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unlob

prefer_authority

boolean

Biases ranking toward higher-authority hosts without excluding the rest.

The soft counterpart to min_host_rank. Use it when a low-authority source might still hold the answer and you would rather demote it than lose it.

Example

prefer_authoritybash
curl -H "x-api-key: $UNLOB_API_KEY" \
  "https://api.unlob.com/search?q=nutrition+guidance&prefer_authority=true"

Common questions

What does the prefer_authority filter do?

Biases ranking toward higher-authority hosts without excluding the rest.

When should I use prefer_authority?

Broad questions where you want good sources first but not exclusively.

Filters are free

Every filter is evaluated against a stored field, so it narrows the candidate set before scoring — a filtered query is often faster than an unfiltered one.