help.perforce.com APIhelp.perforce.com ↗
Access p4 command reference, client options, form fields, configurables, and documentation search for Perforce Helix Core via a structured API.
No input parameters required.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/67011ff8-8139-4603-b730-d9cc70602c50/get_client_options_field' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Returns all valid values for the Options field of a p4 client spec, including both affirmative and negated ([no]-prefixed) variants, along with their descriptions and defaults.
No input parameters required.
{
"type": "array",
"fields": {
"option": "string — the option name (e.g. 'allwrite', 'noallwrite')",
"default": "string — the default value for this option",
"meaning": "string — description of what the option does",
"raw_text": "string — the original option text including prefix notation (e.g. '[no]allwrite')"
},
"sample": {
"data": [
{
"option": "allwrite",
"default": "noallwrite",
"meaning": "If allwrite is set, unopened files in the workspace are left writable.",
"raw_text": "[no]allwrite"
}
],
"status": "success"
}
}About the help.perforce.com API
This API exposes 9 endpoints covering the Perforce Helix Core (P4) command reference documentation from help.perforce.com, returning structured data on command syntax, client spec fields, submit options, line ending modes, and server configurables. The get_command_page endpoint retrieves syntax, description, usage notes, options, and examples for any named p4 command, while get_configurables_reference returns all configurable names, defaults, scopes, and descriptions from the reference section.
Command Reference Access
The get_command_reference_index endpoint returns the full alphabetical list of p4 commands, each with a command name and a url pointing to its documentation page. From there, get_command_page accepts a command_name parameter (with or without the p4 prefix) and returns structured fields: syntax, description, options (an array of flag/description objects), usage_notes, and examples. Any field not present on a given command's page returns null.
Client Spec Details
Three endpoints dig into the p4 client specification. get_client_form_fields returns each field's field name, a type_hint (read-only, writable, or unknown), and its description. get_client_options_field returns each option as both affirmative and negated variants (e.g. allwrite / noallwrite), with default, meaning, and the raw_text prefix notation. get_client_submit_options and get_client_line_end_options cover the SubmitOptions and LineEnd spec fields respectively, with named option values and behavioral descriptions.
Configurables and Search
get_configurables_reference returns all P4 server, client, and proxy configurables, with each record including name, default, description, and a client_server_proxy scope indicator. The search_documentation endpoint accepts a query string and performs a token-based match against the documentation index, returning url, title, and abstract for matching topics. Note that search covers only the first three index chunks, so results may not include every documentation page.
Full Page Data
get_client_page returns the complete p4 client reference page as both parsed structured fields (syntax, form_fields, options, examples, description) and a full_html field containing the raw page body, useful when you need content not captured by the structured fields.
- Build a CLI tool that looks up p4 command syntax and options programmatically using
get_command_page. - Populate an internal wiki or developer portal with current p4 command descriptions and usage notes.
- Validate client spec
Optionsfield values in automation scripts using the data fromget_client_options_field. - Generate documentation for custom Perforce workflows by querying
get_client_form_fieldsfor field names and types. - Build a Perforce configurables reference browser using
get_configurables_referencewith scope and default value filtering. - Implement a documentation search feature for a Perforce-focused IDE plugin using
search_documentation. - Audit workspace submit behavior by enumerating all
SubmitOptionsvalues and descriptions fromget_client_submit_options.
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One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does Perforce provide an official developer API for help.perforce.com documentation?+
What does `get_command_page` return for a command that has no examples or usage notes?+
examples and usage_notes fields return null when the documentation page for that command does not include those sections. The syntax and description fields also return null if absent. The options array will be empty rather than null when no flags are listed.Does the search endpoint cover all P4 documentation pages?+
search_documentation queries only the first three chunks of the client-side search index, so some documentation pages may not appear in results. The get_command_reference_index endpoint provides a complete list of command URLs and is a more reliable way to enumerate all commands. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to load additional index chunks and extend search coverage.Does the API cover documentation for Perforce products other than Helix Core (p4), such as Helix ALM or Hansoft?+
What is the `type_hint` field in `get_client_form_fields` and how reliable is it?+
type_hint field is an inferred classification — read-only, writable, or unknown — derived from the documentation text for each field. It is a heuristic, not a formal schema attribute, so fields classified as unknown should be verified against the full description text before relying on them in automation.