result = client.query(
database="acme_corp",
query="What is our refund policy?",
)
client.feedback.submit(
request_id=result.meta.request_id,
feedback="Returned the 2023 policy - the current one is in the Q3 handbook.",
rating="negative",
source="agent",
database="acme_corp",
metadata={"agent": "support-bot", "conversation": "c-8891"},
)
const result = await client.query({
database: "acme_corp",
query: "What is our refund policy?",
});
await client.feedback.submit({
requestId: result.meta.requestId,
feedback: "Returned the 2023 policy - the current one is in the Q3 handbook.",
rating: "negative",
source: "agent",
database: "acme_corp",
metadata: { agent: "support-bot", conversation: "c-8891" },
});
curl -X POST 'https://api.hydradb.com/feedback' \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <your_api_key>" \
-H "API-Version: 2" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"request_id": "9d13aef4-02f4-4e73-8c62-4c2601d04f9d",
"feedback": "Returned the 2023 policy - the current one is in the Q3 handbook.",
"rating": "negative",
"source": "agent",
"database": "acme_corp",
"metadata": { "agent": "support-bot" }
}'
{
"success": true,
"data": {
"feedback_id": "0f5c2e18-7b41-4a92-9d0c-5e1f7a3b6c84",
"request_id": "9d13aef4-02f4-4e73-8c62-4c2601d04f9d",
"recorded": true,
"created_at": "2026-08-10T09:11:55.593287923Z",
"message": "Feedback recorded. Thank you - it is used to validate and improve retrieval quality."
},
"error": null,
"meta": {
"request_id": "84467490-be20-4640-8693-f604a03227cc",
"api_version": "2.0.1",
"latency_ms": 102.1
}
}
{
"success": false,
"data": null,
"error": {
"code": "INVALID_INPUT",
"message": "request_id \"abc-123\" is not a valid request id: it must be the UUID returned in response.meta.request_id (or the X-Request-ID header) of the query you are giving feedback on"
},
"meta": {
"request_id": "b4340e7c-0082-4c20-829d-5fd53f81a54d",
"api_version": "2.0.1"
}
}
{
"success": false,
"data": null,
"error": {
"code": "RATE_LIMITED",
"message": "feedback per_min rate limit exceeded (limit: 100). Please retry in 37 second(s)."
},
"meta": {
"request_id": "7c1e9a44-0b2d-4f88-a3e1-9d6c2b5f0e73",
"api_version": "2.0.1"
}
}
Query
Submit Feedback
Tell HydraDB how a query performed, so retrieval quality improves.
POST
/
feedback
result = client.query(
database="acme_corp",
query="What is our refund policy?",
)
client.feedback.submit(
request_id=result.meta.request_id,
feedback="Returned the 2023 policy - the current one is in the Q3 handbook.",
rating="negative",
source="agent",
database="acme_corp",
metadata={"agent": "support-bot", "conversation": "c-8891"},
)
const result = await client.query({
database: "acme_corp",
query: "What is our refund policy?",
});
await client.feedback.submit({
requestId: result.meta.requestId,
feedback: "Returned the 2023 policy - the current one is in the Q3 handbook.",
rating: "negative",
source: "agent",
database: "acme_corp",
metadata: { agent: "support-bot", conversation: "c-8891" },
});
curl -X POST 'https://api.hydradb.com/feedback' \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <your_api_key>" \
-H "API-Version: 2" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"request_id": "9d13aef4-02f4-4e73-8c62-4c2601d04f9d",
"feedback": "Returned the 2023 policy - the current one is in the Q3 handbook.",
"rating": "negative",
"source": "agent",
"database": "acme_corp",
"metadata": { "agent": "support-bot" }
}'
{
"success": true,
"data": {
"feedback_id": "0f5c2e18-7b41-4a92-9d0c-5e1f7a3b6c84",
"request_id": "9d13aef4-02f4-4e73-8c62-4c2601d04f9d",
"recorded": true,
"created_at": "2026-08-10T09:11:55.593287923Z",
"message": "Feedback recorded. Thank you - it is used to validate and improve retrieval quality."
},
"error": null,
"meta": {
"request_id": "84467490-be20-4640-8693-f604a03227cc",
"api_version": "2.0.1",
"latency_ms": 102.1
}
}
{
"success": false,
"data": null,
"error": {
"code": "INVALID_INPUT",
"message": "request_id \"abc-123\" is not a valid request id: it must be the UUID returned in response.meta.request_id (or the X-Request-ID header) of the query you are giving feedback on"
},
"meta": {
"request_id": "b4340e7c-0082-4c20-829d-5fd53f81a54d",
"api_version": "2.0.1"
}
}
{
"success": false,
"data": null,
"error": {
"code": "RATE_LIMITED",
"message": "feedback per_min rate limit exceeded (limit: 100). Please retry in 37 second(s)."
},
"meta": {
"request_id": "7c1e9a44-0b2d-4f88-a3e1-9d6c2b5f0e73",
"api_version": "2.0.1"
}
}
Report back on a query that already ran - what was missing, what was wrong, or that it was exactly right. Feedback feeds retrieval-quality work; it does not change the result of the query it refers to.
Both people and agents can submit. An agent that can tell a retrieval was unhelpful is often the best source of signal you have, so
Submit feedback for queries that returned. If the query itself failed, handle the error instead - there is no retrieval to judge, and the fix is in the request rather than in the index.
At eval volumes you may brush the rate limit, so keep the submission from ending the loop: an unguarded call means a single
A
source labels which one it was.
Linking feedback to a query
Every HydraDB response carries arequest_id in meta, and the same value in the X-Request-ID header. Send that id back and we can line your comment up with the exact query it is about - the text queried, what came back, how long it took.
Query response
{
"success": true,
"data": { "chunks": [ /* ... */ ] },
"error": null,
"meta": {
"request_id": "9d13aef4-02f4-4e73-8c62-4c2601d04f9d",
"api_version": "2.0.1",
"latency_ms": 412.8
}
}
Send
request_id back exactly as you received it. It must be the UUID from meta.request_id (or the X-Request-ID header) - any other value is rejected with 400.Fields
result = client.query(
database="acme_corp",
query="What is our refund policy?",
)
client.feedback.submit(
request_id=result.meta.request_id,
feedback="Returned the 2023 policy - the current one is in the Q3 handbook.",
rating="negative",
source="agent",
database="acme_corp",
metadata={"agent": "support-bot", "conversation": "c-8891"},
)
const result = await client.query({
database: "acme_corp",
query: "What is our refund policy?",
});
await client.feedback.submit({
requestId: result.meta.requestId,
feedback: "Returned the 2023 policy - the current one is in the Q3 handbook.",
rating: "negative",
source: "agent",
database: "acme_corp",
metadata: { agent: "support-bot", conversation: "c-8891" },
});
curl -X POST 'https://api.hydradb.com/feedback' \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <your_api_key>" \
-H "API-Version: 2" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"request_id": "9d13aef4-02f4-4e73-8c62-4c2601d04f9d",
"feedback": "Returned the 2023 policy - the current one is in the Q3 handbook.",
"rating": "negative",
"source": "agent",
"database": "acme_corp",
"metadata": { "agent": "support-bot" }
}'
{
"success": true,
"data": {
"feedback_id": "0f5c2e18-7b41-4a92-9d0c-5e1f7a3b6c84",
"request_id": "9d13aef4-02f4-4e73-8c62-4c2601d04f9d",
"recorded": true,
"created_at": "2026-08-10T09:11:55.593287923Z",
"message": "Feedback recorded. Thank you - it is used to validate and improve retrieval quality."
},
"error": null,
"meta": {
"request_id": "84467490-be20-4640-8693-f604a03227cc",
"api_version": "2.0.1",
"latency_ms": 102.1
}
}
{
"success": false,
"data": null,
"error": {
"code": "INVALID_INPUT",
"message": "request_id \"abc-123\" is not a valid request id: it must be the UUID returned in response.meta.request_id (or the X-Request-ID header) of the query you are giving feedback on"
},
"meta": {
"request_id": "b4340e7c-0082-4c20-829d-5fd53f81a54d",
"api_version": "2.0.1"
}
}
{
"success": false,
"data": null,
"error": {
"code": "RATE_LIMITED",
"message": "feedback per_min rate limit exceeded (limit: 100). Please retry in 37 second(s)."
},
"meta": {
"request_id": "7c1e9a44-0b2d-4f88-a3e1-9d6c2b5f0e73",
"api_version": "2.0.1"
}
}
Ground truth
If you already know the right answer - you are running an evaluation set, or you know which document the user needed - send it. It is a much stronger signal than a comment, because we can score it without a human reading it."ground_truth": {
"answer": "Refunds are processed within 14 days.",
"source_ids": ["policy_2024", "handbook_q3"]
}
answer- the response you expected.source_ids- the sources that actually contain the answer. This is the one that grades retrieval: it tells us whether the query surfaced those documents, and where they ranked.
ground_truth is your only signal, at least one of the two has to carry something - values that are empty or all whitespace are treated as not sent.
When you send
ground_truth, the feedback comment becomes optional - an evaluation run with an answer key does not need prose for every row. A submission with neither is rejected.Evaluation run
for case in eval_set:
result = client.query(database="acme_corp", query=case.question)
try:
client.feedback.submit(
request_id=result.meta.request_id,
source="agent",
ground_truth={
"answer": case.expected_answer,
"source_ids": case.expected_sources,
},
)
except Exception:
continue # one unrecorded case should not abort the run
429 loses every remaining case, not just the one it failed on.
Duplicate source_ids are collapsed and blank entries dropped, so you do not need to de-duplicate or filter your answer key first - a list that still has one real id in it is scored on that id.
Submitting more than once
Each submission is stored separately - a second comment about the same query does not replace the first. Send several as your understanding of a bad result develops, and file feedback from more than one user on the same query.Rate limit
100 submissions per minute per organization. Over that, you get429 with a Retry-After header and a message naming the seconds to wait - it is safe to retry after waiting.
The ceiling is well above normal use; an agent reporting on every query it makes will stay comfortably under it.
Errors
| Status | When |
|---|---|
400 | request_id missing or not a UUID; no usable signal - feedback blank or absent and ground_truth absent, empty, or blank; feedback too long; unknown rating/source; collection without database |
401 | Missing or invalid API key |
404 | database does not exist or is not reachable by this key |
429 | Over the rate limit - see Retry-After |
500 | Feedback could not be stored. Nothing was recorded; retrying is safe |
500 means the submission was not saved, so a retry cannot create a duplicate of something already stored.Authorizations
API key sent as a Bearer token: "Bearer prefix.secret"
Body
application/json
Feedback submission
- Option 1
- Option 2
Free-text comment describing what was right or wrong about the results. Required unless ground_truth is supplied.
Required string length:
1 - 8000Pattern:
\SThe request_id from response.meta of the query this feedback is about. Required — it is what links the feedback to the query that ran.
Example:
"9d13aef4-02f4-4e73-8c62-4c2601d04f9d"
Optional collection scope for this feedback. A collection is scoped to a database, so database must be sent alongside it; sending collection on its own is rejected.
Minimum string length:
1Example:
"team_docs"
Owning database. Formerly tenant_id; the tenant_id alias is still accepted (deprecated).
Minimum string length:
1Example:
"acme_corp"
What you already know the right answer to be, when you know it. Supply an expected answer, the source_ids that contain it, or both — at least one is required if the field is present. Machine-checkable, so it is a stronger signal than a comment: submit it alone and feedback becomes optional.
Show child attributes
Show child attributes
Example:
{ "source_ids": ["HydraDoc1234", "HydraDoc4567"] }
Free-form key-value context stored alongside the feedback (e.g. agent name, conversation or eval-run ID).
Show child attributes
Show child attributes
Example:
{ "agent": "support-bot", "conversation": "c-8891" }
Optional overall judgement: positive, negative, or neutral. Omit to send a comment with no rating.
Available options:
positive, negative, neutral Who is submitting: user (default) or agent.
Available options:
user, agent deprecated: use collection
Minimum string length:
1Example:
"sub_tenant_4567"
deprecated: use database
Minimum string length:
1Example:
"tenant_1234"
Response
Created
Show child attributes
Show child attributes
Example:
{ "created_at": "2026-07-02T10:00:00Z", "message": "Success", "recorded": true, "request_id": "9d13aef4-02f4-4e73-8c62-4c2601d04f9d" }
Error message, empty string on success.
Show child attributes
Show child attributes
Example:
{ "code": "DATABASE_NOT_FOUND", "message": "Database not found" }
Show child attributes
Show child attributes
Example:
{ "collection": "team_docs", "database": "acme_corp", "latency_ms": 12.3, "request_id": "9d13aef4-02f4-4e73-8c62-4c2601d04f9d", "source_type": "file", "sub_tenant_id": "sub_tenant_4567", "tenant_id": "tenant_1234" }
Whether the request succeeded.
Example:
true
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