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Global Query Parameters

Most Directus API Endpoint operations can be manipulated with the following parameters. It is important to understand them to get the most out of the platform.

Fields

Choose the fields that are returned in the current dataset. This parameter supports dot notation to request nested relational fields. You can also use a wildcard (*) to include all fields at a specific depth.

Examples

Get all top-level fields
*

Get all top-level fields and all second-level relational fields
*.*

Performance & Size

While the fields wildcard is very useful for debugging purposes, we recommend only requesting specific fields for production use. By only requesting the fields you really need, you can speed up the request, and reduce the overall output size.

Get all top-level fields and second-level relational fields within images
*,images.*

Get only the first_name and last_name fields
first_name,last_name

Get all top-level and second-level relational fields, and third-level fields within images.thumbnails
*.*,images.thumbnails.*

Many-To-Any (Union Types)

Seeing that Many-to-Any (M2A) fields have nested data from multiple collections, it's not always safe / wanted to fetch the same field from every related collection. In M2A fields, you can use the following syntax to specify what fields to fetch from which related nested collection type:
?fields=<m2a-field>:<collection-scope>.<field>.

Lets say we have a collection pages with a many-to-any field called sections that points to headings, paragraphs, and videos. We only want to fetch title and level from headings, body from paragraphs and source from videos. We can achieve that by using:

sections.item:headings.title
sections.item:headings.level
sections.item:paragraphs.body
sections.item:videos.source
sections.item:headings.title
sections.item:headings.level
sections.item:paragraphs.body
sections.item:videos.source

In GraphQL, this can be achieved using Union Types.

Filter

Used to search items in a collection that matches the filter's conditions. The filter param follows the Filter Rules spec, which includes additional information on logical operators (AND/OR), nested relational filtering, and dynamic variables.

Examples

Retrieve all items where first_name equals "Rijk"

json
{
	"first_name": {
		"_eq": "Rijk"
	}
}
{
	"first_name": {
		"_eq": "Rijk"
	}
}

Retrieve all items in one of the following categories: "vegetables", "fruit"

json
{
	"categories": {
		"_in": ["vegetables", "fruit"]
	}
}
{
	"categories": {
		"_in": ["vegetables", "fruit"]
	}
}

Retrieve all items that are published between two dates

json
{
	"date_published": {
		"_between": ["2021-01-24", "2021-02-23"]
	}
}
{
	"date_published": {
		"_between": ["2021-01-24", "2021-02-23"]
	}
}

Retrieve all items where the author's "vip" flag is true

json
{
	"author": {
		"vip": {
			"_eq": true
		}
	}
}
{
	"author": {
		"vip": {
			"_eq": true
		}
	}
}

Nested Filters

The above example will filter the top level items based on a condition in the related item. If you're looking to filter the related items themselves, take a look at the deep parameter!

Filtering M2A fields

Because attribute names in GraphQL cannot contain the : character, you will need to replace it with a double underscore. For example, instead of using sections.item:heading in your filter, you will need to use sections.item__heading (see the full example below).

graphql
query {
	articles(
		filter: {
			sections: {
				item__headings: {
					# Instead of: item:headings
					title: { _eq: "Section 1" }
				}
			}
		}
	) {
		id
	}
}
query {
	articles(
		filter: {
			sections: {
				item__headings: {
					# Instead of: item:headings
					title: { _eq: "Section 1" }
				}
			}
		}
	) {
		id
	}
}

The search parameter allows you to perform a search on all string and text type fields within a collection. It's an easy way to search for an item without creating complex field filters – though it is far less optimized. It only searches the root item's fields, related item fields are not included.

Example

Find all items that mention Directus
Directus

Sort

What field(s) to sort by. Sorting defaults to ascending, but a minus sign (-) can be used to reverse this to descending order. Fields are prioritized by the order in the parameter. The dot-notation has to be used when sorting with values of nested fields.

Examples

Sort by creation date descending
-date_created

Sort by a "sort" field, followed by publish date descending
sort,-publish_date

Sort by a "sort" field, followed by a nested author's name
sort,-author.name

Limit

Set the maximum number of items that will be returned. The default limit is set to 100.

Examples

Get the first 200 items
200

Get the maximum allowed number of items
-1

Maximum Items

Depending on the size of your collection, fetching the maximum amount of items may result in degraded performance or timeouts, use with caution.

The maximum amount of items that can be requested on the API can be configured using the QUERY_LIMIT_MAX variable.

Offset

Skip the first n items in the response. Can be used for pagination.

Examples

Get items 101—200
100

Page

An alternative to offset. Page is a way to set offset under the hood by calculating limit * page. Page is 1-indexed.

Examples

Get items 1-100
1

Get items 101-200
2

Aggregation & Grouping

Aggregate functions allow you to perform calculations on a set of values, returning a single result.

The following aggregation functions are available in Directus:

NameDescription
countCounts how many items there are
countDistinctCounts how many unique items there are
sumAdds together the values in the given field
sumDistinctAdds together the unique values in the given field
avgGet the average value of the given field
avgDistinctGet the average value of the unique values in the given field
minReturn the lowest value in the field
maxReturn the highest value in the field
countAllEquivalent to ?aggregate[count]=* (GraphQL only)

Grouping

By default, the above aggregation functions run on the whole dataset. To allow for more flexible reporting, you can combine the above aggregation with grouping. Grouping allows for running the aggregation functions based on a shared value. This allows for things like "Average rating per month" or "Total sales of items in the jeans category".

The groupBy query allows for grouping on multiple fields simultaneously. Combined with the Functions, this allows for aggregate reporting per year-month-date.

Deep

Deep allows you to set any of the other query parameters on a nested relational dataset.

Examples

Limit the nested related articles to 3

json
{
	"related_articles": {
		"_limit": 3
	}
}
{
	"related_articles": {
		"_limit": 3
	}
}

Only get 3 related articles, with only the top rated comment nested

json
{
	"related_articles": {
		"_limit": 3,
		"comments": {
			"_sort": "rating",
			"_limit": 1
		}
	}
}
{
	"related_articles": {
		"_limit": 3,
		"comments": {
			"_sort": "rating",
			"_limit": 1
		}
	}
}

Aliases

Aliases allow you rename fields on the fly, and request the same nested data set multiple times using different filters.

Nested fields

It is only possible to alias same level fields.
Alias for nested fields, f.e. field.nested, will not work.

Export

Save the current API response to a file.

Saves the API response to a file. Accepts one of csv, json, xml, yaml.

Functions

Functions allow for "live" modification of values stored in a field. Functions can be used in any query parameter you'd normally supply a field key, including fields, aggregation, and filter.

Functions can be used by wrapping the field key in a JavaScript like syntax, for example:

timestamp -> year(timestamp)

DateTime Functions

FilterDescription
yearExtract the year from a datetime/date/timestamp field
monthExtract the month from a datetime/date/timestamp field
weekExtract the week from a datetime/date/timestamp field
dayExtract the day from a datetime/date/timestamp field
weekdayExtract the weekday from a datetime/date/timestamp field
hourExtract the hour from a datetime/date/timestamp field
minuteExtract the minute from a datetime/date/timestamp field
secondExtract the second from a datetime/date/timestamp field

Array Functions

FilterDescription
countExtract the number of items from a JSON array or relational field

GraphQL

Names aren't allowed to include any special characters in GraphQL, preventing the () syntax from being used.

As an alternative, the above functions can be used by appending _func at the end of the field name, and using the function name as the nested field (see the example that follows).

Metadata

Metadata allows you to retrieve some additional information about the items in the collection you're fetching. * can be used as a wildcard to retrieve all metadata.

DEPRECATED

The metadata parameter will be removed in the future in favor of Aggregation. To receive the previous total_count and filter_count values, please use the aggregation[count] parameter instead - either with or without an additional filter parameter respectively.

Total Count

Returns the total item count of the collection you're querying.

Filter Count

Returns the item count of the collection you're querying, taking the current filter/search parameters into account.

GraphQL

GraphQL does not have meta fields like the REST API.
As an alternative, you can retrieve the count using Aggregation.

For more details, see: Aggregation & Grouping