---
title: Response formats
description: Use Markdown for reading and JSON for integration.
sidebar:
  order: 5
  icon: file-json
---

**Markdown**

Markdown is the default. `full=true` expands metadata without changing the format.

```bash
curl -sS 'https://x.pcstyle.dev/search?q=typescript&full=true'
```

**JSON**

Add `format=json` or send `Accept: application/json`.

```bash
curl -sS -H 'Accept: application/json' \
  'https://x.pcstyle.dev/search?q=typescript'
```

Every route answers in both forms, on both surfaces: the permalink routes (`/{handle}`, `/search`, `/{handle}/status/{id}`) and the versioned routes (`/api/v1/*`) return identical bodies. Only post routes accept `format=obsidian`; browse routes take `markdown` or `json`.

## Browse responses

| Field | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `resource` | `profile`, `search`, `followers`, or `following` |
| `profile` | Profile details on the profile route |
| `posts` | Posts on profile and post-search routes |
| `users` | Accounts on Users search and connection routes |
| `query`, `feed` | Effective search query and feed, when searching |
| `page`, `limit` | Effective pagination settings |
| `nextCursor` | Optional continuation token |
| `markdown` | Rendered version of the same result |
| `source` | Provider that served the result |
| `cache` | Application cache status |
| `degraded` | `true` when search uses web-indexed snippets |

Not every field is present on every route. Profile and post metadata can also be absent when upstream data is incomplete.

## Post conversion responses

Conversion JSON includes `markdown`, `posts`, the URL, compact flag, warnings, count, provider source, format, and cache status. It is a different shape from browse JSON.

## Error responses

Failures are [RFC 9457 problem documents](/errors), not HTML: `application/problem+json` with a stable `code`, a human `detail`, and a `resolution`. A caller that asks for `application/json` gets the same body under that content type.

## Useful headers

| Header | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `X-Source` | Provider used for this response |
| `X-Cache` | Application cache status |
| `X-Result-Count` | Number of items in a browse response |
| `X-Search-Degraded` | `true` for web-indexed search fallback |
| `RateLimit-Policy` | The quotas that apply to this route, as `"name";q=<quota>;w=<window>` |
| `RateLimit` | What is left of each, as `"name";r=<remaining>;t=<reset>` |
| `RateLimit-Limit`, `RateLimit-Remaining`, `RateLimit-Reset` | The same state for the tightest policy, in the older single-value form |
| `Retry-After` | Seconds to wait after a rate limit or temporary search outage |
| `Deprecation`, `Sunset` | Present only on a [deprecated route](/versioning) |
| `Link` | Discovery: `service-desc`, `help`, `successor-version` |
| `Vary: Accept` | The response was negotiated from your `Accept` header |

The `/api/*` routes list the rate-limit, `Retry-After`, `Deprecation`, `Sunset`, and `Link` headers in `Access-Control-Expose-Headers`, so a browser client can read them cross-origin. Inspect headers with `curl -i`. [Handle failures](/reliability).