> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.querying.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> A Cloro-compatible API for querying AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overview, and more.

querying.ai is an API that answers one question: **what does an AI
engine say when you ask it something?** You submit a prompt targeted at an engine, and
we return that engine's answer along with the sources it cited.

It implements the same request/response contract as [Cloro](https://api.cloro.dev), so
existing Cloro clients migrate by changing the base URL and API key — no code changes.
See [Migrating from Cloro](/migrate-from-cloro).

## How it works

Every request is **asynchronous**. You submit a task, we queue it, a worker drives the
target engine (via HTTP scraping or a real browser, depending on the engine), and the
result comes back to you either through a webhook or by polling.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Submit a task">
    `POST /v1/async/task` with a `taskType` and a `payload`. You get back a task `id`
    immediately, with status `QUEUED`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="We drive the engine">
    A worker claims the task, queries the engine, and extracts the answer text, sources,
    and any engine-specific extras.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Collect the result">
    If you supplied `webhook.url`, we POST the result to it. Otherwise poll
    `GET /v1/async/task/{id}` until `status` is `COMPLETED` or `FAILED`.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What you get back

Regardless of engine, the useful core of every result is the same shape:

<ResponseField name="text" type="string">
  The engine's answer as plain text.
</ResponseField>

<ResponseField name="sources" type="array">
  The citations the engine attached to its answer — `position`, `url`, and usually `label`.
</ResponseField>

Engines add their own fields on top of that (Google returns a full SERP envelope;
ChatGPT, Grok and Perplexity can return the search queries they fanned out to; Naver's
AI tab returns the shopping panel it showed). See
[Engines](/engines/overview) for the per-engine shape.

## Base URL

```
https://api.querying.ai
```

All endpoints except `/health` and `/ready` require a [bearer token](/authentication).

<Card title="Start here" icon="rocket" href="/quickstart">
  Submit your first task and get a result back in under five minutes.
</Card>