> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://morphik.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# retrieve_chunks_grouped

> Retrieve relevant chunks with grouping for UI display

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Sync">
    ```python theme={null}
    def retrieve_chunks_grouped(
        query: Optional[str] = None,
        filters: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None,
        k: int = 4,
        min_score: float = 0.0,
        use_colpali: bool = True,
        use_reranking: Optional[bool] = None,
        folder_name: Optional[Union[str, List[str]]] = None,
        folder_depth: Optional[int] = None,
        end_user_id: Optional[str] = None,
        padding: int = 0,
        output_format: Optional[str] = None,
        query_image: Optional[str] = None,
    ) -> GroupedChunkResponse
    ```
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Async">
    ```python theme={null}
    async def retrieve_chunks_grouped(
        query: Optional[str] = None,
        filters: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None,
        k: int = 4,
        min_score: float = 0.0,
        use_colpali: bool = True,
        use_reranking: Optional[bool] = None,
        folder_name: Optional[Union[str, List[str]]] = None,
        folder_depth: Optional[int] = None,
        end_user_id: Optional[str] = None,
        padding: int = 0,
        output_format: Optional[str] = None,
        query_image: Optional[str] = None,
    ) -> GroupedChunkResponse
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Parameters

* `query` (str, optional): Search query text. Mutually exclusive with `query_image`.
* `filters` (Dict\[str, Any], optional): Optional metadata filters
* `k` (int, optional): Number of results. Defaults to 4.
* `min_score` (float, optional): Minimum similarity threshold. Defaults to 0.0.
* `use_colpali` (bool, optional): Whether to use ColPali-style embedding model. Defaults to True.
* `use_reranking` (bool, optional): Override workspace reranking configuration for this request.
* `folder_name` (str | List\[str], optional): Optional folder scope. Accepts canonical paths (e.g., `/projects/alpha/specs`) or a list of paths/names.
* `folder_depth` (int, optional): Folder scope depth. `None`/`0` = exact match, `-1` = include all descendants, `n > 0` = include descendants up to `n` levels deep.
* `end_user_id` (str, optional): Optional end-user scope
* `padding` (int, optional): Number of additional chunks/pages to retrieve before and after matched chunks. Defaults to 0.
* `output_format` (str, optional): Controls how image chunks are returned:
  * `"base64"` (default): Returns base64-encoded image data
  * `"url"`: Returns presigned HTTPS URLs
  * `"text"`: Converts images to markdown text via OCR (faster inference, best for text-heavy documents)
* `query_image` (str, optional): Base64-encoded image for reverse image search. Mutually exclusive with `query`. Requires `use_colpali=True`.

## Returns

* `GroupedChunkResponse`: Response containing both flat chunks and grouped chunks for UI display

## Metadata Filters

Filters follow the same JSON syntax across the API. See the [Metadata Filtering guide](/concepts/metadata-filtering) for supported operators and typed comparisons.

## Examples

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Sync">
    ```python theme={null}
    from morphik import Morphik

    db = Morphik()

    # Basic grouped retrieval
    response = db.retrieve_chunks_grouped(
        query="What are the key findings?",
        k=5,
    )

    print(f"Total results: {response.total_results}")
    print(f"Has padding: {response.has_padding}")

    # Access flat list of chunks (backward compatible)
    for chunk in response.chunks:
        print(f"Score: {chunk.score}, Content: {chunk.content[:100]}...")

    # Access grouped chunks for UI display
    for group in response.groups:
        print(f"\n--- Group with {group.total_chunks} chunks ---")
        print(f"Main chunk: {group.main_chunk.content[:100]}...")
        for padding_chunk in group.padding_chunks:
            print(f"  Padding: {padding_chunk.content[:50]}...")

    # With padding for context
    response = db.retrieve_chunks_grouped(
        query="quarterly results",
        k=3,
        padding=2,  # Get 2 chunks before/after each match
        folder_name="/projects/reports",
        folder_depth=-1,
    )

    ```
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Async">
    ```python theme={null}
    from morphik import AsyncMorphik

    async with AsyncMorphik() as db:
        # Basic grouped retrieval
        response = await db.retrieve_chunks_grouped(
            query="What are the key findings?",
            k=5,
        )

        print(f"Total results: {response.total_results}")
        print(f"Has padding: {response.has_padding}")

        # Access flat list of chunks (backward compatible)
        for chunk in response.chunks:
            print(f"Score: {chunk.score}, Content: {chunk.content[:100]}...")

        # Access grouped chunks for UI display
        for group in response.groups:
            print(f"\n--- Group with {group.total_chunks} chunks ---")
            print(f"Main chunk: {group.main_chunk.content[:100]}...")
            for padding_chunk in group.padding_chunks:
                print(f"  Padding: {padding_chunk.content[:50]}...")

        # With padding for context
        response = await db.retrieve_chunks_grouped(
            query="quarterly results",
            k=3,
            padding=2,  # Get 2 chunks before/after each match
            folder_name="/projects/reports",
            folder_depth=-1,
        )

    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## GroupedChunkResponse Properties

The `GroupedChunkResponse` object has the following properties:

* `chunks` (List\[ChunkResult]): Flat list of all chunks (for backward compatibility)
* `groups` (List\[ChunkGroup]): Grouped chunks for UI display
* `total_results` (int): Total number of unique chunks
* `has_padding` (bool): Whether padding was applied to any results

## ChunkGroup Properties

Each `ChunkGroup` in `groups` has:

* `main_chunk` (ChunkResult): The primary matched chunk
* `padding_chunks` (List\[ChunkResult]): Surrounding context chunks
* `total_chunks` (int): Total number of chunks in this group

## Notes

* This method is similar to [`retrieve_chunks`](./retrieve_chunks) but provides additional grouping for UI display.
* The `chunks` list provides backward compatibility with flat chunk lists.
* The `groups` list organizes results with their padding context, ideal for building search result UIs.
* When `padding` is specified, surrounding chunks are included in `padding_chunks` for each group.

## Reverse Image Search

You can search using an image instead of text by providing `query_image` with a base64-encoded image:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Sync">
    ```python theme={null}
    import base64
    from morphik import Morphik

    db = Morphik()

    # Load and encode your query image
    with open("query_image.png", "rb") as f:
        image_b64 = base64.b64encode(f.read()).decode("utf-8")

    # Search using the image with grouped results
    response = db.retrieve_chunks_grouped(
        query_image=image_b64,
        use_colpali=True,  # Required for image queries
        k=5,
        padding=1,
    )

    for group in response.groups:
        print(f"Main chunk score: {group.main_chunk.score}")
        print(f"Document: {group.main_chunk.document_id}")
        print("---")
    ```
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Async">
    ```python theme={null}
    import base64
    from morphik import AsyncMorphik

    async with AsyncMorphik() as db:
        # Load and encode your query image
        with open("query_image.png", "rb") as f:
            image_b64 = base64.b64encode(f.read()).decode("utf-8")

        # Search using the image with grouped results
        response = await db.retrieve_chunks_grouped(
            query_image=image_b64,
            use_colpali=True,  # Required for image queries
            k=5,
            padding=1,
        )

        for group in response.groups:
            print(f"Main chunk score: {group.main_chunk.score}")
            print(f"Document: {group.main_chunk.document_id}")
            print("---")
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

<Note>
  Reverse image search requires documents to be ingested with `use_colpali=True`. You must provide either `query` or `query_image`, but not both.
</Note>