# Index (/search-index)

<!-- agent-signals: reading_time_min: 3 · est_tokens: 1502 · updated: 2026-09-23 -->
Related: [What is the agent?](/agent.md), [Analytics overview](/analytics.md), [Assistant](/assistant.md), [Automations overview](/automations.md), [Mintlify CLI](/cli.md), [Components overview](/components.md)

Mintlify Index gives coding agents one search layer for technical knowledge. It routes questions about indexed products to publisher-maintained documentation hosted on Mintlify and uses web search for questions outside that corpus.

Use Index through the public MCP server or the access-controlled REST API.

* **MCP server**: Connect an AI tool and let it retrieve source-cited context while you work. Publicly available. Does not require an API key.
* **REST API**: Search for ranked sources, assemble context within a token budget, or retrieve the contents of selected results. Access-controlled. Requires an [Index API key](/api/search-index/introduction#authentication).

## Get started [#get-started]

<CardGroup cols="3">
  <Card title="Connect your coding agent" icon="<svg xmlns=&#x22;http://www.w3.org/2000/svg&#x22; viewBox=&#x22;0 0 24 24&#x22; fill=&#x22;none&#x22;><path d=&#x22;M9 2L9 5&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/><path d=&#x22;M15 2L15 5&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/><path d=&#x22;M12 18L12 22&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/><path d=&#x22;M12.6939 8.5L10.6029 10.6749C10.3788 10.9079 10.5394 11.2433 10.9048 11.3053L13.0952 11.6773C13.4848 11.7434 13.6334 12.1147 13.361 12.3413L10.7666 14.5&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/><path d=&#x22;M14.3066 5L9.69342 5C7.5551 5 6.48594 5 5.89527 5.69774C5.3046 6.39548 5.46717 7.46639 5.79232 9.60823L6.31604 13.0581C6.83606 16.4836 8.28588 18 12 18C15.7141 18 17.1639 16.4836 17.684 13.0581L18.2077 9.60823C18.5328 7.46639 18.6954 6.39548 18.1047 5.69774C17.5141 5 16.4449 5 14.3066 5Z&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/></svg>" href="/search-index/connect">
    Add Index to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and other coding agents.
  </Card>

  <Card title="MCP reference" icon="<svg xmlns=&#x22;http://www.w3.org/2000/svg&#x22; viewBox=&#x22;0 0 24 24&#x22; fill=&#x22;none&#x22;><path d=&#x22;M5.33333 3.00001C7.79379 2.99657 10.1685 3.88709 12 5.5V21C10.1685 19.3871 7.79379 18.4966 5.33333 18.5C3.77132 18.5 2.99032 18.5 2.64526 18.2792C2.4381 18.1466 2.35346 18.0619 2.22086 17.8547C2 17.5097 2 16.8941 2 15.6629V6.40322C2 4.97543 2 4.26154 2.54874 3.68286C3.09748 3.10418 3.65923 3.07432 4.78272 3.0146C4.965 3.00491 5.14858 3.00001 5.33333 3.00001Z&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/><path d=&#x22;M18.6667 3.00001C16.2062 2.99657 13.8315 3.88709 12 5.5V21C13.8315 19.3871 16.2062 18.4966 18.6667 18.5C20.2287 18.5 21.0097 18.5 21.3547 18.2792C21.5619 18.1466 21.6465 18.0619 21.7791 17.8547C22 17.5097 22 16.8941 22 15.6629V6.40322C22 4.97543 22 4.26154 21.4513 3.68286C20.9025 3.10418 20.3408 3.07432 19.2173 3.0146C19.035 3.00491 18.8514 3.00001 18.6667 3.00001Z&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/></svg>" href="/search-index/mcp">
    Review the `context` tool, input fields, output, and rate limits.
  </Card>

  <Card title="REST API" icon="<svg xmlns=&#x22;http://www.w3.org/2000/svg&#x22; viewBox=&#x22;0 0 24 24&#x22; fill=&#x22;none&#x22;><path d=&#x22;M14 12C14.5523 12 15 12.4477 15 13V14C15 14.5523 15.4477 15 16 15C15.4477 15 15 15.4477 15 16V17C15 17.5523 14.5523 18 14 18M10 12C9.44772 12 9 12.4477 9 13V14C9 14.5523 8.55228 15 8 15C8.55228 15 9 15.4477 9 16V17C9 17.5523 9.44772 18 10 18&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/><path d=&#x22;M13 2.5V3C13 5.82843 13 7.24264 13.8787 8.12132C14.7574 9 16.1716 9 19 9H19.5M20 10.6569V14C20 17.7712 20 19.6569 18.8284 20.8284C17.6569 22 15.7712 22 12 22C8.22876 22 6.34315 22 5.17157 20.8284C4 19.6569 4 17.7712 4 14V9.45584C4 6.21082 4 4.58831 4.88607 3.48933C5.06508 3.26731 5.26731 3.06508 5.48933 2.88607C6.58831 2 8.21082 2 11.4558 2C12.1614 2 12.5141 2 12.8372 2.11401C12.9044 2.13772 12.9702 2.165 13.0345 2.19575C13.3436 2.34355 13.593 2.593 14.0919 3.09188L18.8284 7.82843C19.4065 8.40649 19.6955 8.69552 19.8478 9.06306C20 9.4306 20 9.83935 20 10.6569Z&#x22; stroke=&#x22;currentColor&#x22; stroke-linecap=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-linejoin=&#x22;round&#x22; stroke-width=&#x22;1.5&#x22;/></svg>" href="/api/search-index/introduction">
    Use `search`, `context`, and `contents` in an application or agent.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## How Index retrieves context [#how-index-retrieves-context]

<Steps>
  <Step title="Route the question">
    Index identifies whether the question concerns a product in its documentation collection or requires broader web results.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Retrieve relevant sources">
    Product-specific questions search current documentation from the publisher. Other questions search the web.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Return agent-ready context">
    Index ranks the results and returns source URLs with the relevant content. The MCP `context` tool and REST `context` endpoint assemble that content within a token budget.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Choose a retrieval operation [#choose-a-retrieval-operation]

* **[`context`](/api/search-index/context)**: Use this for most agent tasks. It returns a compact set of cited source material in one request.
* **[`search`](/api/search-index/search)**: Use this when your application needs ranked results and controls which sources to read. Available through the REST API.
* **[`contents`](/api/search-index/contents)**: Use this after `search` to retrieve content for selected Mintlify result IDs or result URLs. Available through the REST API.