> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.athenaintel.com/api-reference/assets/download/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.athenaintel.com/_mcp/server.

# Download an asset's file

GET https://api.athenaintel.com/api/v0/assets/{asset_id}/download

Download an asset's file exactly as Athena stores or serves it — no type coercion, no pagination. Native collaborative assets are converted from live content to their canonical Office format: Athena documents download as .docx, spreadsheets as .xlsx (round-trip faithful — string identifiers, leading zeros, and number formats are preserved), PPTX Studio presentations and Word documents export their live studio content as .pptx/.docx. Uploaded files stream their original bytes. The response sets Content-Disposition with a filename derived from the asset title and media type. With `live_sync=true`, a spreadsheet's .xlsx, a PPTX Studio presentation's .pptx or a Word document's .docx also carries the Athena for Microsoft 365 add-in's link record, so opening it in Excel, PowerPoint or Word with the add-in installed starts syncing it with the asset; other asset types ignore the flag.

Reference: https://docs.athenaintel.com/api-reference/assets/download

## Authentication

- `X-API-KEY` header (required) — API Key authentication via header

## Request

### Path parameters

- `asset_id` (string, required) — Unique identifier of the asset to download

### Query parameters

- `live_sync` (boolean, optional, default: false) — Office live sync: when true and the asset is an Athena spreadsheet, a PPTX Studio presentation or a Word document, the downloaded .xlsx / .pptx / .docx carries the Athena for Microsoft 365 add-in's link record and opens already syncing with this asset. Ignored for every other asset type.
- `addin_id` (string, optional, nullable) — GUID of the installed add-in manifest the live-sync record should reference (defaults to this deployment's Athena add-in). Only read together with `live_sync`; use it to target a preview-channel sideload.

## Response

### 200

Stream the asset's authoritative file.

## Errors

### 400 Bad Request Error

Bad Request

- `map from string to any`

### 403 Forbidden Error

Forbidden

- `message` (string, required)

### 404 Not Found Error

Not Found

- `message` (string, required)

### 422 Unprocessable Entity Error

Validation Error

- `detail` (list of ValidationError, optional)

## Types

### ValidationError

- `loc` (list of ValidationErrorLocItems, required)
- `msg` (string, required)
- `type` (string, required)
- `ctx` (ValidationErrorCtx, optional)
- `input` (any, optional)

### ValidationErrorLocItems

### ValidationErrorCtx

## Examples

**Response**

```json
{}
```

**SDK Code**

```python
import requests

url = "https://api.athenaintel.com/api/v0/assets/asset_id/download"

headers = {"X-API-KEY": "<apiKey>"}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

print(response.json())
```

```javascript
const url = 'https://api.athenaintel.com/api/v0/assets/asset_id/download';
const options = {method: 'GET', headers: {'X-API-KEY': '<apiKey>'}};

try {
  const response = await fetch(url, options);
  const data = await response.json();
  console.log(data);
} catch (error) {
  console.error(error);
}
```

```go
package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://api.athenaintel.com/api/v0/assets/asset_id/download"

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", url, nil)

	req.Header.Add("X-API-KEY", "<apiKey>")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(res)
	fmt.Println(string(body))

}
```

```ruby
require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("https://api.athenaintel.com/api/v0/assets/asset_id/download")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(url)
request["X-API-KEY"] = '<apiKey>'

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body
```

```java
import com.mashape.unirest.http.HttpResponse;
import com.mashape.unirest.http.Unirest;

HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.get("https://api.athenaintel.com/api/v0/assets/asset_id/download")
  .header("X-API-KEY", "<apiKey>")
  .asString();
```

```php
<?php
require_once('vendor/autoload.php');

$client = new \GuzzleHttp\Client();

$response = $client->request('GET', 'https://api.athenaintel.com/api/v0/assets/asset_id/download', [
  'headers' => [
    'X-API-KEY' => '<apiKey>',
  ],
]);

echo $response->getBody();
```

```csharp
using RestSharp;

var client = new RestClient("https://api.athenaintel.com/api/v0/assets/asset_id/download");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.GET);
request.AddHeader("X-API-KEY", "<apiKey>");
IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);
```

```swift
import Foundation

let headers = ["X-API-KEY": "<apiKey>"]

let request = NSMutableURLRequest(url: NSURL(string: "https://api.athenaintel.com/api/v0/assets/asset_id/download")! as URL,
                                        cachePolicy: .useProtocolCachePolicy,
                                    timeoutInterval: 10.0)
request.httpMethod = "GET"
request.allHTTPHeaderFields = headers

let session = URLSession.shared
let dataTask = session.dataTask(with: request as URLRequest, completionHandler: { (data, response, error) -> Void in
  if (error != nil) {
    print(error as Any)
  } else {
    let httpResponse = response as? HTTPURLResponse
    print(httpResponse)
  }
})

dataTask.resume()
```