Topics

A topic is a concept Trendtracker tracks in its knowledge graph: technologies, markets, materials, and risk themes you can measure and compare. Examples include:

• precision fermentation
• edge AI
• solid-state batteries
• supply chain disruption (as a risk topic)

Most workflows start with topic discovery, then use topic IDs from the responses in indicators and related endpoints.

Topic hierarchy

Topics are organized in a parent–child hierarchy. A child is a narrower concept under a broader parent; both are topics with their own IDs. For example, Generative AI is a child of artificial intelligence. When you search or browse, you work with the same topic model—use the returned IDs to query indicators, related topics, or to narrow results by context.

Many endpoints that take topicIds also accept an optional loadChildren query parameter (boolean, default false). With the default, only the topic IDs you pass are used. When you set loadChildren=true, the request is applied to those topics and to all of their descendant topics in the hierarchy (child topics, and children of those children, and so on). That lets you roll up metrics, time series, or organization activity for a whole subtree—for example, pass the ID for artificial intelligence once and still include Generative AI and other child topics without listing every child ID.

Topic sets

Topics are grouped thematically in topic sets (for example, a set may group related technologies or a risk domain). A single topic can belong to one or more topic sets. Topic set IDs are useful to scope a topic search so results stay within a theme you care about.

How to use topics (typical flow)

1. Find a topic set (optional but useful for scoping): call GET /topic-sets with a query that matches the area you care about, and copy the id of a relevant topic set from the response.
2. Search topics, including “risks”: call GET /topics with query=risks to surface risk-related topics. Add topicSetIds (one or more IDs from step 1) to limit results to that set.
3. Go deeper: use a topic’s id with GET /topics/{topic_id}/related for adjacency in the graph, or pass those topic IDs into indicators endpoints to pull time series and metrics.

Recommended endpoints

• List or search topic sets — GET /topic-sets (use the query parameter to find sets by keyword).
• Search topics by keyword — GET /topics with query. Add topicSetIds to filter results to specific topic sets. Use skip and take for paging.
• Related topics — GET /topics/{topic_id}/related to expand context around a topic you already have.
• Indicators — reuse one or more topic IDs in the indicators endpoints to request data for those topics.