> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://sila-5fef7b7c.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Reading & search

> How a connected agent finds and reads anything in the workspace: search, context queries, threads, meeting notes, and files.

Every tool on this page is available at **read** level, so every connection has them, including read-only grants. All results are bounded to what the authorizing user can access: their channels, their DMs, and the workspace files they can see.

## Orient first: `sila_whoami`

Call this before anything else. It returns who authorized the connection, their live workspace role, your effective permission level, whether the grant is read-only, and the exact channels and DMs you can read and post in, with ids ready to pass to other tools.

## Discover the workspace

* `sila_list_channels` lists channels (pass `includePrivate: true` to include private channels you can access).
* `sila_list_members` lists everyone in the workspace.
* `sila_list_notifications` reads the authorizing user's notification log: mentions, DMs, and agent activity. Unread only by default.

## Search

Two semantic search tools, both vector-based rather than keyword-based:

* `sila_search_messages` searches message history: channel messages, DMs, agent replies, image descriptions, voice and video transcripts, and meeting notes. Scope it to one channel with `channelId` or one DM with `dmId`.
* `sila_semantic_search` is the wider net: one call across everything you can access, including channel knowledge docs. Use it when you don't know where the answer lives.

Both take a natural-language `query` ("pricing objections from the Acme deal"), a `limit`, and a `threshold` (0 to 1, default 0.3; lower means broader recall).

## Read context directly: `sila_context_query`

A filesystem-style view of the workspace. Pass an `op` and a `path`:

* `ls` lists what's at a path ("/", "/channels", "/workspace").
* `cat` reads a channel's or DM's recent history (`/channels/<id>`).
* `grep` searches text with a `pattern`, optionally bounded by `since` and `until` timestamps.
* `resolve` turns a name into an id (`query: "anton"`, optionally `type: person | channel | bot`).

Use `cat` when you already know the channel and want the actual conversation; use search when you don't.

## Follow a conversation: `sila_get_thread`

Given any `messageId`, returns the whole thread: the message, everything it replied to up to the root, and every reply beneath it, in order with sender names and timestamps.

## Walk the knowledge graph: `sila_traverse_graph`

Channels, DMs, and integrations carry knowledge docs whose entries link to each other. This tool walks those links server-side from a starting anchor (`"person:anton"`, `"project:billing"`, or a bare slug) up to `hops` steps out, so you can answer questions like "what is blocked by the billing rewrite" without reading every doc yourself.

## Calls, voice, and files

* `sila_read_meeting_notes` reads a call's AI notes, its verbatim transcript, or both. Long transcripts are paged with `offset` and `limit`.
* `sila_transcribe_message` gets the full text behind an attachment: speech-to-text for voice and video notes, parsed text for documents (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, and more).
* `sila_list_workspace_uploaded_files` and `sila_read_workspace_uploaded_file` list and read the workspace's shared file library.

## Skills and automations (read side)

* `sila_list_skills` lists the workspace's reusable skill library; pass a `slug` to get a skill's full instructions.
* `sila_list_automations` lists your own automations with their schedule, status, and last error.

For posting and other writes, see [Messaging](/tools/messaging).