Accessing Assistant Output Files via API or Web

[rmncldyo]

Hello fellow devs,

I’m currently exploring the capabilities of accessing assistant-generated output files and I’ve encountered a bit of a roadblock. As we know, the standard endpoint for accessing files via the OpenAI platform is https://platform.openai.com/files, and via the API, it’s https://api.openai.com/v1/files. However, I’ve noticed a gap in accessing files specifically generated as assistant outputs.

In practice, files generated by the assistant should ideally be tagged with purpose: assistants_output. An example URL for such a file is https://platform.openai.com/files/file-mJFGlkcDLfpxejspNDPm8gv0, but this approach requires prior knowledge of the specific file_id, which isn’t always practical or feasible.

My question is: Is there an existing endpoint or a section on the web that enables us to access these assistant output files more directly? Ideally, such a feature would allow developers to retrieve files based on their purpose tag (e.g., purpose: assistants_output) without needing to store every file_id at the time of creation.

This functionality would not only streamline the process for individual developers but also seems like it could be a valuable addition for the broader OpenAI community. I’d appreciate any insights or guidance on this matter.

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

Disclaimer: The content of this message was generated with the assistance of ChatGPT.

[jlvanhulst]

I would love to be able to see what thread or assistant a file is associated with. But to that end - file id’s ARE stored in either the thread where you added them or the Assistant you added it to. So you don’t have to save the file id’s per se?

[rmncldyo]

Thanks for the reply Jean!

It looks like someone at OAI might have seen this thread and updated the backend to support exactly this. Now whenever an assistant generates a file as output ie.(“sandbox:/mnt/data/”), the file can now be accessed directly from the files tab and via the API.

Thank you OAI team!

[jlvanhulst]

To that end I also just discovered that you can now see THREADS as well (you might need to enable them under ‘Team’

Really SUPER helpful to be able to see the whole thread execution path!
https://platform.openai.com/threads

[rmncldyo]

Yes!

For whoever is wondering, to gain access to the Threads section where you can view all of your thread history, simply:

1. Navigate to the Settings page
2. Click on the Organization page
3. Scroll down to Features and capabilities and look for Threads
4. Click Visible to organization owners or Visible to everyone
5. Click Save

Once you activate the Threads option, you should see a Threads button below the Assistants button and above the Fine-tuning button on the left side menu. Once you click that button you will open the threads panel.

The new updates to the API keys actually led me to writing this post haha: Can we please get the ‘List Threads’ API endpoint back now that we can assign permissions to API keys?.

Hope to hear back from the OAI team soon

[ecaras]

The re’s an API endpoint
To get the list of your message files:
/v1/assistants/{assistant_id}/files

To retrieve your message file
/v1/threads/{thread_id}/messages/{message_id}/files/{file_id}