# library.forgemesh.io – Ask the Republic (Plato)

> library.forgemesh.io – Ask the Republic (Plato) is a paid API for AI agents from library.forgemesh.io, paid per call via x402, $0.01/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Retrieves the most relevant verbatim passages from Plato's Republic in response to a natural-language question, with location citations.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://library.forgemesh.io/ask-the-republic
- Price: $0.01/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/library-forgemesh-io-ask-the-republic-plato-038aa21e
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_WW6HnN-gN6xG8KrFQBf5-

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability library-forgemesh-io-ask-the-republic-plato-038aa21e -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search Plato's Republic for passages about the philosopher king and give me the top 5 most relevant excerpts with their location citations.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need verbatim, citable text from Plato's Republic specifically, rather than a generated summary or paraphrase. Ideal when exact quotes with location citations are required — for academic writing, debate prep, or fact-checking claims about what Plato actually wrote. Prefer over general full-corpus search (library.forgemesh.io's cross-corpus endpoint) when the user's question is clearly scoped to the Republic alone.

## Known failure modes

- Question is too vague or off-topic — returns low-relevance or empty passage list
- Limit set above 15 — request rejected or capped
- Missing question field — request validation error
- Payment failure (x402) — call not processed
- Network timeout — no response returned

## How this service works

Ask a question about Plato's Republic and get back the most relevant passages from the text itself, with location citations. Retrieval only — full-text search, not a generated summary or answer. No license, no API key required.

## Output

A ranked list of verbatim passage excerpts from Plato's Republic that best match the question, each accompanied by a location citation (e.g. book and section number). Up to 15 passages can be returned per request (default 5).

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "limit": {
   "type": "integer",
   "description": "Max passages (default 5, max 15)"
  },
  "question": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Your question about the book, e.g. \"what does Socrates say about justice?\""
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "count": 4,
  "title": "The Republic",
  "author": "Plato",
  "method": "full-text retrieval — returns the most relevant passages from the book for your question; no summarization or generation",
  "book_id": 1497,
  "passages": [
   {
    "text": "…[justice] is the interest of the stronger…",
    "chapter": 1,
    "location": "chapter 1, passage #14"
   }
  ],
  "question": "what does Socrates say about justice"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/library-forgemesh-io-ask-the-republic-plato-038aa21e/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from library.forgemesh.io](https://www.zero.xyz/host/library.forgemesh.io/llms.txt)