PicoBot/.agents/skills/lark-im/references/lark-im-chat-search.md

im +chat-search

Prerequisite: Read ../lark-shared/SKILL.md first to understand authentication, global parameters, and safety rules.

Search the list of group chats visible to a user or bot, including chats the user or bot belongs to and public chats visible to them. Supports keyword matching on chat names and member names, including pinyin and prefix fuzzy search.

This skill maps to the shortcut: lark-cli im +chat-search (internally calls POST /open-apis/im/v2/chats/search).

Commands

# Search chats by keyword
lark-cli im +chat-search --query "project"

# Restrict by search types
lark-cli im +chat-search --query "project" --search-types "private,public_joined"

# Filter by chat mode (group = regular group, topic = topic/thread group)
lark-cli im +chat-search --query "project" --chat-modes "topic"

# Filter by member open_ids (with keyword)
lark-cli im +chat-search --query "project" --member-ids "ou_xxx,ou_yyy"

# Search by member open_ids only
lark-cli im +chat-search --member-ids "ou_xxx,ou_yyy"

# Only show chats you created or manage
lark-cli im +chat-search --query "project" --is-manager

# Set page size
lark-cli im +chat-search --query "project" --page-size 10

# Pagination
lark-cli im +chat-search --query "project" --page-token "xxx"

# JSON output
lark-cli im +chat-search --query "project" --format json

# Preview the request without executing it
lark-cli im +chat-search --query "project" --dry-run

Parameters

Parameter	Required	Limits	Description
--query <keyword>	No (at least one of --query / --member-ids required)	Max 64 characters	Search keyword. Supports matching localized chat names, member names, multilingual search, pinyin, and prefix fuzzy search. If the query contains -, it is automatically wrapped in quotes
--search-types <types>	No	Comma-separated: private, external, public_joined, public_not_joined	Restrict the visible chat types returned by search
--chat-modes <modes>	No	Comma-separated: group, topic	Filter by chat mode (server-side): group = regular group, topic = topic/thread group
--member-ids <ids>	No (at least one of --query / --member-ids required)	Up to 50, format ou_xxx	Filter by member open_ids; can be used alone or combined with --query
--is-manager	No	-	Only show chats you created or manage
--disable-search-by-user	No	-	Disable member-name-based matching and search by group name only
--sort <field>	No	create_time, update_time, member_count	Sort field (always descending)
--page-size <n>	No	1-100, default 20	Number of results per page
--page-token <token>	No	-	Pagination token from the previous response
--exclude-muted	No	User identity only	Drop chats the current user has muted (do-not-disturb). Under --as bot, the flag is silently inactive (mute is a per-user setting); see "Filtering muted chats" below
--format json	No	-	Output as JSON
--dry-run	No	-	Preview the request without executing it

Note: Supports both --as user (default) and --as bot. When using bot identity, the app must have bot capability enabled.

CAUTION: --sort is always descending — the search API only ranks the chosen field high-to-low (e.g. member_count = most members first). There is no ascending option. If the user asks for "fewest first / ascending / 从少到多", tell them the search API does not support ascending order; any low-to-high view requires re-sorting the fetched page client-side and is not an upstream sort. Do not invent values like member_count_asc or pass asc (they are rejected).

Output Fields

Field	Description
chat_id	Chat ID (oc_xxx format)
name	Chat name
description	Chat description
owner_id	Owner ID
external	Whether the chat is external
chat_status	Chat status (normal / dissolved / dissolved_save)

Filtering muted chats

--exclude-muted (user identity only) drops chats the current user has set to do-not-disturb. After the search call, the CLI batches the page's chat_ids through POST /open-apis/im/v1/chat_user_setting/batch_get_mute_status and filters client-side. Under --as bot, the mute API is UAT-only and the filter is silently skipped.

When the flag is set, the JSON envelope gains a filter sub-object (absent otherwise, so existing consumers are unaffected); fetched_count == returned_count + filtered_count always holds:

{
  "chats": [...],
  "filter": {
    "applied": "exclude_muted",
    "fetched_count": 20,
    "returned_count": 19,
    "filtered_count": 1,
    "hint": "Filtered out 1 muted chat(s) on this page (19 remaining, including 2 non-member public group(s)); use --page-token to fetch more."
  }
}

Note: only confirmed-muted chats count toward filtered_count; non-member public groups are retained and surfaced in hint. For strict member-only results, combine with --search-types "private,public_joined,external".

Usage Scenarios

Scenario 1: Search chats that contain a keyword

lark-cli im +chat-search --query "design review"

Scenario 2: Search a chat and list recent messages

CHAT_ID=$(lark-cli im +chat-search --query "project" --format json | jq -r '.data.chats[0].chat_id')
lark-cli im +chat-messages-list --chat-id "$CHAT_ID"

Scenario 3: Search a chat and send a message

CHAT_ID=$(lark-cli im +chat-search --query "daily report" --format json | jq -r '.data.chats[0].chat_id')
lark-cli im +messages-send --chat-id "$CHAT_ID" --text "Today's progress update"

Common Errors and Troubleshooting

Symptom	Root Cause	Solution
--query and --member-ids cannot both be empty	Both were omitted	Provide at least --query or --member-ids
Empty results	No visible chats matched the keyword or filters	Relax the keyword or filters and try again
--page-size must be an integer between 1 and 100	page-size is out of range or not an integer	Use an integer between 1 and 100
Permission denied (99991672)	The bot app does not have im:chat:read TAT permission enabled	Enable the permission for the app in the Open Platform console
Permission denied (99991679) with --as user	UAT is not authorized for im:chat:read	Run lark-cli auth login --scope "im:chat:read"
Bot ability is not activated (232025)	The app does not have bot capability enabled	Enable bot capability in the Open Platform console

AI Usage Guidance

When the user asks to search chats, follow these rules:

1. At least one filter required: --query and --member-ids cannot both be empty. Either alone or combined together are valid.
2. Search scope is limited: only chats visible to the current user or bot can be found (joined chats plus public chats). This is not a global search over all chats.
3. Control result volume: the result set may be large. Use --page-size deliberately.
4. Suggest follow-up actions: after finding a chat, common next steps include listing recent messages (im +chat-messages-list) or sending a message (im +messages-send).
5. NEVER fall back to chats list: If +chat-search returns empty results, do NOT attempt to use +chat-list or GET /open-apis/im/v1/chats as a fallback. The list API is not a search API — it returns all chats without keyword filtering and will not help locate the target chat. Instead, ask the user to refine the keyword or check whether the chat is visible to the current identity.

References

• lark-im - all IM commands
• lark-shared - authentication and global parameters