---
title: "Start a clone search"
method: POST
path: "/v1/finder/searches/clone"
tags: ["RecruitAffiliates.ai"]
---

# Start a clone search

`POST /v1/finder/searches/clone`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.affiliaterail.com`
- URL: `https://api.affiliaterail.com/v1/finder/searches/clone`
- Auth: HTTP bearer

Clone your best affiliates, step two. Spends one search credit and looks for creators like the ones you send, on the profile you send. Leave `profile` out and the creators are read again first, free, as `POST /searches/clone-profile` would.

Poll `GET /searches/{id}` like any search. If it can't start, the credit comes back straight away and the search answers `failed` with `credit_refunded: true`. A profile with no topic, brand or hashtag is refused with `profile_empty` before anything is spent.

Send an `Idempotency-Key`: a retry with the same key answers the first search and never spends twice.

A test key answers a `queued` search that is stored nowhere and never runs. It spends nothing.

Answers 404 `feature_off` while clone search isn't switched on for the deployment.

**Scope:** `finder:write`

## Request body

- FinderCloneSearchCreate
  - `brand_id` string: Which brand. Defaults to the organization's oldest.
  - `seeds` string[]: Links to creators you already rate, one per item: a website, a YouTube channel, an Instagram or TikTok profile, a newsletter or a podcast. A bare `@name` is refused, because it could be anyone on three platforms.
  - `prospect_ids` string[]: Or pick them from your own prospects. Ten creators at most, pasted and picked together.
  - `profile` object: The profile to search on, edited or as `clone-profile` wrote it. Leave it out and the creators are read again first, which costs nothing.
    - `topics` string[]: Two to six things they make content about, in the words a viewer would search. Each one becomes a website and a YouTube search.
    - `audience` string: Who watches or reads them, in one line
    - `formats` string[]: Reviews, tutorials, comparisons and so on
    - `platforms` string[]
    - `brands` object[]: Brands they already promote. The search also looks for others who promote them.
      - `name` string, required
      - `domain` string, nullable, required
    - `size_band` 'nano' | 'micro' | 'mid' | 'macro' | 'mixed' | 'unknown': nano is under 10k followers, micro 10k to 100k, mid 100k to 1m, macro over 1m
    - `language` string: Two-letter language code
    - `hashtags` string[]: Without the #. Each one becomes an Instagram and TikTok search.
  - `country` string, required: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, like GB or US

## Response `201`

The search

- FinderSearch
  - `id` string, required: Prefixed id (`fsc_…`)
  - `object` 'finder_search', required
  - `brand_id` string, required: Prefixed id (`fbr_…`)
  - `type` 'topic' | 'competitor' | 'lookalike' | 'clone', required
  - `seed` string, required: What was searched: the topic, the competitor's domain or handle, the YouTube channel, or for `clone` the creators it started from
  - `country` string, nullable, required: Topic and clone searches only
  - `label` string, required: What the app calls it in Recent searches
  - `state` 'queued' | 'running' | 'done' | 'failed' | 'stopped_at_ceiling', required
  - `found` integer, required
  - `error` string, nullable, required
  - `credit_refunded` boolean, required: True when the search failed and its credit came back
  - `created_at` string, date-time, required: ISO-8601, UTC
  - `finished_at` string, date-time, nullable, required: ISO-8601, UTC
  - `livemode` boolean, required

## Other responses

- `400`: Invalid request
- `401`: Missing or unknown API key
- `402`: The organization's Recruit Affiliates plan does not include the API
- `403`: Key lacks the required scope
- `404`: No such object in your organization
- `409`: In conflict with the object's state, or the same idempotent request is still running
- `422`: The request was understood and refused
- `429`: Rate limited, by key or by organization: see Retry-After and X-RateLimit-Scope
- `501`: Not available to a test key (`sandbox_no_send`)

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/affiliaterail/apis/affiliaterail-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/affiliaterail/apis/affiliaterail-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/affiliaterail/apis/affiliaterail-api/revisions/ea41f345c092?raw)