openapi: 3.0.3
info:
title: Fern Fern Ask API
description: The Ask Fern API is Fern's hosted, public REST surface for the "Ask Fern" AI documentation-search feature. It lets you index a documentation website and then query it programmatically, so you can build your own support integrations on top of Fern's AI-powered, docs-grounded answers. This is the primary documented hosted REST API that Fern exposes to customers; the rest of the Fern platform (SDK generation, docs generation, API-reference builds) is driven through the open-source `fern` CLI and the Fern dashboard rather than a public REST API. Requests are authenticated with a Bearer token generated by the `fern token` CLI command; the Ask Fern API is available on the Team and Enterprise plans. The website index/status endpoints are grounded in Fern's published API reference; the /ask query endpoint shape is modeled from the documented feature and should be reconciled against the live reference. Not all fields are exhaustively documented here.
version: '1.0'
contact:
name: Fern
url: https://buildwithfern.com
license:
name: Apache-2.0
url: https://github.com/fern-api/fern/blob/main/LICENSE
servers:
- url: https://fai.buildwithfern.com
description: Ask Fern API (production)
security:
- bearerAuth: []
tags:
- name: Ask
description: Query indexed documentation for AI-generated, grounded answers.
paths:
/ask:
get:
operationId: askFern
tags:
- Ask
summary: Ask a question against indexed documentation
description: Submit a natural-language question and receive an AI-generated answer grounded in the indexed documentation. (Query-parameter shape modeled from the documented Ask Fern feature; reconcile against the live reference. Some deployments expose the ask endpoint under https://buildwithfern.com/learn/api/fern-docs/ask.)
parameters:
- name: q
in: query
required: true
description: URI-encoded natural-language question.
schema:
type: string
responses:
'200':
description: A grounded answer with source references.
content:
application/json:
schema:
type: object
properties:
answer:
type: string
sources:
type: array
items:
type: string
'401':
$ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
components:
responses:
Unauthorized:
description: Missing or invalid API token.
content:
application/json:
schema:
type: object
properties:
error:
type: string
securitySchemes:
bearerAuth:
type: http
scheme: bearer
description: 'Bearer token generated with the `fern token` CLI command. Passed as `Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN`. Tokens are scoped to your organization and do not expire.'