how to find citations in API response

[xyzhu68]

If I do chat per API, I get the message content with citations like: ##0$$, ##1$$, ##2$$ ...
What does the number 0, 1, 2 mean? How can I find the citations and show them to user?

[dosubot[bot]]

The numbers in the citations like ##0$$, ##1$$, ##2$$ in the API response are placeholders that point to specific source chunks retrieved by RAGFlow. Each number corresponds to an entry in the reference data returned by the API—typically in a field called reference.chunks or reference.doc_aggs. These chunks contain metadata about the source, such as document name, content, and other details. So, ##0$$ means "this part of the answer is supported by the first chunk in the reference list," ##1$$ by the second, and so on example example.

To show the actual citation details to your users, extract the citation numbers from the answer text, then look up the corresponding entry in the reference.chunks array in the same API response. For example, if you see ##2$$ in the answer, display the metadata from reference.chunks[2] as the citation. If your API response does not include the reference field, you may need to adjust your API call or backend to include it details.

If you want to remove the ##0$$-style markers from the answer text, you can use a regular expression like re.sub(r'##\\d+\\$\\$', '', response_text) example.

Let me know if you need a code example for extracting and displaying the citations!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[xyzhu68]

I don't see any reference.chunks array in the response. Do I need to set some flags in the request to enable the references in the response?

[dosubot[bot]]

Yes, you need to set the quote parameter to true in your API request to include the reference.chunks array in the response. By default, this parameter is false, so references won't appear unless you explicitly enable it. Add "quote": true to your request JSON and you should see the citation details in the response. If you also see a cite parameter in your API, set that to true as well for citation support example discussion.

Let me know if you need an example request body!

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[xyzhu68]

actually I shall use API "Converse with chat assistant": /api/v1/chats/{chat_id}/completions
instead of "Create chat completion", which use api: /api/v1/chats_openai/{chat_id}/chat/completions
Use the first API, the references are in json response.