API: Retrieve metadata and content of an existing zettel
manual
api manual zettelstore
zmk
00001006000000 00001012000000
00001006000000 00001012000000 00001012920000
manual
(c) 2020-present by Detlef Stern <ds@zettelstore.de>
20211004093206
00001006050000 00001010040100 00001012050200 00001012053400 00001012920000 00001012920800 00001012921200 00001012930500
en
EUPL-1.2-or-later
20260729142053
20260729142053
public
The endpoint to work with metadata and content of a specific zettel is /z/{ID}, where {ID} is a placeholder for the zettel identifier.
For example, to retrieve some data about this zettel you are currently viewing, just send an HTTP GET request to the endpoint /z/00001012053300 If authentication is enabled, you must include a valid access token in the Authorization header.
# curl 'http://127.0.0.1:23123/z/00001012053300'
The [[endpoint|00001012920000]] to work with metadata and content of a specific zettel is ''/z/{ID}'', where ''{ID}'' is a placeholder for the [[zettel identifier|00001006050000]].

For example, to retrieve some data about this zettel you are currently viewing, just send an HTTP GET request to the endpoint ''/z/00001012053300''[^If [[authentication is enabled|00001010040100]], you must include a valid [[access token|00001012050200]] in the ''Authorization'' header].

```sh
...
Optionally, you may provide which parts of the zettel you are requesting. In this case, add an additional query parameter part=PART. Valid values for PART are zettel, meta, and content (the default value).
# curl 'http://127.0.0.1:23123/z/00001012053300?part=zettel'
title: API: Retrieve metadata and content of an existing zettel
role: manual
tags: #api #manual #zettelstore
syntax: zmk

The [[endpoint|00001012920000]] to work with metadata and content of a specific zettel is ''/z/{ID}'', where ''{ID}'' is a placeholder for the [[zettel identifier|00001006050000]].

For example, to retrieve some data about this zettel you are currently viewing, just send an HTTP GET request to the endpoint
...
Data output
Alternatively, you may retrieve the zettel as a parseable object / a symbolic expression by providing the query parameter enc=data:
# curl 'http://127.0.0.1:23123/z/00001012053300?enc=data&part=zettel'
(zettel (meta (back "00001006000000 00001012000000") (backward "00001006000000 00001012000000 00001012920000") (box-name "manual") (created "20211004093206") (forward "00001006050000 00001010040100 00001012050200 00001012053400 00001012920000 00001012920800 00001012921200 00001012930500") (modified "20260710143436") (published "20260710143436") (role "manual") (syntax "zmk") (tags "#api #manual #zettelstore") (title "API: Retrieve metadata and content of an existing zettel")) (rights create read update delete) (content "" "The [[endpoint|00001012920000]] to work with metadata and content of a specific zettel is ''/z/{ID}'', where ''{ID}'' is a placeholder for the [[zettel identifier|00001006050000]].\n\nFor example, ...
If you print the result a little bit nicer, you will see its structure:
(zettel
    (meta
        (back "00001006000000 00001012000000")
        (backward "00001006000000 00001012000000 00001012920000")
        (box-name "manual")
        (created "20211004093206")
        (forward "00001006050000 00001010040100 00001012050200 00001012053400 00001012920000 00001012920800 00001012921200 00001012930500")
        (modified "20260710143436")
        (published "20260710143436")
        (role "manual")
        (syntax "zmk")
        (tags "#api #manual #zettelstore")
        (title "API: Retrieve metadata and content of an existing zettel"))
    (rights create read update delete)
    (content "" "The [[endpoint|00001012920000]] to work with metadata and content of a specific zettel is ''/z/{ID}'', where ''{ID}'' is a placeholder for the [[zettel identifier|00001006050000]].\n\nFor example, ...
The result is a list whose first element is the symbol zettel.
The remaining elements are nested key/value pairs.
The meta list contains the metadata as key/value pairs.
rights specifies the user's access rights for this zettel.
The symbol content is followed by two string values: the encoding and the zettel content. The encoding may be one of:
"": the content is stored as plain text.
"base64": the content is encoded using the standard Base64 encoding.
If you omit the query parameter part, or set it to content, the response contains only the content list:
# curl 'http://127.0.0.1:23123/z/00001012053300?enc=data&part=content'
(content "" "The [[endpoint|00001012920000]] to work with metadata and content of a specific zettel is ''/z/{ID}'', where ''{ID}'' is a placeholder for the [[zettel identifier|00001006050000]].\n\nFor example, ...
HTTP Status codes
200
Retrieval was successful, the body contains an appropriate data value.
204
Request was valid, but there is no data to be returned. Most likely, you specified the query parameter part=content, but the zettel does not contain any content.
400
Request was not valid. There are several reasons for this. Maybe the zettel identifier did not consist of exactly 14 digits.
403
You are not allowed to retrieve data of the given zettel.
404
Zettel not found. You probably used a zettel identifier that is not used in the Zettelstore.