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August 2026

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Watchers and webhooks API
Watchers and Webhooks API
  • Watch a profile from the API: POST /v3/watchers refreshes a profile on your schedule and appends what it finds; list, read, pause, retime and delete watchers, and read every run’s outcome and changes with GET /v3/watchers/{watcher_id}/runs.
  • Webhooks: POST /v3/webhooks registers an HTTPS endpoint that receives signed profile.updated deliveries when a run finds new information.
  • New scopes: watchers:write and webhooks:write.
See Create a watcher → and Webhook events →. Read the launch post: Introducing Watchers →
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Directory watchers and verifiable timeline events
Directory Watchers and Verifiable Timeline Events
  • Watch a whole directory: in the dashboard, a directory’s Watchers tab watches any or all of its people on one schedule, with a default schedule and default checks per directory.
  • Updates feed: the same tab lists every dated event for every directory member, newest first, with the sources behind each one.
  • Activity for members: people who can open a directory see an Activity view of those events beside search, with unread markers.
  • Dates carry their precision: every eventsTimeline item now has datePrecision (day, month, year) and dateBasis (stated, published, inferred), and date is served at that precision — a month is 2026-08.
  • Sources on every event: each event’s sources are the pages it comes from — up to three, with the supporting excerpt when the page has one.
  • Cleaner timelines: the timeline holds happenings and published content; updateCount and lastUpdatedAt change when an event gains new information or a new date.
See Read Profile →
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Image evidence
Image Source Evidence
  • Photos as evidence: section items can now cite the photo that supports them. The source carries the supporting image in images, with the origin post as link.
See Read Profile →
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Per-item source evidence
Per-Section Source Evidence
  • Item-level sources: every profile section item can now carry its own sources array: the exact sources that support that specific item, each with excerpt chunks from the source text.
  • Personal life and worldview: these sections include per-item evidence for the first time.
See Read Profile →
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Independent result limits
Independent Result Limits
  • Per-lane limits: search result limits now apply independently per result lane, so one lane filling up no longer caps the others.
See Search →
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Precise search statuses
Precise Search Statuses
  • Every status defined: each result status now has a precise definition, with per-phase completion fields and the exact moment it appears.
  • Final means final: candidate_discovery_completed now guarantees the result list is complete.
See Search Status →

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July 2026

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Result stability guarantees
Result Stability Guarantees
  • Append-only results: a result never disappears or moves backward while you poll.
  • Alias IDs: candidate profiles expose alias IDs, so every ID you collect stays resolvable.
See Search Status →
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Interactive API playground
Interactive API Playground
  • Try it in the docs: the reference pages gained an interactive playground and a downloadable OpenAPI spec.
  • Full read contract: the v3 profile read response now follows a complete, stable contract.
See Read Profile →
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Live discovered sources
Live Discovered Sources
  • Sources as they arrive: candidate discovery status responses show the sources Orbit is reading as it finds them, including sources that are still pending.
See Search Status →
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Plain-English queries
Plain-English Queries
  • Just describe the person: Search accepts a plain-English query field, and Orbit splits it into structured intent for you.
See Search →
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v3 Search and Enrich APIs
v3 Search and Enrich
  • One surface, two jobs: the v3 surface is live: one Search API for finding people and one Enrich API for deepening known profiles.
  • v2 retirement: earlier v2 endpoints are deprecated. We encourage you to migrate to the v3 endpoint contract by following our migration guide.
See Migration Guide →
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Progressive results
Progressive Results
  • Render as it builds: deep searches return partial results while generation continues.
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Search workflow endpoints
Search Workflows
  • One managed flow: a workflow start endpoint plus a status endpoint run a full search end to end. These later merged into the v3 Search API.
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Regeneration contract
Regeneration Contract
  • Explicit semantics: full regenerations rebuild from a clean slate, and partial runs continue from existing content.
See Enrich Profile →
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Regeneration run shapes
Regeneration Run Shapes
  • Full rebuilds: the full_regeneration run shape rebuilds a known profile end to end.
  • Candidate depth: candidateChildRunShape controls how deeply candidate profiles generate during discovery.
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Higher rate limits
Higher Rate Limits
  • More headroom: rate limits increased across Search and profile reads.
See Rate Limits →

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June 2026

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Faster partial profiles
Faster Partial Profiles
  • Slim first, then backfill: the partial_only run shape delivers a slim profile fast and backfills the rest automatically.
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Candidate discovery
Candidate Discovery
  • Find groups of people: the candidate_discovery run shape finds matching people from one description.
  • Per-second buckets: rate limits moved to per-second buckets with burst capacity.
See Rate Limits →
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Clear failure reporting
Structured Failures
  • Structured failures: failed runs return a failure object with codes such as identity_not_corroborated and explicit retry guidance.
  • Richer results: search results include more metadata, including a short bio.
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Consolidated profile images
Consolidated Profile Images
  • One images section: profile images merged into a single person-qualified images section with roles and per-image sources.
See Read Profile →
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One canonical profile ID
Canonical Profile IDs
  • Single ID: responses consolidated on a canonical payload.id, and aliases from older reads keep resolving to the same profile.
  • Regenerate by ID: a profileId input regenerates a known profile.
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Poll-only status contract
Poll-Only Status Contract
  • v3 contract: profile generation moved to a runShape input, a requestId for every run, and one status endpoint to poll.
  • Profile search: a dedicated endpoint queries within a single profile.
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Durable profile aliases
Durable Profile Aliases
  • IDs that last: when profiles merge, old IDs become aliases that keep resolving to the canonical profile.
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More seed inputs
More Seed Inputs
  • Seed with what you have: generation accepts phoneNumber, urls, and usernames seeds, plus a candidate discovery mode for finding groups of people.
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Partial profiles
Partial Profiles
  • Show something early: the partialProfile flag and the partial_profile_ready stage surface a useful profile before the full run completes.

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May 2026

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Structured profile sections
Structured Profile Sections
  • Structured items: profile sections moved to a structured items format.
  • Contribution sections: research papers, GitHub repositories, media, music, and books joined the profile.
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Structured intent
Structured Intent
  • Semantic clauses: deep searches accept structured intent with semantic clauses.
  • One search endpoint: Smart Search consolidated onto a single endpoint.
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Seeded searches
Seeded Searches
  • Email and LinkedIn seeds: searches accept identity seeds for higher precision.
  • Why it matched: includeMatchReason explains every result.
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Structured search DSL
Search DSL
  • Field-level targeting: a structured intent DSL targets names, employers, schools, and locations instead of one free-text string.
See Search Intent →
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Deep person search
Deep Person Search
  • Seed a person, get a profile: the first deep-search endpoints launched: Orbit builds a full public profile from a seed.
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Docs launch
Docs Launch
  • Day one: the developer documentation went live with authentication, quickstart, and the first API references.
See Quickstart →