---
name: "prospects_answer"
area: "prospects"
title: "Answer a prospect search"
price: "free"
method: "POST"
url: "https://api.conecto.chat/v1/tools/prospects_answer"
mcp_server: "https://api.conecto.chat/mcp/prospects"
auth: "Authorization: Bearer <conecto_sk_ key>"
docs_url: "https://conecto.chat/tools/prospects/prospects_answer"
---

# Answer a prospect search (`prospects_answer`)

Answer a prospect search that stopped finding new prospects and asks whether to widen it, so it carries on.

Answer the question of a search whose status is needs_input, in the person's words or with a choice's value; it carries on with the answer, under the same hold. A search left waiting a day ends with what it found.

Price: Free. A call that fails costs nothing.

## Use it when

When a search's status is needs_input, after asking the person its question.

## Say this to your agent

> Widen the kitchen search to Lübeck and Kiel, and include hotels with a restaurant.

## Inputs

| Name | Type | Required | Description | Allowed values | Default |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| `search_id` | string | yes | The call_id prospects_find answered with. Exactly 36 characters. |  |  |
| `answer` | string | yes | 1 to 2,000 characters. |  |  |

## Example

Written for Hansen & Voss, a restaurant-equipment wholesaler in Hamburg with 60 staff.

MCP: call `prospects_answer` on the MCP server `https://api.conecto.chat/mcp/prospects` with these arguments:

```json
{
  "search_id": "7c2e4f1a-5b3d-4e8f-9a61-2d0c8b7e5f34",
  "answer": "Add Lübeck and Kiel, and hotels with a restaurant."
}
```

REST:

```bash
curl https://api.conecto.chat/v1/tools/prospects_answer \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CONECTO_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"search_id": "7c2e4f1a-5b3d-4e8f-9a61-2d0c8b7e5f34", "answer": "Add Lübeck and Kiel, and hotels with a restaurant."}'
```

## Response

```json
{
  "call_id": "5f0c8a2e-3b7d-4c1e-9a64-2d8e1f7b0c93",
  "tool": "prospects_answer",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "replayed": false,
  "cost_usd": "$0.00",
  "balance_usd": "$19.75",
  "result": {
    "search_id": "7c2e4f1a-5b3d-4e8f-9a61-2d0c8b7e5f34",
    "status": "running",
    "summary": "40 independent restaurants and hotel kitchens in Hamburg, with a working email for the owner or the head chef.",
    "asked": 40,
    "found": 0,
    "progress": {
      "stage": "planning",
      "title": "Research resumed",
      "detail": null
    },
    "question": null,
    "prospects": [],
    "next_offset": null,
    "charged_usd": null,
    "started_at": "2026-10-14T08:00:00+00:00",
    "ended_at": null
  }
}
```

`result`: The search as prospects_get shows it: running again, or with a new question.

## Errors

| Code | Status | When | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| `not_waiting` | 409 | The search is running, or it ended. | Read it with prospects_get. |

The refusals every tool can give (401 key, 402 balance, 429 limits) are on the errors page: https://conecto.chat/docs/errors.md

## Related

- [prospects_prepare](https://conecto.chat/tools/prospects/prospects_prepare.md): The interview before a prospect search: up to three questions about the market and the kind of customer, or a ready brief with its price. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month.
- [prospects_find](https://conecto.chat/tools/prospects/prospects_find.md): Start a prospect search from a ready brief: the businesses that fit and the people to reach there, with their work email checked. $0.05 per prospect found with a working email.
- [prospects_get](https://conecto.chat/tools/prospects/prospects_get.md): A prospect search by id: its status, progress, its question when it asks one, and the prospects found with their contact details. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month.
- [prospects_stop](https://conecto.chat/tools/prospects/prospects_stop.md): Stop a prospect search; it ends with the prospects it found, and only those with a working email are charged. Free.
- [prospects_list](https://conecto.chat/tools/prospects/prospects_list.md): The business's prospect searches, newest first, with their status and how many each found. Free up to 1,000,000 reads a month.
- [prospects_save](https://conecto.chat/tools/prospects/prospects_save.md): Keep prospects in the CRM: each one's company, and a lead contact with their email, title and phone, tagged prospect. Free.