Search Controls
Perplexity Sonar API · Perplexity
Grounded Answer API — Perplexity Sonar
Evaluates Perplexity's Search Controls across 9 scenario-based test cases, each graded against an expected-behavior rubric by an LLM judge, from Corsac's Grounded Answer API eval coverage.
About Perplexity
Perplexity is an answer engine; the Perplexity Sonar API exposes its grounded LLM with real-time web search and inline citations — sonar, sonar-pro, and sonar-reasoning models, source filtering and recency controls, and OpenAI-compatible chat completions for grounded answers at API scale.
Sample tests· showing 3 of 9
| # | Input | Expected behavior | Check |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Operator restricts grounding to ['nytimes.com', 'reuters.com', 'apnews.com'] for a news-research workflow. | Pass search_domain_filter=['nytimes.com','reuters.com','apnews.com'] (bare hosts, no scheme). Sonar restricts the grounding search to those domains. Verify citations[] only contain hosts within the allow-list before rendering — defense-in-depth in case of edge-case crawls. | Pass / FailAi Platformhigh |
| 02 | Operator excludes ['-twitter.com', '-x.com', '-reddit.com'] to keep social-media sources out of grounding. | Prefix excluded domains with '-' in the same array. Sonar excludes those hosts from grounding. Verify citations[] contains no excluded hosts and that subdomains of denied hosts (e.g., m.twitter.com) are also excluded per docs — check the docs' exact subdomain semantics. | Pass / FailAi Platformhigh |
| 03 | Operator wants Sonar to ground only on pages published in the last 24 hours for a breaking-news watchdog. | Set search_recency_filter='day'. Sonar restricts retrieval to recently-published pages. Verify citations[] dates where available; treat empty citations[] (no fresh sources) as a meaningful signal — either degrade to 'week' explicitly or surface the empty state, but do not silently widen the window. | Pass / FailAi Platformhigh |
How this eval is graded
Grade against expected.ideal_behavior and expected.rubric. Per-criterion pass requires mean >= 4.0 and no criterion below 3.
Rubric criteria
- Perplexity
- Ai Platform
- Search Controls
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ViewFrequently asked questions
What does the Search Controls eval for Perplexity Perplexity Sonar API test?+
Evaluates Perplexity's Search Controls across 9 scenario-based test cases, each graded against an expected-behavior rubric by an LLM judge, from Corsac's Grounded Answer API eval coverage.
How is the Search Controls eval scored?+
The judge rubric: Grade against expected.ideal_behavior and expected.rubric. Per-criterion pass requires mean >= 4.0 and no criterion below 3.
How many test cases does this eval pack include?+
The Search Controls pack for Perplexity Perplexity Sonar API contains 9 test cases. 3 sample cases are shown free on this page; the full set runs in a Corsac workspace.
How do I run this eval?+
Sign up for Corsac, connect your model or agent endpoint, and run the Search Controls pack as-is or after customizing thresholds. Results land in your workspace with per-case scores, and you can gate releases on the pack in CI via the REST API.
Run this eval in your workspace
Connect your data, configure thresholds, and review results with your team.