The items directive works on zettel that act as a ""table of contents"" for other zettel.
The [[initial zettel|00001000000000]] of this manual is one example, the [[general API description|00001012000000]] is another.
Every zettel with a certain internal structure can act as the ""table of contents"" for others.

What is a ""table of contents""?
Basically, it is just a list of references to other zettel.

To retrieve the items of a zettel, the software looks at first level [[list items|00001007030200]].
If an item contains a valid reference to a zettel, this reference will be interpreted as an item in the items list, in the ""table of contents"".

This applies only to first level list items (ordered or unordered list), but not to deeper levels.
Only the first reference to a valid zettel is collected for the table of contents.
Following references to zettel within such an list item are ignored.
```
# curl 'http://127.0.0.1:23123/z?q=00001000000000+ITEMS'
00001001000000 Introduction to the Zettelstore
00001002000000 Design goals for the Zettelstore
00001003000000 Installation of the Zettelstore software
00001004000000 Configuration of Zettelstore
00001005000000 Structure of Zettelstore
00001006000000 Layout of a Zettel
00001007000000 Zettelmarkup
00001008000000 Other Markup Languages
00001010000000 Security
00001012000000 API
00001014000000 Web user interface
00001017000000 Tips and Tricks
00001018000000 Troubleshooting
```