Quickstart

Describe the companies you want in plain English and get back verified, structured company profiles. First live call in under five minutes — via REST, the Python SDK, or an MCP-connected AI assistant.

1. Get an API key

Sign up for a free account, then create a key in Settings → API Keys. Keys start with sk_ and are shown once at creation — store yours in an environment variable, not in code.

2. Make your first search

curl "https://trycanonical.ai/api/v1/search?q=AI+healthcare+startups&top_k=5" \
  -H "x-api-key: $CANONICAL_API_KEY"

from canonical_search import CanonicalClient

client = CanonicalClient(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
results = client.search("AI healthcare startups", top_k=5)

for company in results.results:
    print(f"{company.name} — {company.domain}")

const resp = await fetch(
  "https://trycanonical.ai/api/v1/search?q=AI+healthcare+startups&top_k=5",
  { headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.CANONICAL_API_KEY } }
);
const data = await resp.json();
data.results.forEach((c) => console.log(`${c.name} — ${c.domain}`));

The query is interpreted server-side: location, size, funding, and exclusion qualifiers become structured filters automatically.

3. Read the response

{
  "results": [
    {
      "name": "Auxilius Health",
      "domain": "auxiliushealth.com",
      "website": "https://auxiliushealth.com",
      "description": "AI-powered diagnostic platform helping clinics triage patient imaging.",
      "headquarters": "San Francisco, CA, United States",
      "employee_count": 85,
      "founding_year": 2021,
      "funding": { "latest_series": "series_b", "latest_amount_usd": 45000000 }
    }
  ],
  "count": 5,
  "query": "AI healthcare startups",
  "credits_used": 5,
  "credits_remaining": 995,
  "warnings": [],
  "interpreted_criteria": { "description": "AI healthcare startups" }
}

domain is the public company identifier — pass it to follow-up calls (similar companies, founder/executive and corporate-family details, exclusions). Each strong result costs 1 credit; credits_remaining tracks your balance. The full field list lives in the API reference.

Next steps