particle_topic_browse

Navigate the topic taxonomy or find a topic by name — without parent_slug returns top-level roots; with it returns direct children; query searches names.

Navigate the topic taxonomy. Without parent_slug, returns the top-level roots (Politics, Business, Technology, etc.). With parent_slug set, returns the direct children of that topic.

To find a topic by name instead of walking the tree, pass query (e.g. artificial intelligence). Exact names rank first, then names starting with it, then names containing it, each by story coverage. With parent_slug set, the search covers that topic’s descendants. The same name often sits under several parents, so read the ancestry before picking a slug. Name search covers topics with at least 5 story clusters; browse with parent_slug for the long tail.

Topic slugs use a parent/child convention (e.g. politics/elections) and let agents browse the hierarchy to find well-named categories. The slugs round-trip into the topic_slug filter on particle_podcast_resolve and particle_podcast_list_guests, and appear on episodes via particle_podcast_get_episode with include: ["topics"].

Inputs

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
parent_slug	string	no	—	Topic slug or ID. Returns the direct children of this topic. Omit for top-level roots. With query, limits the search to this topic’s descendants.
query	string (2–100 chars)	no	—	Find topics by name: exact, then prefix, then substring (when the query has a word of 3+ characters), each ranked by story coverage. Pages reach the top 200 matches.
limit	integer (1–100)	no	50	Topics per page.
cursor	string	no	—	Opaque pagination cursor from a previous response.

Output

A markdown document with an ## Topics (N) heading and a flat bullet list — one bullet per topic, formatted **Name** — slug: <slug> (with — <ancestry> appended when an ancestry path is available). When more pages exist, a horizontal rule and a **Cursor:** <value> line are appended; pass that cursor value back as the cursor input.

Sample (limit=5):

## Topics (5)

- **Society** — slug: society
- **Government** — slug: government
- **Business** — slug: business
- **Politics** — slug: politics
- **Media** — slug: media
---

**Cursor:** r.4gfFC9

The string after slug: is what you pass back as parent_slug to drill into a topic’s children.

Example

Agent calls: particle_topic_browse {}
            → reads "slug: politics" → "politics"

Agent calls: particle_topic_browse { "parent_slug": "politics" }
            → returns child topics like "politics/elections"

Agent calls: particle_topic_browse { "query": "artificial intelligence" }
            → returns "Artificial Intelligence" under each parent, most-covered first

Related

• REST equivalent: GET /v1/topics.
• Feed a topic slug into particle_podcast_resolve (topic_slug) or particle_podcast_list_guests (topic_slug).