REST API Search Controller not returning results

[yelenacox]

API that is not loading
GET call to https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/search?q=cancer&ontology=NCIT&start=0&rows=100

Desktop:

• OS: Windows 11
• Browser: Chrome and Postman
• Version: Chrome 145.0.7632.160, Postman 12.1.1

Additional context
I noticed this API call was down on 3/16/2026 around 9 am CST.

[haideriqbal]

@yelenacox thanks for reporting. Let me investigate this, it should get terms from NCIT. Its working for some other ontologies like:

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/search?q=cancer&ontology=doid

just out of curiosity was this working before?

[yelenacox]

Yes, it was working before. I've also tried different ontologies, like HP, MONDO, MAXO and those also don't return results anymore.

[haideriqbal]

@yelenacox i looked at this: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/search?q=cancer&ontology=mondo

Looks like it's doing an exact match on the label and is only returning terms which have cancer as an exact label. Let me have a look at it. Surely this isn't correct.

[yelenacox]

Yes, that's not correct. It used to search, descriptions, synonyms, etc. in addition to the labels.

[yelenacox]

@haideriqbal I wanted to see if this issue was completed and in production. I am running the following query and it is not returning any results: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols4/api/search?q=cancer&ontology=NCIT&start=0&rows=100
When I search for "cancer" filtered by "NCIT" on the OLS website, it returns 17097 results. I wanted to check if this was in production or if we were still waiting, or if the query had changed?

[haideriqbal]

@yelenacox this shouldn't have been closed. I believe it got closed when I merged the associated PR. Its not in production yet. I'll merge it today and hopefully will be live within next 48 - 72 hours. Apologies for the confusion.

[haideriqbal]

@yelenacox this is working now in production. Closing this now, but feel free to reopen if the issue persists.