API: Retrieve metadata of an existing zettel

The endpoint to work with metadata of a specific zettel is /z/{ID}, where {ID} is a placeholder for the zettel identifier¹.

To retrieve the plain metadata of a zettel, use the query parameter part=meta

# curl 'http://127.0.0.1:23123/z/00001012053400?part=meta'
title: API: Retrieve metadata of an existing zettel
role: manual
tags: #api #manual #zettelstore
syntax: zmk

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/00001012053400?part=meta&enc=data'
(list (meta (title "API: Retrieve metadata of an existing zettel") (role "manual") (tags "#api #manual #zettelstore") (syntax "zmk") (back "00001012000000 00001012053300") (backward "00001012000000 00001012053300") (box-number "1") (created "20210726174524") (forward "00001006020000 00001006050000 00001010040100 00001012050200 00001012920000 00001012921200") (modified "20230703174515") (published "20230703174515")) (rights 62))

Pretty-printed, this results in:

(list (meta (title "API: Retrieve metadata of an existing zettel")
            (role "manual")
            (tags "#api #manual #zettelstore")
            (syntax "zmk")
            (back "00001012000000 00001012053300")
            (backward "00001012000000 00001012053300")
            (box-number "1")
            (created "20210726174524")
            (forward "00001006020000 00001006050000 00001010040100 00001012050200 00001012920000 00001012921200")
            (modified "20230703174515")
            (published "20230703174515"))
      (rights 62))

The result is a list, starting with the symbol list.
Then, some key/value pairs are following, also nested.
Nested in meta are the metadata, each as a key/value pair.
rights specifies the access rights the user has for this zettel.

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 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.

If authentication is enabled, you must include the a valid access token in the Authorization header ↩︎