Created an Assistant using the API and have uploaded documents for retrieval. Looking at the request/response pairs in Playground, retreival works well (NICE!) but the annotations are always empty. The docs say that you will get this strange citation note in the text response, which I do, but there are no anotations that correspond. [Screen Cap 2023-11-07 at 04.02.39@2x] I know it’s finding the correct answer in my documents, because I’m asking questions that it could only be finding the answer there.

But these other citations actually work when hovering. Not sure what the difference are between the two kinds… [image]

I find it rather strange that openai do not address this. Okay it is a beta but if you put documentation on the website showing how to get annotations, and it is just not actually working it should be either removed from website or fixed… I guess openai has alot of stuff on their plate atm…

In my case, it seems that assistants with only one uploaded file returns the annotation array correctly, while assistants with multiple files returns empty annotation array.

I am experiencing this same problem as well, and I have uploaded only one file.

Me too, as of 11/26. I really need the passages that are referred to. I wonder if it breaks if there is more than a couple. I’m getting 17+ references mentioned. [ThreadMessage(id=‘msg_…’, assistant_id=‘asst_…’, content=[MessageContentText(text=Text(annotations=[ ], value=‘In the document regarding ABC, a total of 30 trials were included which investigated a total of 1,850 subjects【17†source】.’), type=‘text’)], created_at=1701, file_ids=[ ], metadata={}, object=‘thread.message’, role=‘assistant’, run_id=‘run_…’, thread_id=‘thread_…’), ThreadMessage(id=‘msg_…’, assistant_id=None, content=[MessageContentText(text=Text(annotations=[ ], value=‘how many subjects were there ABC’), type=‘text’)], created_at=1701, file_ids=[ ], metadata={}, object=‘thread.message’, role=‘user’, run_id=None, thread_id=‘thread_…’)] I’ve removed the timestamps and ids for security purposes.

I’m also seeing the annotations referenced but an empty annotations array. e.g.【1†source】

Seems that the team to release fast hasn’t completed implementing the annotations in the call. This is actually common to build the skeleton but not implement it 100%. I’m also getting the source directly in the message and the annotations empty. We shouldn’t get the source cited directly in the message, it should always be an independent parameter of the response.

but if you ask a subsequent question to the assistant “show references for the annotations”, it is able provide some reference from the uploaded documents, just doesn’t show it within the first response! :frowning:

There are many different reports of this happening. Assistant API always return empty annotations Mapping assistants API annotations back to the location in the source file Assistant message with annotations and source tags - #4 by JayArrBee What are 【N†source】in OpenAI's Assistant API response? Assistants API fails to use Retrieval tool as effectively as GPTs How can I access file_citation? From our experience: Assistants are more reliable with annotations when these come from assistant-linked files rather than thread (message) files. Asking for annotations, sources seems to improve likelyhood of them being included. Nonetheless it seems to very very often include references without the related sources. (I rarely see more than 2 correct annotations) The ‘text’ inside annotations is supposed to contain the source text to replace but often contains other, unrelated text. Thus, the snippet suggested by OpenAI in their documentation tents to break the answer in unexpected ways (as you’d be replacing random texts with references) We would appreciate any additional information the OpenAI team can provide on how to make annotations work consistenly or at lease more reliably. Thanks

Assistant Citations/Annotations array is always empty

API

matt-emergehaus December 14, 2023, 6:48pm 21

I found a resolution to this issue that is working for me (so far).

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Assistant Citations/Annotations array is always empty

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