GET/v1/search

Search

Fuzzy, typo-tolerant food search across 1.6M+ foods. Relevance-ranked with quality weighting.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`q`	string	Required	Search query (min 2 chars). Supports fuzzy matching.
`limit`	integer	Optional	Results per page (1-25, default 20)
`offset`	integer	Optional	Pagination offset (0-500, default 0)

Request

curl "https://api.chowapi.dev/v1/search?q=quaker+oatmeal&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer chow_live_YOUR_KEY"

Response

200 OK

{
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
      "name": "Protein Oatmeal, Apples and Cinnamon",
      "brand": "Quaker",
      "barcode": "0030000575512",
      "source": "verified",
      "category": "Cereals",
      "data_quality": 0.87,
      "is_verified": true,
      "nutrients": {
        "calories": 360,
        "protein_g": 20,
        "carbs_g": 58,
        "fat_g": 6,
        "fiber_g": 4,
        "sugar_g": 14,
        "sodium_mg": 430
      },
      "serving": {
        "amount": 50,
        "unit": "g",
        "description": "1 packet (50g)",
        "gram_weight": 50
      },
      "image_url": null
    }
  ],
  "limit": 5,
  "offset": 0,
  "query_ms": 18
}

Relevance scoring

Results are ranked by a composite relevance score:

Match Type	Score
Exact name match	100
Name starts with query	80
Brand match	70
Trigram similarity	similarity x 60

Results with equal relevance are sorted by data_quality (descending).

Errors

Code	Status	Description
`search/query_required`	400	Missing `q` parameter
`search/query_too_short`	400	Query less than 2 characters
`search/offset_too_large`	400	Offset exceeds 500