Research Basis

Understand how to access citations, reasoning, and confidence levels for your Task Run outputs

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When you execute a task using the Task API, the response includes both the generated output and its corresponding research basis, a structured explanation detailing the reasoning and evidence behind each result. This transparency enables you to understand how the system arrived at its conclusions and to assess the reliability of the output.

Terminology

To avoid confusion, this document uses the following terminology:

• Research Basis: The overall feature that provides transparency into how Task API results are generated
• Basis: The basis field in the API response, which contains an array of field-specific evidence
• FieldBasis: The specific object type that contains citations, reasoning, and confidence for individual output fields

Task Run Result

Every Task Run Result object contains the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
run	object	Task Run object with status and id, detailed above.
output	TaskRunOutput object or null	Output from the task conforming to the output schema. Present iff run.status == completed.

A TaskRunOutput object can be one of two types:

• TaskRunTextOutput
• TaskRunJsonOutput

Both have the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
content	object for TaskRunJsonOutput; string for TaskRunTextOutput	JSON or plain text according to the output schema.
basis	array[FieldBasis]	Array of FieldBasis objects. JSON outputs include entries for top-level fields and individual elements of top-level list fields. Text outputs include a single entry for output. See the FieldBasis object below.
type	string	json for TaskRunJsonOutput or text for TaskRunTextOutput.

Research Basis Structure

The basis field contains FieldBasis objects. For JSON outputs, it includes an entry for each top-level field and for each individual element of a top-level list field. For list elements, the field value uses a dot-delimited index, such as key_executives.0 and key_executives.1. The parent entry remains available alongside the element entries. Text outputs include a single entry whose field value is output. These entries let you trace which web sources contributed to each piece of information in your result.

The FieldBasis object

Each FieldBasis object has these components:

Field	Type	Description
field	string	Top-level JSON output field name, dot-delimited list-element path, or output for text output.
citations	array[Citation]	List of web sources supporting the output field
reasoning	string	Explanation of how the system processed the information
confidence	string or null	Reliability rating for each output field

Citations

Citations provide the exact URLs where information was found. Each citation includes excerpts from the source that contributed to the output:

Field	Type	Description
url	string	The source URL
excerpts	array[string] or null	Relevant text from the source

Having multiple citations for an output field often indicates stronger evidence, as the information was verified across multiple sources.

Reasoning

The reasoning field explains how the system evaluated, compared, and synthesized information from different sources. This is particularly valuable when:

• Information from different sources needed to be reconciled
• Calculations or conversions were performed
• The system needed to make judgments about conflicting data

Confidence Levels

All processors include a confidence rating for each output field:

• High: Strong evidence from multiple authoritative sources with consistent information
• Medium: Adequate evidence but with some inconsistencies or from less authoritative sources
• Low: Limited or conflicting evidence, or information from less reliable sources

Per-Element Basis

For JSON outputs, the Task API returns a basis entry for each top-level output field. For a top-level list field, it also returns entries for individual list elements. Element entries use dot-delimited field paths such as key_executives.0 and key_executives.1.

Per-element entries supplement the parent field entry. They do not replace it. For example, a response can contain key_executives, key_executives.0, and key_executives.1.

As of August 24, 2026, omit the legacy parallel-beta: field-basis-2025-11-25 header from new integrations, and remove it from existing integrations. You receive Per-Element Basis without it.

If you did not send the beta header before August 24, 2026, your basis arrays may contain more entries. Continue reading task result values from output.content.

Examples

Output with Research Basis

Here’s an example of a complete Task Run output that includes research basis information:

{
  "content": {
    "company": "Microsoft",
    "founded": "1975",
    "headquarters": "Redmond, Washington, USA"
  },
  "basis": [
    {
      "field": "company",
      "citations": [
        {
          "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about",
          "excerpts": ["Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington."]
        }
      ],
      "reasoning": "The company name is clearly identified on the official corporate website.",
      "confidence": "high"
    },
    {
      "field": "founded",
      "citations": [
        {
          "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/company",
          "excerpts": ["Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq \"MSFT\") enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge."]
        },
        {
          "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft",
          "excerpts": ["Microsoft Corporation was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800."]
        }
      ],
      "reasoning": "Multiple authoritative sources consistently state 1975 as the founding year. The official company website and Wikipedia both confirm this date, with Wikipedia providing the specific day (April 4).",
      "confidence": "high"
    },
    {
      "field": "headquarters",
      "citations": [
        {
          "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/company",
          "excerpts": ["Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft has offices in over 100 countries."]
        }
      ],
      "reasoning": "The official company website explicitly states the headquarters location as Redmond, Washington, USA.",
      "confidence": "high"
    }
  ],
  "type": "json"
}

High vs. Low Confidence Outputs

High Confidence

{
  "field": "revenue",
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Investor/earnings/FY-2023-Q4/press-release-webcast",
      "excerpts": ["Microsoft reported fiscal year 2023 revenue of $211.9 billion, an increase of 7% compared to the previous fiscal year."]
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789019/000095017023014837/msft-20230630.htm",
      "excerpts": ["Revenue was $211.9 billion for fiscal year 2023, up 7% compared to $198.3 billion for fiscal year 2022."]
    }
  ],
  "reasoning": "The revenue figure is consistent across both the company's investor relations page and their official SEC filing. Both sources explicitly state the fiscal year 2023 revenue as $211.9 billion, representing a 7% increase over the previous year.",
  "confidence": "high"
}

Low Confidence

{
  "field": "crm_system",
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/sales-representative-microsoft-dynamics-365-at-contoso-inc-3584271",
      "excerpts": ["Looking for sales professionals with experience in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM to join our growing team."]
    }
  ],
  "reasoning": "There is limited direct evidence about which CRM system the company uses internally. The job posting suggests they work with Microsoft Dynamics 365, but it's not explicitly stated whether this is their primary internal CRM or simply a product they sell/support. No official company documentation confirming their internal CRM system was found.",
  "confidence": "low"
}

Per-Element Basis example

When an output contains a list, the research basis includes a parent entry for the list and separate entries for its elements. Use the parent entry for field-level context and element paths for item-level evidence.

{
  "content": {
    "company": "OpenAI",
    "key_executives": [
      {"name": "Sam Altman", "title": "CEO"},
      {"name": "Greg Brockman", "title": "President"}
    ]
  },
  "basis": [
    {
      "field": "company",
      "citations": [
        {
          "url": "https://openai.com/about",
          "excerpts": ["OpenAI is headquartered in San Francisco, California."]
        }
      ],
      "reasoning": "The company name is taken from the official about page.",
      "confidence": "high"
    },
    {
      "field": "key_executives",
      "citations": [
        {
          "url": "https://openai.com/leadership",
          "excerpts": ["Key executives include Sam Altman and Greg Brockman."]
        }
      ],
      "reasoning": "The leadership page lists each executive explicitly.",
      "confidence": "high"
    },
    {
      "field": "key_executives.0",
      "citations": [
        {
          "url": "https://openai.com/leadership",
          "excerpts": ["Sam Altman serves as the CEO of OpenAI."]
        }
      ],
      "reasoning": "Same source, filtered down to the first list element.",
      "confidence": "high"
    },
    {
      "field": "key_executives.1",
      "citations": [
        {
          "url": "https://openai.com/leadership",
          "excerpts": ["Greg Brockman serves as President."]
        }
      ],
      "reasoning": "Same source, filtered down to the second list element.",
      "confidence": "high"
    }
  ],
  "type": "json"
}