---
title: "Call page.read_file"
method: POST
path: "/api/v1/tools/page.read_file"
tags: ["page"]
---

# Call page.read_file

`POST /api/v1/tools/page.read_file`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://app.goosybear.ai`
- URL: `https://app.goosybear.ai/api/v1/tools/page.read_file`
- Auth: HTTP bearer

Answer a member's question about what is IN one of a site's files — 'what's in Hero.astro?', 'show me the homepage code', 'let me see that file', 'what does the header say in the code?'. No site id is needed — it works on the site the member has open on screen. It reads one source file in a window of lines, for showing and explaining it; a change the member asks for goes to `page.edit`, whose coding agent reads the files itself. The result carries the source_ref the file was read at. When has_more is true the file continues; read the next window from end_line + 1 to answer about the rest. A binary file answers kind: binary with no content. Not for finding which file holds something, or for making a change — that is `page.list_files` or `page.edit`.

Every result names the workspace it ran in. Say which workspace the answer is about. When the account has more than one workspace and none is selected, this tool refuses with `workspace_ambiguous` and lists the choices — offer them, never pick one.

## Headers

- `x-request-id` string

## Request body

- object
  - `site_id` string, uuid: Optional site UUID. You are NOT shown the id of the site open on screen — it never appears in your context, so there is nothing to copy and nothing to look up. OMIT IT ENTIRELY and this call reads from that on-screen site; that is the PRIMARY path, not a fallback, and the turn's own surface resolves it server-side. Pass it only when the member explicitly named a DIFFERENT site and you took its id from page.list. Never pass a board, board-item, thread or any other id that merely happens to be nearby — those name different objects and will be refused.
  - `path` string, required: The file's project-relative path exactly as page.list_files reported it (for example `src/pages/index.astro`). Never a leading slash, never `..`.
  - `start_line` integer: The first line to read (1-based). Leave it out to start at the top; when the result says has_more, call again from end_line + 1.
  - `max_lines` integer: How many lines to read, at most 200. A long file is read in windows; never guess the part you have not read.
  - `workspace` string: Which workspace to run in — its slug. Omit to use your default. With more than one reachable workspace and no default, the call is refused and the choices are listed.

## Response `200`

The call was admitted and dispatched. `ok` says whether the tool succeeded — a refusal the tool itself produced is still a 200, exactly as it is a successful JSON-RPC result over MCP.

- union
  - object: The tool ran and answered.
    - `ok` true, required
    - `site_id` string, uuid, required
    - `path` string, required
    - `source_ref` string, required
    - `kind` 'text' | 'binary', required
    - `size` integer, required
    - `content` string
    - `start_line` integer
    - `end_line` integer
    - `total_lines` integer
    - `has_more` boolean, required
    - `workspace` string, required: The slug of the workspace this call ran in.
    - `working_in` object, required: Which workspace this call ran in, and how that was decided. Present on every workspace-scoped result.
      - `label` string, required: The chip words — e.g. "working in: Acme Main".
      - `note` string, required: Why this workspace — e.g. "your default", "this call only".
      - `workspace` string, required: The resolved workspace's slug.
      - `source` 'call-override' | 'key-pin' | 'stored-default' | 'sole-reachable', required: Which rung of the R7 precedence resolved the workspace.
  - ToolRefusal: A call that was admitted and dispatched, and did not succeed.
    - `ok` false, required
    - `code` string, required: The typed reason — e.g. `workspace_ambiguous`, `invalid_arguments`, or the tool's own failure code.
    - `message` string, required: A sentence a person can act on.
    - `workspaces` string[]: On a workspace refusal: the slugs this key may pass as `workspace`.
    - `issues` object[]: On `invalid_arguments`: which fields failed, and why.
      - `path` string, required
      - `message` string, required
    - `path` string: On an authoring refusal: where in your call's input it points, e.g. `steps.<key>.params.<field>`.
    - `fix` string: On an authoring refusal: the change to your call that would pass.
    - `instruction` string: On an authoring refusal: what to do next with it.

## Other responses

- `400`: The request could not be used: the body is present but not a JSON object (`tenant_api.malformed_body`); it is a top-level array carrying more messages than this endpoint accepts (`tenant_mcp.batch_too_large`); or the `Idempotency-Key` header is malformed (`tenant_api.idempotency_key_invalid`), disagrees with the body's `idempotency_key` (`tenant_api.idempotency_key_conflict`), or was sent to an action that cannot replay a retry (`tenant_api.idempotency_unsupported`). Nothing ran.
- `401`: No bearer credential, or one that did not resolve. Deliberately ONE undifferentiated answer for absent / unknown / revoked / expired, so the endpoint is never an oracle over the key space.
- `403`: The credential is good but the surface is not open to it — the platform or account API switch is off, or the holder lacks the `api.access` capability. The `code` says which.
- `404`: No such tool. The body names no tool and is identical for every unrecognised name.
- `429`: Over this key's per-minute cap. Carries `Retry-After` and `error.retry_after_seconds`.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/goosybear/apis/goosy-bear-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/goosybear/apis/goosy-bear-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/goosybear/apis/goosy-bear-api/revisions/6d82fb124064?raw)