Getting started

Alignment with CLI commands

The API under /api/v0/ is an RPC-style API over HTTP, not a REST API.

Every command usable from the CLI is also available through the HTTP RPC API. For example:

> ipfs swarm peers
/ip4/104.131.131.82/tcp/4001/p2p/QmaCpDMGvV2BGHeYERUEnRQAwe3N8SzbUtfsmvsqQLuvuJ
/ip4/104.236.151.122/tcp/4001/p2p/QmSoLju6m7xTh3DuokvT3886QRYqxAzb1kShaanJgW36yx
/ip4/104.236.176.52/tcp/4001/p2p/QmSoLnSGccFuZQJzRadHn95W2CrSFmZuTdDWP8HXaHca9z

> curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5001/api/v0/swarm/peers
{
  "Strings": [
    "/ip4/104.131.131.82/tcp/4001/p2p/QmaCpDMGvV2BGHeYERUEnRQAwe3N8SzbUtfsmvsqQLuvuJ",
    "/ip4/104.236.151.122/tcp/4001/p2p/QmSoLju6m7xTh3DuokvT3886QRYqxAzb1kShaanJgW36yx",
    "/ip4/104.236.176.52/tcp/4001/p2p/QmSoLnSGccFuZQJzRadHn95W2CrSFmZuTdDWP8HXaHca9z",
  ]
}

Arguments

Arguments are added through the special query string key "arg":

> curl -X POST "http://127.0.0.1:5001/api/v0/swarm/disconnect?arg=/ip4/54.93.113.247/tcp/48131/p2p/QmUDS3nsBD1X4XK5Jo836fed7SErTyTuQzRqWaiQAyBYMP"
{
  "Strings": [
    "disconnect QmUDS3nsBD1X4XK5Jo836fed7SErTyTuQzRqWaiQAyBYMP success",
  ]
}

Note that it can be used multiple times to signify multiple arguments.

Flags

Flags are added through the query string. For example, the --encoding=json flag is the &encoding=json query parameter below:

> curl -X POST "http://127.0.0.1:5001/api/v0/object/get?arg=QmaaqrHyAQm7gALkRW8DcfGX3u8q9rWKnxEMmf7m9z515w&encoding=json"
{
  "Links": [
    {
      "Name": "index.html",
      "Hash": "QmYftndCvcEiuSZRX7njywX2AGSeHY2ASa7VryCq1mKwEw",
      "Size": 1700
    },
    {
      "Name": "static",
      "Hash": "QmdtWFiasJeh2ymW3TD2cLHYxn1ryTuWoNpwieFyJriGTS",
      "Size": 2428803
    }
  ],
  "Data": "CAE="
}

Some flags may be repeated. For example, the --status flag may be reused as below:

> curl -X POST "http://127.0.0.1:5001/api/v0/pin/remote/service/ls?name=myservice&status=pinned&status=pinning"

TIP

Some arguments may belong only to the CLI but appear here too. These usually belong to client-side processing of input, particularly in the add command.

Additionally, as a convenience certain CLI commands may allow passing repeated flags as delimited lists such as ipfs pin remote service ls --status=pinned,pinning; however, this does not apply to the HTTP API.