API version: dev --- # Find nested elements This example uses a **variable length path** (`[:IS_MEMBER_OF*..]`) to find every `Plant` that is a member of the taxon "Liliales", directly or through any number of intermediate taxonomic ranks, and limits the result to `5` matches using Cypher's own `LIMIT` clause.\ Results are then [hydrated](/reference/search/element-hydration.md), i.e. transformed into a collection response. ```bash curl -X POST \ -H 'Authorization: Bearer secret-token:PIPeJGUt7c00ENn8a5uDlc' \ -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \ -d '{ "debug": true, "steps": [ { "type": "cypher-path-subset", "query": "MATCH path=((:Plant)-[:IS_MEMBER_OF*..]->(:Taxon {name: \"Liliales\"})) RETURN path LIMIT 5" }, { "type": "element-hydration" } ] }' \ https://api.example.com/search ``` ##### Response Body ```json { "type": "_SearchResultResponse", "results": [ { "type": "IS_MEMBER_OF", "id": "024e049b-219a-477c-9b8c-be1244c16dab", "start": "16884ac8-ba7a-4c91-8449-4fdd803644b6", "end": "b7cda919-deea-49f9-9151-49132f83cbff", "data": { "created": "2025-09-25T18:43:24+00:00", "updated": "2025-09-25T18:43:24+00:00", "scenario": "general.botanicExample" } }, { "type": "Taxon", "id": "16884ac8-ba7a-4c91-8449-4fdd803644b6", "data": { "created": "2025-09-25T18:43:12+00:00", "updated": "2025-09-25T18:43:12+00:00", "name": "Gloriosa", "path": "/Plantae/Tracheophytes/Angiosperms/Monocots/Liliales/Colchicaceae/Gloriosa", "scenario": "general.botanicExample", "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloriosa_(plant)", "description": "Gloriosa is a genus of 12 species in the plant family Colchicaceae, and includes the formerly recogn..." } }, { "type": "Plant", "id": "23508e6c-632a-496d-9bd6-8c62a03216af", "data": { "images": [ { "description": "Lilium candidum, Israel", "imageLinkFull": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/ShoshanTzachor-2-wiki-Zachi-Evenor.jpg", "imageLinkThumbnail": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/ShoshanTzachor-2-wiki-Zachi-Evenor.jpg/500...", "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ShoshanTzachor-2-wiki-Zachi-Evenor.jpg" }, { "description": "Photo of Lilium candidum at VanDusen Botanical Garden", "imageLinkFull": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Lilium_candidum_1.jpg", "imageLinkThumbnail": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Lilium_candidum_1.jpg/960px-Lilium_candidu...", "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lilium_candidum_1.jpg" } ], "created": "2025-09-25T18:43:14+00:00", "updated": "2025-09-25T18:43:14+00:00", "name": "Lily", "scenario": "general.botanicExample", "scientificName": "L. candidum", "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilium_candidum", "description": "Lilium candidum, the Madonna lily[2][3] or white lily,[4] is a plant in the true lily family. It is ..." } }, "... 22 more items omitted (shapes seen: type:IS_MEMBER_OF, type:Taxon, type:Plant) ..." ], "debug": [ { "input": { "type": "cypher-path-subset", "query": "MATCH path=((:Plant)-[:IS_MEMBER_OF*..]->(:Taxon {name: \"Liliales\"})) RETURN path LIMIT 5", "parameters": { "stepResults": [] } }, "step-handler": "cypher-path-subset (App\\EventSystem\\SearchStep\\EventListener\\CypherPathSearchStepEventListener)", "start": 1758825856.933289, "end": 1758825857.210775, "duration": 0.27748584747314453 }, { "input": { "type": "element-hydration", "query": null, "parameters": { "stepResults": [ { "paths": [ { "nodeIds": [ "8940d70b-5b6f-43b7-bee4-41d073396ff8", "1feedd9f-0c12-490c-8461-b12ff7447ac8", "8288a39a-4b41-4ed5-8d0f-0b795048163c", "... 2 more items omitted (shapes seen: string) ..." ], "relationIds": [ "ee29e267-63c8-45fb-a9a5-47835f46a839", "81b19288-a74b-4496-84a9-0d07386b8e26", "b60561b3-46d1-4632-9320-b0e02afa4198", "9bea8667-ab81-48ff-871a-00334afc1a07" ] }, { "nodeIds": [ "23508e6c-632a-496d-9bd6-8c62a03216af", "7dd3a650-d60e-40c9-89d0-bccaf395369f", "1feedd9f-0c12-490c-8461-b12ff7447ac8", "... 3 more items omitted (shapes seen: string) ..." ], "relationIds": [ "e73faa5c-2c41-4d04-8a09-f160c4accea8", "78228dfa-196a-48ef-9a46-e8fa5dc2628f", "81b19288-a74b-4496-84a9-0d07386b8e26", "... 2 more items omitted (shapes seen: string) ..." ] }, { "nodeIds": [ "70965ab5-bc3e-4bbe-aacf-1b7e12b76110", "9abc0ab3-fa1a-4138-80c1-49db5c4d082f", "30cb4ff2-591f-4fba-aa47-ca6ada630b9a", "1852bdff-a4dd-4f91-9243-0e802775f757" ], "relationIds": [ "e8e3fb73-5129-4cb3-99cd-d564e191d500", "06faa138-14b9-48f1-b967-1ae536a9d3ef", "ee933330-c413-4680-be79-03f51b18aa7b" ] }, { "nodeIds": [ "258c0dfe-b1d8-4839-beed-d00d1b544a96", "16884ac8-ba7a-4c91-8449-4fdd803644b6", "b7cda919-deea-49f9-9151-49132f83cbff", "1852bdff-a4dd-4f91-9243-0e802775f757" ], "relationIds": [ "b9fee9e3-f0c5-451c-b9a6-f5a3578e023c", "024e049b-219a-477c-9b8c-be1244c16dab", "49d9a28c-b712-4be6-9cf1-11d2062ffa89" ] } ] } ] } }, "step-handler": "element-hydration (App\\EventSystem\\SearchStep\\EventListener\\ElementHydrationSearchStepEventListener)", "start": 1758825857.210962, "element-hydration:redundantElementIds": { "message": "Removed 9 redundant elementIds.", "removedElementIds": [ "1852bdff-a4dd-4f91-9243-0e802775f757", "1feedd9f-0c12-490c-8461-b12ff7447ac8", "425235d6-75ab-4ccb-8208-783ced0decc6", "... 4 more items omitted (shapes seen: string) ..." ] }, "accessibleElementIds": [ "024e049b-219a-477c-9b8c-be1244c16dab", "06faa138-14b9-48f1-b967-1ae536a9d3ef", "16884ac8-ba7a-4c91-8449-4fdd803644b6", "... 22 more items omitted (shapes seen: string) ..." ], "end": 1758825857.318839, "duration": 0.107877 } ] } ``` ##### Response Headers ```http Access-Control-Allow-Headers: * Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, HEAD, POST, OPTIONS, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, PROPFIND, PROPPATCH, MKCOL, COPY, MOVE, LOCK, UNLOCK Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * Access-Control-Expose-Headers: ETag, Location Allow: GET, HEAD, POST, OPTIONS, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, PROPFIND, PROPPATCH, MKCOL, COPY, MOVE, LOCK, UNLOCK Cache-Control: no-cache, private Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 Date: Sat, 06 Sep 2025 14:57:35 GMT Transfer-Encoding: chunked X-Powered-By: Ember Nexus API ``` Because the path length is unbounded, the resulting graph includes every intermediate taxon between each matching plant and "Liliales" - not just the plants and the root taxon themselves. **Note**: `LIMIT` restricts how many _paths_ Cypher returns, which is not the same as `pageSize` on the Elasticsearch query step - Cypher path query does not currently support pagination parameters of its own. --- Home: [Ember Nexus API docs](/index.md) Full site map: [llms.txt](/llms.txt) Previous: [Find tagged elements](/reference/search/cypher-path-subset/find-tagged-elements.md) Next: [Parameterized cypher search](/reference/search/cypher-path-subset/parameterized-cypher-search.md)