# Retrieve a highlight

**GET /highlights/{highlight}**

Read one highlight. It answers `404` whenever its article would, so a
highlight cannot be used to read a passage of an issue the key is not
entitled to.



## Servers
- Production. There is no separate sandbox host.
: https://api.usecommune.com (Production. There is no separate sandbox host.
)


## Authentication methods
- Api key


## Parameters
### Headers

- **Commune-Version** (string(date))
  The contract version this request is written against, as a release date
  (`YYYY-MM-DD`). Omitting the header pins the request to the version that
  was current when the API key was issued, so an integration keeps working
  when a newer version ships. An unknown value answers `400` with
  `invalid_version`.


### Path parameters

- **highlight** (string(uuid))
  The highlight's `id`. A highlight has no short id.


### Query parameters

- **expand** (string)
  Comma separated list of relationship paths to inline in the response.
  Unexpanded relationships are returned as a reference object carrying
  only `id` and `object`. Each operation documents the paths it accepts,
  and an unknown path answers `400`. Nested paths use a dot, for example
  `article.newsletter`.

  One accepted path is not a relationship. `?expand=content` on
  `GET /articles/{article}` adds the Markdown rendition of the body
  beside the HTML one. It is the same trade the parameter always offers,
  a fuller response for a larger one, over a property that has more than
  one representation rather than over a reference.

- **fields** (string)
  Comma separated allow list of top level properties to return on each
  object, so a client can trim a response it does not need in full. `id`
  and `object` are always returned. An unknown property name answers
  `400`. Properties omitted by an operation, such as `content` on any
  article list, cannot be brought back with `fields`.

  A trimmed body is a subset of the schema this operation declares, and a
  property that schema marks required is absent when it was not asked for.
  That is the point of the parameter, so a client that validates responses
  against the schema either sends no `fields` or relaxes `required`.



## Responses
### 200
The highlight.

#### Body: application/json (object | null)
- **object** (string)
  Always `highlight`.

- **id** (string(uuid))
  Stable identifier.

- **article** (object | null)
  The article the passage is in. A `Ref` unless `article` is named in
  `?expand=`.

- **quote** (string)
  The marked text itself, as plain text.

- **prefix** (string)
  Up to two hundred characters of the text immediately before the
  quote. Together with `suffix` this re anchors the highlight when the
  body changed and the offsets no longer line up.

- **suffix** (string)
  Up to two hundred characters of the text immediately after the quote.

- **start_offset** (integer)
  Where the passage starts, as a character offset into the article's
  plain text. Always less than `end_offset`.

- **end_offset** (integer)
  Where the passage ends, as a character offset into the plain text.

- **owner_key** (string)
  An opaque, stable per highlighter value, scoped to this one article.
  Group by it to tell one reader's marks apart from another's, and
  count distinct values for a distinct highlighter count. It cannot be
  resolved to a person and does not correlate across articles: Commune
  does not attribute a highlight to a named reader.

- **message** (object | null)
  The chat message the reader wrote from this passage, when they wrote
  one. `null` otherwise. A `Ref` unless `message` is named in
  `?expand=`.

- **created_at** (string(date-time))
  When the passage was marked.


### 400
The request was malformed: an unknown query parameter, an unparseable
cursor, an unknown `expand` path, or an unrecognised `Commune-Version`.


#### Body: application/json (object)
- **error** (object)


### 401
No API key was presented, or the key is unknown, revoked or expired.

All four answer identically, down to the wording. Saying that a key was
revoked rather than never issued confirms to whoever is holding the
string that it was once real, which a legitimate caller does not need
and a thief should not get.

#### Headers

- **WWW-Authenticate** (string)
  The authentication scheme this API accepts. Always
  `Bearer realm="Commune API"`; there is no second scheme and no
  query-parameter fallback, because a credential that can travel in a
  URL ends up in access logs and referer headers.


#### Body: application/json (object)
- **error** (object)


### 404
No such resource, or the key is not allowed to know that it exists.
Commune answers `404` rather than `403` where distinguishing the two
would leak the existence of private content.


#### Body: application/json (object)
- **error** (object)


### 429
Too many requests. Back off and retry after the interval named by the
`Retry-After` response header.

#### Headers

- **Retry-After** (integer)
  Seconds to wait before retrying.


#### Body: application/json (object)
- **error** (object)


### 500
Something failed inside Commune. The request may be retried.

#### Body: application/json (object)
- **error** (object)



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