> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.chatbees.ai/chatbees/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.chatbees.ai/chatbees/api-references/document-operations/search.md).

# Search

You can search using natural language within a collection. `search()` method returns a list of most relevance references used to derive the answer.

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="HTTP" %}

```
POST /docs/search HTTP/1.1
Api-Key: my_api_key
Content-Type: application/json
Host: my_account_id.us-west-2.aws.chatbees.ai

{
  "namespace_name": "string",
  "collection_name": "string",
  "question": "string",
  // Optional top_k, default is 5.
  "top_k": int
}

Response:
{
  "refs": [
    {"doc_name": "string", "page_num": int, "sample_text": "string"},
    ...
  ]
}

```

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Python" %}

```
import chatbees as cb

# Configure API key
cb.init(api_key="my_api_key", account_id="my_account_id")

# search over all docs in the collection
refs = cb.collection('llm_research').search('what is a transformer?')
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}