Assistant

The Assistant API answers research questions using Scite’s citation evidence to ground its responses. Like Reference Check, it’s a poll-based flow: submit a query, then poll for the result. Need an API key? On Pro, create one in the API Console. Creating a key doesn’t grant every optional scope; see Authentication for feature access. For higher limits or managed credentials, contact sales.

Both endpoints require a key with the assistant scope, it isn’t included by default on a self-service Pro key. If you get a 403, email sales to get the scope added, then generate a new key from the API Console.

1. Start a query

curl 'https://api.scite.ai/api_partner/assistant/poll' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>' \
  --data-raw '{
    "turns": [{"role": "user", "content": "How does the structure of a protein affect its function?"}],
    "user_input": "How does the structure of a protein affect its function?",
    "numReferences": 25,
    "answerLength": "medium",
    "citationStyle": "ieee"
  }'

For a single-turn question, turns needs only one object. Multi-turn conversations add more objects to the turns array. The response is { "id": task_id }.

2. Poll for the result

curl 'https://api.scite.ai/api_partner/assistant/tasks/{task_id}' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>'

Poll until status is SUCCESS. While pending, the response’s info field includes the currently generated content, search strategies, and search results so far, useful for streaming a “thinking” state to users. Back off between polling requests and enforce an overall timeout. See Errors and rate limits.

Useful parameters

Parameter	Purpose
`alwaysUseReferences` / `neverUseReferences`	Force or suppress citation-backed answers
`abstractsOnly` / `fullTextsOnly`	Restrict the evidence pool
`yearFrom` / `yearTo`	Limit evidence by publication year
`topics`, `journals`, `publicationTypes`	Scope the evidence pool
`useStructuredResponse`	Enable tables mode: returns structured tabular output instead of prose
`rankBy`	Controls result ranking: see below

`rankBy` values

all: a combination of the factors below (default)
relevance: relevance to the query
date: most recent first
citations: by citation count
supporting-citations / contrasting-citations: by supporting or contradicting citation count
journal-rank: by journal rank/impact

Reference Check guide: the same poll pattern, for evaluating a document’s references instead of answering a question
Errors and rate limits: retry and polling guidance

Get Started

Concepts

Guides

MCP

Reference

1. Start a query

2. Poll for the result

Useful parameters

`rankBy` values

​1. Start a query

​2. Poll for the result

​Useful parameters

​rankBy values

​Related

1. Start a query

2. Poll for the result

Useful parameters

`rankBy` values

Related