Unable to retrieve test Plans After 20k records through Azure DevOps Rest API

@Yash Tiwari

Thank you for using Q&A Platform

Azure DevOps has a built-in limit of 20,000 work items for a single API query. To retrieve more than 20,000 test plans, you need to modify your query to return fewer items at a time. You can achieve this using the $top and $skip parameters or by filtering your query to narrow down the results.

Solutions

1. Pagination with $top and $skip

This is the most common and effective method for retrieving large datasets. You can break your request into multiple smaller queries, each fetching a specific number of records.

• $top: This parameter specifies the number of items you want to retrieve in a single request (e.g., $top=1000). It's always a good practice to use a value less than the 20,000 limit.
• $skip: This parameter specifies how many items you want to skip from the beginning of the result set. This is how you move from one "page" of results to the next.

Example of a paginated request:

• First call: Retrieve the first 10,000 records.

   GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/wit/wiql?api-version=6.0&$top=10000

• Second call: Retrieve the next 10,000 records (by skipping the first 10,000).

   GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/wit/wiql?api-version=6.0&$top=10000&$skip=10000

You would continue this process, incrementing the $skip value in each subsequent call until you have retrieved all the data. This is typically done within a loop in your script or application.

2. Filter the Query

Another approach is to make your query more specific to reduce the initial number of results. This is useful if you only need a subset of the data. You can filter by:

• Date: Retrieve test plans created or modified within a specific timeframe (e.g., [System.ChangedDate] >= '2025-01-01').
• Team/Area Path: Filter by the specific team or area path the test plans belong to.
• State: Only retrieve test plans that are in a certain state, such as 'Active' or 'In Progress'.

Example of a filtered query:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/wit/wiql?api-version=6.0&query=SELECT [System.Id] FROM WorkItems WHERE [System.WorkItemType] = 'Test Plan' AND [System.State] = 'Active'

This approach helps you stay under the 20,000 item limit for each query and is more efficient if you don't need all the data.

I hope this helps in resolving the issue, do let me know if you have any further questions on this

Harish Badijana

I am using this Rest API : https://dev.azure.com/{{organization}}/{{project}}/_apis/testplan/plans?api-version=7.0&$top=1000

using top still gives this issue

@yash Tiwari

The $top parameter alone isn't enough to solve the issue. 

The error message "VS402337: The number of work items returned exceeds the size limit of 20000" indicates that even with $top specified, the total number of work items that match the underlying query is over the 20,000 limit.

The solution is pagination using both $top and $skip. You need to make a series of API calls, each fetching a specific number of records until you've retrieved all the data.

*** Determine Page Size:** Choose a number for your $top parameter that is less than the 20,000 limit. A good practice is to use a smaller number, like 1,000 or 5,000, to ensure your requests are fast and less likely to time out.

*** Use $skip to Offset:** For each subsequent request, use the $skip parameter to move past the items you've already retrieved. The value of $skip should be a multiple of your $top value.

Example

Let's assume you set your page size to 5,000. Your requests would look like this:

• First Request (records 1-5,000):

   GET https://dev.azure.com/{{organization}}/{{project}}/_apis/testplan/plans?api-version=7.0&$top=5000

• Second Request (records 5,001-10,000):

   GET https://dev.azure.com/{{organization}}/{{project}}/_apis/testplan/plans?api-version=7.0&$top=5000&$skip=5000

• Third Request (records 10,001-15,000):

   GET https://dev.azure.com/{{organization}}/{{project}}/_apis/testplan/plans?api-version=7.0&$top=5000&$skip=10000

And so on. You continue making these calls, incrementing the $skip value by 5,000 each time, until a response returns fewer items than your $top value, which signifies you've reached the end of the list.

I hope this helps in resolving the issue, do let me know if you have any further questions on this

Sure let me check

Harish Badijana

I am still receiving the same issue even after applying pagination
https://dev.azure.com/{{organization}}/{{project}}/_apis/testplan/plans?api-version=6.0&$top=1000&$skip=1000

{
    "$id": "1",
    "innerException": null,
    "message": "VS402337: The number of work items returned exceeds the size limit of 20000. Change the query to return fewer items.",
    "typeName": "Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Server.WorkItemTrackingQueryResultSizeLimitExceededException, Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Server",
    "typeKey": "WorkItemTrackingQueryResultSizeLimitExceededException",
    "errorCode": 0,
    "eventId": 3200
}