> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://sequinstream.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Receive next messages

> Use the `/receive` endpoint to get one or more messages from a Sequin Stream

<Note>You can use either `POST` or `GET` to receive messages from a Sequin Stream.</Note>

## Request parameters

<ParamField path="id_or_name" type="string" required>
  The ID or name of the Sequin Stream.
</ParamField>

<ParamField body="batch_size" type="integer" placeholder={1}>
  Number of messages to try to fetch from the stream. Defaults to `1`.

  The count of returned messages may be less than the requested batch size if there are fewer messages available for the consumer.
</ParamField>

<ParamField body="wait_for" type="integer | string" placeholder={0}>
  Amount of time to wait for messages to become available in the stream, in milliseconds. Defaults to `0`.

  When `wait_for` is greater than `0`, the request will block until any messages are available or `wait_for` milliseconds have passed.

  Therefore, you can use `wait_for` to implement long polling.

  Instead of passing in an integer, you can also pass in a duration string, like `"60s"`, `"5000ms"`, or `"5m"`.
</ParamField>

## Response fields

The response is an object with a `data` property that contains a list of [messages](/reference/messages). Within each message is an `ack_id` and a `data` property that contains the message data.

<ResponseField name="data" type="list" required>
  <Expandable title="properties">
    <ResponseField name="ack_id" type="string" required>
      You'll use the `ack_id` in follow-up requests to either [ack](/reference/sequin-stream-api/ack) or [nack](/reference/sequin-stream-api/nack) this specific message.
    </ResponseField>

    <ResponseField name="record" type="object" required>
      A [message](/reference/messages) containing the message data with a key for each column in the associated table.
    </ResponseField>

    <ResponseField name="changes" type="object">
      An object containing the previous values for changed fields.
    </ResponseField>

    <ResponseField name="action" type="string">
      The action that occurred on the message.
    </ResponseField>

    <ResponseField name="metadata" type="object" required>
      Metadata about the Sequin Stream sink that produced the message.
    </ResponseField>
  </Expandable>
</ResponseField>

<RequestExample>
  ```shell Using POST theme={null}
  curl --request POST \
    --url https://api.sequinstream.com/api/http_pull_consumers/orders-pull-consumer/receive \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{ "batch_size": 10 }'
  ```

  ```shell Using GET theme={null}
  curl --request GET \
    --url https://api.sequinstream.com/api/http_pull_consumers/orders-pull-consumer/receive?batch_size=10 \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN'
  ```
</RequestExample>

<ResponseExample>
  ```json Response theme={null}
  {
    "data": [
      {
        "ack_id": "MTYyeJ7abUjl1pO",
        "record": {
          "id": 1234,
          "customer_id": 789,
          "status": "shipped"
        },
        "changes": {
          "status": "pending"
        },
        "action": "update",
        "metadata": {
          "table_schema": "public",
          "table_name": "orders",
          "commit_timestamp": "2024-03-20T15:30:00Z",
          "commit_lsn": 123456789,
          "commit_idx": 1,
          "database_name": "myapp-prod", // deprecated
          "consumer": {
            "id": "f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479",
            "name": "orders_webhook",
            "annotations": {"my-custom-key": "my-custom-value"}
          },
          "database": {
            "id": "12345678-9abc-def0-1234-56789abcdef0",
            "name": "myapp-prod",
            "annotations": {"my-custom-key": "my-custom-value"},
            "database": "myapp-prod",
            "hostname": "db.example.com"
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  }
  ```
</ResponseExample>