to the stream "Verona"
    return await client.messages.retrieve(readParams);
}).then(console.log).catch(console.err);

curl -sSX GET -G https://zulip.dioco.io/api/v1/messages \
    -u BOT_EMAIL_ADDRESS:BOT_API_KEY \
    -d 'anchor=42' \
    -d 'num_before=4' \
    -d 'num_after=8' \
    --data-urlencode narrow='[{"operand": "Denmark", "operator": "stream"}]'

Parameters

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 (or the computed one, if use_first_unread_anchor is true).

• found_newest: Whether the messages list includes the very newest messages matching the narrow (used by clients that paginate their requests to decide whether there are more messages to fetch).

• found_oldest: Whether the messages list includes the very oldest messages matching the narrow (used by clients that paginate their requests to decide whether there are more messages to fetch).

• found_anchor: Whether the anchor message is included in the response. If the message with the ID specified in the request does not exist or did not match the narrow, this will be false.

• history_limited: Whether the message history was limited due to plan restrictions. This flag is set to true only when the oldest messages(found_oldest) matching the narrow is fetched.

• messages: an array of message objects, each containing the following fields:

  • avatar_url: The URL of the user's avatar. Can be null only if client_gravatar was passed, which means that the user has not uploaded an avatar in Zulip, and the client should compute the gravatar URL by hashing the user's email address itself for this user.

  • client: A Zulip "client" string, describing what Zulip client sent the message.

  • content: The content/body of the message.

  • rendered_content: The content/body of the message rendered in HTML.

  • 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 basic 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.

    • emoji_code: A unique identifier, defining the specific emoji codepoint requested, within the namespace of the reaction_type.

      For example, for unicode_emoji, this will be an encoding of the unicode codepoint.

    • emoji_name: Name of the emoji.

    • reaction_type: One of the following values:

      • unicode_emoji: Unicode emoji (emoji_code will be its unicode codepoint).
      • realm_emoji: Custom emoji. (emoji_code will be its ID).
      • zulip_extra_emoji: Special emoji included with Zulip. Exists to namespace the zulip emoji.

    • user_id: The ID of the user who added the reaction.

      Changes: New in Zulip 3.0 (feature level 2). The user object is deprecated and will be removed in the future.

    • user: Dictionary with data on the user who added the reaction, including the user ID as the id field. Note: In the events API, this user dictionary confusing had the user ID in a field called user_id instead. We recommend ignoring fields other than the user ID. Deprecated and to be removed in a future release once core clients have migrated to use the user_id field.

      • id: ID of the user.

      • email: Email of the user.

      • full_name: Full name of the user.

      • is_mirror_dummy: Whether the user is a mirror dummy.

  • 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 Zulip display 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. Unique only within the context of a given Zulip server.

    E.g. on example.zulip.com, this will be example.

  • stream_id: Only present for stream messages; the ID of the stream.

  • subject: The topic of the message (only present for stream messages). The field name is a legacy holdover from when topics were called "subjects" and will eventually change.

  • topic_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.)

    Changes: New in Zulip 3.0 (feature level 1). Previously, this field was called subject_links; clients are recommended to rename subject_links to topic_links if present for compatibility with older Zulip servers.

  • submessages: Data used for certain experimental Zulip integrations.

  • timestamp: The UNIX timestamp for when the message was sent, in UTC seconds.

  • last_edit_timestamp: The UNIX timestamp for when the message was last edited, in UTC seconds.

  • type: The type of the message: stream or private.

  • match_content: Only present if keyword search was included among the narrow parameters. HTML content of a queried message that matches the narrow, with <span class="highlight"> elements wrapping the matches for the search keywords.

  • match_subject: Only present if keyword search was included among the narrow parameters. HTML-escaped topic of a queried message that matches the narrow, with <span class="highlight"> elements wrapping the matches for the search keywords.

Example response

A typical successful JSON response may look like:

{
    "anchor": 21,
    "found_anchor": true,
    "found_newest": true,
    "messages": [
        {
            "avatar_url": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6d8cad0fd00256e7b40691d27ddfd466?d=identicon&version=1",
            "client": "populate_db",
            "content": "<p>Security experts agree that relational algorithms are an interesting new topic in the field of networking, and scholars concur.</p>",
            "content_type": "text/html",
            "display_recipient": [
                {
                    "email": "hamlet@zulip.com",
                    "full_name": "King Hamlet",
                    "id": 4,
                    "is_mirror_dummy": false
                },
                {
                    "email": "iago@zulip.com",
                    "full_name": "Iago",
                    "id": 5,
                    "is_mirror_dummy": false
                },
                {
                    "email": "prospero@zulip.com",
                    "full_name": "Prospero from The Tempest",
                    "id": 8,
                    "is_mirror_dummy": false
                }
            ],
            "flags": [
                "read"
            ],
            "id": 16,
            "is_me_message": false,
            "reactions": [],
            "recipient_id": 27,
            "sender_email": "hamlet@zulip.com",
            "sender_full_name": "King Hamlet",
            "sender_id": 4,
            "sender_realm_str": "zulip",
            "subject": "",
            "submessages": [],
            "timestamp": 1527921326,
            "topic_links": [],
            "type": "private"
        },
        {
            "avatar_url": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6d8cad0fd00256e7b40691d27ddfd466?d=identicon&version=1",
            "client": "populate_db",
            "content": "<p>Wait, is this from the frontend js code or backend python code</p>",
            "content_type": "text/html",
            "display_recipient": "Verona",
            "flags": [
                "read"
            ],
            "id": 21,
            "is_me_message": false,
            "reactions": [],
            "recipient_id": 20,
            "sender_email": "hamlet@zulip.com",
            "sender_full_name": "King Hamlet",
            "sender_id": 4,
            "sender_realm_str": "zulip",
            "stream_id": 5,
            "subject": "Verona3",
            "submessages": [],
            "timestamp": 1527939746,
            "topic_links": [],
            "type": "stream"
        }
    ],
    "msg": "",
    "result": "success"
}