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
copyright: (c) 2020-present by Detlef Stern <ds@zettelstore.de>
created: 20210726174524
forward: 00001006050000 00001010040100 00001012050200 00001012920000 00001012921200 00001012930500
lang: en
license: EUPL-1.2-or-later
modified: 20241216104120
published: 20241216104120
visibility: public

The [endpoint](00001012920000) to work with metadata of a specific zettel is `/z/{ID}`, where `{ID}` is a placeholder for the [zettel identifier](00001006050000).

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](00001012930500) 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](00001012921200) the user has for this zettel.

# HTTP Status codes