title: API: List all zettel
role: manual
tags: #api #manual #zettelstore
syntax: zmk
back: 00001012000000
backward: 00001012000000 00001012920000
box-number: 1
copyright: (c) 2020-present by Detlef Stern <ds@zettelstore.de>
created: 20210126175322
folge: 00001012051400
forward: 00001006050000 00001007700000 00001007702000 00001010040100 00001010070200 00001012050200 00001012051400 00001012920000 00001012921200 00001012930500
lang: en
license: EUPL-1.2-or-later
modified: 20230807170810
published: 20230807170810
visibility: public

To list all zettel just send a HTTP GET request to the [[endpoint|00001012920000]] ''/z''[^If [[authentication is enabled|00001010040100]], you must include the a valid [[access token|00001012050200]] in the ''Authorization'' header].
Always use the endpoint ''/z'' to work with a list of zettel.

Without further specifications, a plain text document is returned, with one line per zettel.
Each line contains in the first 14 characters the [[zettel identifier|00001006050000]].
Separated by a space character, the title of the zettel follows:
```{="sh"}
# curl http://127.0.0.1:23123/z
...
00001012051200 API: List all zettel
00001012050600 API: Provide an access token
00001012050400 API: Renew an access token
00001012050200 API: Authenticate a client
...
```
The list is **not** sorted, even in the these examples where it appears to be sorted.
If you want to have it ordered, you must specify it with the help of a [[query expression|00001007700000]] / [[search term|00001007702000]].
See [[Query the list of all zettel|00001012051400]] how to do it.
=== Data output
Alternatively, you may retrieve the zettel list as a parseable object / a [[symbolic expression|00001012930500]] by providing the query parameter ''enc=data'':
```{="sh"}
# curl 'http://127.0.0.1:23123/z?enc=data'
(meta-list (query "") (human "") (list (zettel (id "00001012921200") (meta (title "API: Encoding of Zettel Access Rights") (role "manual") (tags "#api #manual #reference #zettelstore") (syntax "zmk") (back "00001012051200 00001012051400 00001012053300 00001012053400 00001012053900 00001012054000") (backward "00001012051200 00001012051400 00001012053300 00001012053400 00001012053900 00001012054000") (box-number "1") (created "00010101000000") (forward "00001003000000 00001006020400 00001010000000 00001010040100 00001010040200 00001010070200 00001010070300") (modified "20220201171959") (published "20220201171959")) (rights 62)) (zettel (id "00001007030100") ...
```
Pretty-printed, this results in:
```
(meta-list (query "")
           (human "")
           (list (zettel (id "00001012921200")
                         (meta (title "API: Encoding of Zettel Access Rights")
                               (role "manual")
                               (tags "#api #manual #reference #zettelstore")
                               (syntax "zmk")
                               (back "00001012051200 00001012051400 00001012053300 00001012053400 00001012053900 00001012054000")
                               (backward "00001012051200 00001012051400 00001012053300 00001012053400 00001012053900 00001012054000")
                               (box-number "1")
                               (created "00010101000000")
                               (forward "00001003000000 00001006020400 00001010000000 00001010040100 00001010040200 00001010070200 00001010070300")
                               (modified "20220201171959")
                               (published "20220201171959"))
                         (rights 62))
                 (zettel (id "00001007030100")
```
* The result is a list, starting with the symbol ''meta-list''.
* Then, some key/value pairs are following, also nested.
* Keys ''query'' and ''human'' will be explained [[later in this manual|00001012051400]].
* ''list'' starts a list of zettel.
* ''zettel'' itself start, well, a zettel.
* ''id'' denotes the zettel identifier, encoded as a string.
* Nested in ''meta'' are the metadata, each as a key/value pair.
* ''rights'' specifies the [[access rights|00001012921200]] the user has for this zettel.
=== Note
This request (and similar others) will always return a list of metadata, provided the request was syntactically correct.
There will never be a HTTP status code 403 (Forbidden), even if [[authentication was enabled|00001010040100]] and you did not provide a valid access token.
In this case, the resulting list might be quite short (some zettel will have [[public visibility|00001010070200]]) or the list might be empty.

With this call, you cannot differentiate between an empty result list (e.g because your search did not found a zettel with the specified term) and an empty list because of missing authorization (e.g. an invalid access token).
=== HTTP Status codes
; ''200''
: Retrieval was successful, the body contains an appropriate data value.
; ''400''
: Request was not valid.\
There are several reasons for this.
Maybe the access bearer token was not valid.