ComplyAdvantage Searches API

Create and manage AML screening searches against sanctions, PEP, warning, and adverse media data.

Business capability
Regulatory Compliance Management BC-130.10

Operations 10

POST /searches Create a new search #
GET /searches List previous searches #
GET /searches/{id} Retrieve a search #
PATCH /searches/{id} Update search details #
DELETE /searches/{id} Delete a search #
GET /searches/{id}/details Retrieve full search results #
GET /searches/{ref}/entities/{entity_provider} Retrieve paginated search entities #
GET /searches/{id}/certificate Download search certificate #
PATCH /searches/{id}/entities Update entity details on a search #
POST /searches/references Create search references #

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OpenAPI Specification

complyadvantage-searches-api-openapi.yml Raw ↑
openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: ComplyAdvantage Searches API
  description: The ComplyAdvantage REST API screens people and companies against sanctions and watchlists, warnings and fitness-probity lists, politically exposed persons (PEPs and RCAs), and adverse media, and keeps them under ongoing monitoring.
  version: '1.0'
  contact:
    name: ComplyAdvantage
    url: https://complyadvantage.com
servers:
- url: https://api.complyadvantage.com
  description: EU (default)
- url: https://api.us.complyadvantage.com
  description: US
- url: https://api.ap.complyadvantage.com
  description: APAC
security:
- apiKeyAuth: []
tags:
- name: Searches
  description: Create and manage AML screening searches against sanctions, PEP, warning, and adverse media data.
paths:
  /searches:
    post:
      operationId: createSearch
      tags:
      - Searches
      summary: Create a new search
      description: Screens a search term (person, company, organisation, vessel, or aircraft name) against ComplyAdvantage's sanctions, warning, fitness-probity, PEP, and adverse media data, returning matching entities as hits. Supports fuzziness, exact match mode, filters, tags, client references, and pagination via offset/limit.
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/SearchRequest'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The created search with matching hits.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SearchEnvelope'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/TooManyRequests'
    get:
      operationId: listSearches
      tags:
      - Searches
      summary: List previous searches
      description: Lists previous searches with filtering (match status, risk level, assignee, searcher, created date range, client reference, tags, monitored state), sorting, and pagination.
      parameters:
      - name: search_term
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: client_ref
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: monitored
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
      - name: page
        in: query
        schema:
          type: integer
      - name: per_page
        in: query
        schema:
          type: integer
      responses:
        '200':
          description: A paginated list of searches.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SearchListEnvelope'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
  /searches/{id}:
    get:
      operationId: getSearch
      tags:
      - Searches
      summary: Retrieve a search
      description: Retrieves the overview of a single search by ID or ref.
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/SearchId'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The search overview.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SearchEnvelope'
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
    patch:
      operationId: updateSearch
      tags:
      - Searches
      summary: Update search details
      description: Updates case-management details of a search - the assigned user, match status (no_match, false_positive, potential_match, true_positive, true_positive_approve, true_positive_reject), and risk level (low, medium, high, unknown).
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/SearchId'
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              type: object
              properties:
                match_status:
                  type: string
                risk_level:
                  type: string
                assignee_id:
                  type: integer
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The updated search.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SearchEnvelope'
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
    delete:
      operationId: deleteSearch
      tags:
      - Searches
      summary: Delete a search
      description: Deletes a search from your account.
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/SearchId'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Deletion confirmation.
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
  /searches/{id}/details:
    get:
      operationId: getSearchDetails
      tags:
      - Searches
      summary: Retrieve full search results
      description: Retrieves the full detail of a search including all hits, each with the matched entity document (name, aka, associates, sources, types, fields, media), match types, score, whitelisting, and match status.
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/SearchId'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Full search details with hits.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/SearchEnvelope'
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
  /searches/{ref}/entities/{entity_provider}:
    get:
      operationId: getSearchEntities
      tags:
      - Searches
      summary: Retrieve paginated search entities
      description: Retrieves the matching entities of a search in paginated form.
      parameters:
      - name: ref
        in: path
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
        description: The search ref.
      - name: entity_provider
        in: path
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
        description: The entity data provider.
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Paginated entities for the search.
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
  /searches/{id}/certificate:
    get:
      operationId: getSearchCertificate
      tags:
      - Searches
      summary: Download search certificate
      description: Downloads a PDF certificate of the search for audit and recordkeeping purposes.
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/SearchId'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The search certificate PDF.
          content:
            application/pdf:
              schema:
                type: string
                format: binary
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
  /searches/{id}/entities:
    patch:
      operationId: updateSearchEntities
      tags:
      - Searches
      summary: Update entity details on a search
      description: Updates details of matched entities within a search - whitelist status (suppress recurring false positives), risk level, and per-entity match status.
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/SearchId'
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              type: object
              properties:
                entities:
                  type: array
                  items:
                    type: string
                is_whitelisted:
                  type: boolean
                match_status:
                  type: string
                risk_level:
                  type: string
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The updated entities.
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
  /searches/references:
    post:
      operationId: createSearchReferences
      tags:
      - Searches
      summary: Create search references
      description: Creates search references for tracking searches by your own identifiers.
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema:
              type: object
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The created references.
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
components:
  schemas:
    SearchRequest:
      type: object
      required:
      - search_term
      properties:
        search_term:
          description: The name to screen, either a string (max 255 chars) or an object with last_name (required), first_name, and middle_names.
          oneOf:
          - type: string
          - type: object
            properties:
              first_name:
                type: string
              middle_names:
                type: string
              last_name:
                type: string
        client_ref:
          type: string
          description: Your internal reference; enables client-scoped whitelisting.
        fuzziness:
          type: number
          minimum: 0.0
          maximum: 1.0
          description: Match strictness from 0.0 (exact) to 1.0 (broad).
        exact_match:
          type: boolean
          description: Disables fuzzy matching when true; overrides fuzziness.
        search_profile:
          type: string
          description: ID of a predefined search profile configuration.
        offset:
          type: integer
          default: 0
        limit:
          type: integer
          default: 100
          maximum: 100
        share_url:
          type: integer
          enum:
          - 0
          - 1
          description: Include a publicly shareable URL in the response.
        tags:
          type: object
          description: Key-value pairs using pre-configured tag names.
        filters:
          type: object
          properties:
            types:
              type: array
              items:
                type: string
              description: Risk categories such as sanction, warning, fitness-probity, pep, pep-class-1 through pep-class-4, adverse-media, and adverse media subcategories.
            birth_year:
              type: integer
            remove_deceased:
              type: string
              enum:
              - '0'
              - '1'
            country_codes:
              type: array
              items:
                type: string
              description: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes; applies to PEP entities.
            entity_type:
              type: string
              enum:
              - person
              - company
              - organisation
              - vessel
              - aircraft
    Hit:
      type: object
      properties:
        doc:
          type: object
          description: The matched entity - id, name, entity_type, aka, associates, sources, types, fields, and media references.
        match_types:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
        match_types_details:
          type: object
        score:
          type: number
        is_whitelisted:
          type: boolean
        match_status:
          type: string
    SearchListEnvelope:
      type: object
      properties:
        status:
          type: string
        content:
          type: object
          properties:
            data:
              type: array
              items:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Search'
    SearchEnvelope:
      type: object
      properties:
        status:
          type: string
        content:
          type: object
          properties:
            data:
              $ref: '#/components/schemas/Search'
    Search:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
        ref:
          type: string
        search_term:
          type: string
        match_status:
          type: string
        risk_level:
          type: string
        total_hits:
          type: integer
        total_matches:
          type: integer
        created_at:
          type: string
        updated_at:
          type: string
        tags:
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
        share_url:
          type: string
        hits:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Hit'
  responses:
    NotFound:
      description: The search or resource was not found.
    TooManyRequests:
      description: Rate limit exceeded (600 calls/minute on standard contracts, 300 on sandbox). Retry with exponential backoff starting at 2 seconds, capped at 60 seconds.
    Unauthorized:
      description: Missing or invalid API key.
  parameters:
    SearchId:
      name: id
      in: path
      required: true
      schema:
        type: string
      description: The search ID or ref.
  securitySchemes:
    apiKeyAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: header
      name: Authorization
      description: 'API key sent as: Authorization: Token YOUR_API_KEY. Keys are generated in the ComplyAdvantage web platform.'