> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.incident.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Show Content > Fetch the content of a post-mortem document, rendered as markdown. The response contains the full document content as a single markdown string. The markdown follows standard formatting and is structured to mirror the post-mortem as it appears in the incident.io dashboard: - **Headings** (`#`, `##`, `###`) for document title and sections - **Bold** and *italic* text formatting - Bullet lists and numbered lists - [Links](url) to external resources, Slack threads, and pull requests - Mentions of users, incidents, and catalog entries resolved to their display names - Custom field values rendered as labelled bullet lists - Timeline entries grouped by date with timestamps - Follow-ups with assignees and descriptions To preview what this markdown will look like for a given post-mortem, open the document in the incident.io dashboard and use the "Copy to clipboard" button. The copied content uses the same rendering pipeline as this endpoint. If you only need document metadata, use the Show or List endpoints instead. ## OpenAPI ````yaml /openapi/tags/postmortemdocuments-v1.json get /v1/postmortem_documents/{id}/content openapi: 3.0.3 info: description: "This is the API reference for incident.io.\n\nIt documents available API endpoints, provides examples of how to use it, and\ninstructions around things like authentication and error handling.\n\nThe API is hosted at:\n\n- https://api.incident.io/\n\nAnd you will need to create an API key via your [incident.io\ndashboard](https://app.incident.io/settings/api-keys) to make requests.\n\n# Making requests\n\nHere are the key concepts required to make requests to the incident.io API.\n\n## Authentication\n\nFor all requests made to the incident.io API, you'll need an API key.\n\nTo create an API key, head to the incident dashboard and visit [API\nkeys](https://app.incident.io/settings/api-keys). When you create the key, you'll be able to choose what actions it\ncan take for your account: choose carefully, as those roles can only be set\nwhen you first create the key. We'll only show you the token once, so make sure\nyou store it somewhere safe.\n\nAPI keys are global to your incident.io account, and can be managed by anyone\nwho has the right permissions. We display the user that created the API key,\nand the API key will remain valid if that user becomes deactivated.\n\nOnce you have the key, you should make requests to the API that set the\n`Authorization` request header using a \"Bearer\" authentication scheme:\n\n```\nAuthorization: Bearer \n```\n\n## Rate Limits\n\nThe incident.io API enforces rate limits to ensure consistent performance for all users.\n\nThe default rate limit is 1200 requests/minute per API key. This limit applies to most endpoints across the API.\n\nSome endpoints have lower rate limits, particularly those that interact with external third-party systems that impose\ntheir own limitations. These specific limits vary by endpoint, and we recommend relying on the rate-limit error\nresponses to understand usage patterns and implement appropriate retry strategies.\n\nWhen you exceed a rate limit, the API will respond with a `429 Too Many Requests` status code, along with a JSON\nresponse that includes information about the limit and when you can retry:\n\n```json\n{\n \"type\": \"too_many_requests\",\n \"status\": 429,\n \"request_id\": \"b839a403-7704-41c1-bf6a-39a2d68caefa\",\n \"rate_limit\": {\n \"name\": \"api_key_name\",\n \"limit\": 1200,\n \"remaining\": 0,\n \"retry_after\": \"Thu, 17 Apr 2025 11:17:18 UTC\"\n },\n \"errors\": [\n {\n \"code\": \"too_many_requests\",\n \"message\": \"Too many requests hit the API too quickly. We recommend an exponential backoff of your requests.\"\n }\n ]\n}\n```\n\nThe response includes:\n* The name of the API key (`name`)\n* The bucket limit (`limit`)\n* The number of requests remaining (`remaining`)\n* When you can retry requests (`retry_after`)\n\n## Errors\n\nWe use standard HTTP response codes to indicate the status or failure of API\nrequests.\n\nThe API response body will be JSON, and contain more detailed information on the\nnature of the error.\n\nAn example error when a request is made without an API key:\n\n```json\n{\n \"type\": \"authentication_error\",\n \"status\": 401,\n \"request_id\": \"8e3cc412-b49d-4957-9073-2c19d2c61804\",\n \"errors\": [\n {\n \"code\": \"missing_authorization_material\",\n \"message\": \"No authorization material provided in request\"\n }\n ]\n}\n```\n\nNote that the error:\n\n- Contains the HTTP status (`401`)\n- References the type of error (`authentication_error`)\n- Includes a `request_id` that can be provided to incident.io support to help\n\tdebug questions with your API request\n- Provides a list of individual errors, which go into detail about why the error\n\toccurred\n\nThe most common error will be a 422 Validation Error, which is returned when the\nrequest was rejected due to failing validations.\n\nThese errors look like this:\n\n```json\n{\n \"type\": \"validation_error\",\n \"status\": 422,\n \"request_id\": \"631766c4-4afd-4803-997c-cd700928fa4b\",\n \"errors\": [\n {\n \"code\": \"is_required\",\n \"message\": \"A severity is required to open an incident\",\n \"source\": {\n \"field\": \"severity_id\"\n }\n }\n ]\n}\n```\n\nThis error is caused by not providing a severity identifier, which should be at\nthe `severity_id` field of the request payload. Errors like these can be mapped to\nforms, should you be integrating with the API from a user-interface.\n\n## Compatibility\n\nWe won't make breaking changes to existing API services or endpoints, but will\nexpect integrators to upgrade themselves to the latest API endpoints within 3\nmonths of us deprecating the old service.\n\nWe will make changes that are considered backwards compatible, which include:\n\n- Adding new API endpoints and services\n- Adding new properties to responses from existing API endpoints\n- Reordering properties returned from existing API endpoints\n- Adding optional request parameters to existing API endpoints\n- Altering the format or length of IDs\n- Adding new values to enums\n\nIt is important that clients are robust to these changes, to ensure reliable\nintegrations.\n\nAs an example, if you are generating a client using an openapi-generator, ensure\nthe generated client is configured to support unknown enum values, often\nconfigured via the `enumUnknownDefaultCase` parameter.\n\nWhen breaking changes are unavoidable, we'll create a new service version on a\nseparate path, and run them in parallel.\n\nFor example:\n\n- https://api.incident.io/v1/incidents\n- https://api.incident.io/v2/incidents\n\nFor any questions, email support@incident.io.\n" title: incident.io version: 1.0.0 servers: - url: https://api.incident.io security: - BearerAuth: [] tags: - description: > Manage post-mortem documents. Post-mortem documents capture the learnings from an incident, and are associated with a specific incident. Use this API to list and retrieve post-mortem documents, update their status, and fetch the full document's content. name: PostmortemDocuments V1 paths: /v1/postmortem_documents/{id}/content: get: tags: - PostmortemDocuments V1 summary: Show Content description: > Fetch the content of a post-mortem document, rendered as markdown. The response contains the full document content as a single markdown string. The markdown follows standard formatting and is structured to mirror the post-mortem as it appears in the incident.io dashboard: - **Headings** (`#`, `##`, `###`) for document title and sections - **Bold** and *italic* text formatting - Bullet lists and numbered lists - [Links](url) to external resources, Slack threads, and pull requests - Mentions of users, incidents, and catalog entries resolved to their display names - Custom field values rendered as labelled bullet lists - Timeline entries grouped by date with timestamps - Follow-ups with assignees and descriptions To preview what this markdown will look like for a given post-mortem, open the document in the incident.io dashboard and use the "Copy to clipboard" button. The copied content uses the same rendering pipeline as this endpoint. If you only need document metadata, use the Show or List endpoints instead. operationId: PostmortemDocuments V1_ShowContent parameters: - description: Unique identifier for the post-mortem document example: 01GDZEW57FDA1K4S63MGMQ5DS9 in: path name: id required: true schema: description: Unique identifier for the post-mortem document example: 01GDZEW57FDA1K4S63MGMQ5DS9 type: string responses: '200': content: application/json: example: markdown: > # Incident Postmortem ## Summary This incident was investigated by Alice Smith and affected the API Gateway service. ## Timeline ### 2024-06-15 (UTC) * [10:30] **Alert fired** * [10:35] **Incident declared** ## Follow-ups * **Add monitoring** - Assignee: Alice Smith schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PostmortemDocumentsShowContentResultV1' description: OK response. components: schemas: PostmortemDocumentsShowContentResultV1: example: markdown: > # Incident Postmortem ## Summary This incident was investigated by Alice Smith and affected the API Gateway service. ## Timeline ### 2024-06-15 (UTC) * [10:30] **Alert fired** * [10:35] **Incident declared** ## Follow-ups * **Add monitoring** - Assignee: Alice Smith properties: markdown: description: >- The full content of the post-mortem document, rendered as markdown. Includes all sections, resolved mentions, timeline, follow-ups, and custom fields. example: > # Incident Postmortem ## Summary This incident was investigated by Alice Smith and affected the API Gateway service. ## Timeline ### 2024-06-15 (UTC) * [10:30] **Alert fired** * [10:35] **Incident declared** ## Follow-ups * **Add monitoring** - Assignee: Alice Smith type: string required: - markdown type: object securitySchemes: BearerAuth: type: http scheme: bearer description: API key from your incident.io dashboard (Settings → API keys) ````