REST API Overview¶

What is a REST API?¶

REST stands for representational state transfer. It's a particular type of API which employs HTTP requests and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to facilitate create, retrieve, update, and delete (CRUD) operations on objects within an application. Each type of operation is associated with a particular HTTP verb:

GET: Retrieve an object or list of objects
POST: Create an object
PUT / PATCH: Modify an existing object. PUT requires all mandatory fields to be specified, while PATCH only expects the field that is being modified to be specified.
DELETE: Delete an existing object

Additionally, the OPTIONS verb can be used to inspect a particular REST API endpoint and return all supported actions and their available parameters.

One of the primary benefits of a REST API is its human-friendliness. Because it utilizes HTTP and JSON, it's very easy to interact with Nautobot data on the command line using common tools. For example, we can request an IP address from Nautobot and output the JSON using curl and jq. The following command makes an HTTP GET request for information about a particular IP address, identified by its primary key, and uses jq to present the raw JSON data returned in a more human-friendly format. (Piping the output through jq isn't strictly required but makes it much easier to read.)

curl -s http://nautobot/api/ipam/ip-addresses/83445aa3-bbd3-4ab4-86f5-36942ce9df60/ | jq '.'

{
  "id": "83445aa3-bbd3-4ab4-86f5-36942ce9df60",
  "url": "http://nautobot/api/ipam/ip-addresses/83445aa3-bbd3-4ab4-86f5-36942ce9df60/",
  "display": "10.0.60.39/32",
  "custom_fields": {},
  "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/ipam/ip-addresses/83445aa3-bbd3-4ab4-86f5-36942ce9df60/notes/",
  "family": {
    "value": 4,
    "label": "IPv4"
  },
  "address": "10.0.60.39/32",
  "nat_outside_list": [
    {
        "id": "a7569104-ed58-4938-ab6f-cb6a9e584f14",
        "object_type": "ipam.ipaddress",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/ipam/ip-addresses/a7569104-ed58-4938-ab6f-cb6a9e584f14/"
    }
  ],
  "created": "2023-04-25T12:46:09.152507Z",
  "last_updated": "2023-04-25T12:46:09.163545Z",
  "host": "10.0.60.39",
  "mask_length": 32,
  "dns_name": "desktop-08.cook.biz",
  "description": "This is an IP Address",
  "role": {
    "id": "e7a815b0-2c48-499a-84b8-f20350abe415",
    "object_type": "extras.role",
    "url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/roles/e7a815b0-2c48-499a-84b8-f20350abe415/",
  },
  "status": {
    "id": "b7f6a447-5616-4533-a6d5-a4ece50cd08c",
    "object_type": "extras.status",
    "url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/b7f6a447-5616-4533-a6d5-a4ece50cd08c/",
  },
  "vrf": null,
  "tenant": {
    "id": "501fffe7-5302-40ae-b9e4-27d5e3ff2108",
    "object_type": "tenancy.tenant",
    "url": "http://nautobot/api/tenancy/tenants/501fffe7-5302-40ae-b9e4-27d5e3ff2108/",
  },
  "nat_inside": null,
  "tags": []
}

Each attribute of the IP address is expressed as an attribute of the JSON object. Related objects are identified by their own URLs that may be accessed to retrieve more details of the related object, as in the case of the role and status fields above. Every object includes a primary key named id which uniquely identifies it in the database.

Interactive Documentation¶

Comprehensive, interactive documentation of all REST API endpoints is available on a running Nautobot instance at /api/docs/. This interface provides a convenient sandbox for researching and experimenting with specific endpoints and request types. The API itself can also be explored using a web browser by navigating to its root at /api/.

Added in version 1.3.0

You can view or explore a specific REST API version by adding the API version as a query parameter, for example /api/docs/?api_version=2.0 or /api/?api_version=2.0

Endpoint Hierarchy¶

Nautobot's entire REST API is housed under the API root at https://<hostname>/api/. The URL structure is divided at the root level by application: circuits, DCIM, extras, IPAM, plugins, tenancy, users, and virtualization. Within each application exists a separate path for each model. For example, the provider and circuit objects are located under the "circuits" application:

/api/circuits/providers/
/api/circuits/circuits/

Likewise, the location, rack, and device objects are located under the "DCIM" application:

/api/dcim/locations/
/api/dcim/racks/
/api/dcim/devices/

The full hierarchy of available endpoints can be viewed by navigating to the API root in a web browser.

Each model generally has two views associated with it: a list view and a detail view. The list view is used to retrieve a list of multiple objects and to create new objects. The detail view is used to retrieve, update, or delete an single existing object. All objects are referenced by their UUID primary key (id).

/api/dcim/devices/ - List existing devices or create a new device
/api/dcim/devices/6a522ebb-5739-4c5c-922f-ab4a2dc12eb0/ - Retrieve, update, or delete the device with ID 6a522ebb-5739-4c5c-922f-ab4a2dc12eb0

Lists of objects can be filtered using a set of query parameters. For example, to find all interfaces belonging to the device with ID 6a522ebb-5739-4c5c-922f-ab4a2dc12eb0:

GET /api/dcim/interfaces/?device=6a522ebb-5739-4c5c-922f-ab4a2dc12eb0

See the filtering documentation for more details.

Versioning¶

Added in version 1.3.0

As of Nautobot 1.3, the REST API supports multiple versions. A REST API client may request a given API version by including a major.minor Nautobot version number in its request in one of two ways:

A client may include a version in its HTTP Accept header, for example Accept: application/json; version=2.0
A client may include an api_version as a URL query parameter, for example /api/extras/jobs/?api_version=2.0

Generally the former approach is recommended when writing automated API integrations, as it can be set as a general request header alongside the authentication token and re-used across a series of REST API interactions, while the latter approach may be more convenient when initially exploring the REST API via the interactive documentation as described above.

Default Versions¶

By default, a REST API request that does not specify an API version number will default to compatibility with the current Nautobot version.

Added in version 1.3.0

For Nautobot 1.x, the default API behavior is to be compatible with the REST API of Nautobot version 1.2, in other words, for all Nautobot 1.x versions (beginning with Nautobot 1.2.0), Accept: application/json is functionally equivalent to Accept: application/json; version=1.2.

Changed in version 2.0.0

As of Nautobot 2.0, the default API behavior is changed to use the latest available REST API version. In other words, the default REST API version for Nautobot 2.0.y will be 2.0, for Nautobot 2.1.y will be 2.1, etc. This means that REST API clients that do not explicitly request a particular REST API version may encounter potentially breaking changes in the REST API when Nautobot is upgraded to a new minor or major version.

Important

As a best practice, it is recommended that a REST API client should always request the exact Nautobot REST API version that it is compatible with, rather than relying on the default behavior to remain constant.

Tip

Any successful REST API response will include an API-Version header showing the API version that is in use for the specific API request being handled.

Non-Breaking Changes¶

Non-breaking (forward- and backward-compatible) REST API changes may be introduced in major or minor Nautobot releases. Since these changes are non-breaking, they will not correspond to the introduction of a new API version, but will be added seamlessly to the existing API version, and so will immediately be available to existing REST API clients. Examples would include:

Addition of new fields in GET responses
Added support for new, optional fields in POST/PUT/PATCH requests
Deprecation (but not removal) of existing fields

Important

There is no way to "opt out" of backwards-compatible enhancements to the REST API; because they are fully backwards-compatible there should never be a need to do so. Thus, for example, a client requesting API version 1.2 from a Nautobot 1.3 server may actually receive the (updated but still backwards-compatible) 1.3 API version as a response. For this reason, clients should always default to ignoring additional fields in an API response that they do not understand, rather than reporting an error.

Breaking Changes¶

Breaking (non-backward-compatible) REST API changes also may be introduced in major or minor Nautobot releases. Examples would include:

Removal of deprecated fields
Addition of new, required fields in POST/PUT/PATCH requests or changing an existing field from optional to required
Changed field types (for example, changing a single value to a list of values)
Redesigned API (for example, listing and accessing Job instances by UUID primary-key instead of by class-path string)

Per Nautobot's feature-deprecation policy, the previous REST API version(s) will continue to be supported until the next major release. Upon the next major release, previously deprecated API versions will be removed and the newest behavior will become the default. You will no longer be able to request API versions from the previous major version.

Important

Again, REST API clients are strongly encouraged to always specify the REST API version they are expecting, as otherwise unexpected breaking changes may be encountered when Nautobot is upgraded to a new major or minor release.

Example of API Version Behavior¶

As an example, let us say that Nautobot 2.1 introduced a new, non-backwards-compatible REST API for the /api/extras/jobs/ endpoint, and also introduced a new, backwards-compatible set of additional fields on the /api/dcim/locations/ endpoint. Depending on what API version a REST client interacting with Nautobot 2.1 specified (or didn't specify), it would see the following responses from the server:

API endpoint	Requested API version	Response
`/api/extras/jobs/`	(unspecified)	Updated 2.1 REST API (not backwards compatible)
`/api/extras/jobs/`	`2.0`	Deprecated 2.0-compatible REST API
`/api/extras/jobs/`	`2.1`	New/updated 2.1-compatible REST API

Changed in version 2.0.0

The default behavior when the API version is unspecified is changed from Nautobot 1.x.

API endpoint	Requested API version	Response
`/api/dcim/locations/`	(unspecified)	2.1-updated, 2.0-compatible REST API
`/api/dcim/locations/`	`2.0`	2.1-updated, 2.0-compatible REST API
`/api/dcim/locations/`	`2.1`	2.1-updated, 2.0-compatible REST API

API endpoint	Requested API version	Response
`/api/dcim/racks/`	(unspecified)	2.1-compatible REST API (unchanged from 2.0)
`/api/dcim/racks/`	`2.0`	2.1-compatible REST API (unchanged from 2.0)
`/api/dcim/racks/`	`2.1`	2.1-compatible REST API (unchanged from 2.0)

APISelect with versioning capability¶

Added in version 1.3.0

The constructor for Nautobot's APISelect/APISelectMultiple UI widgets now includes an optional api_version argument which if set overrides the default API version of the request.

Serialization¶

The REST API employs "serializers" to represent model data. The representation produced by a serializer typically includes all relevant database table fields which comprise the model, and may also include additional metadata such as information about other relevant objects in the database. Much like the database model itself, a serializer typically will represent information about "parent" objects (those objects that needed to exist in order to define the current object, such as DeviceType and Location for a DeviceSerializer) but typically will not include information about "child" objects (those objects that depend on the current object in order to be defined, such as Interface objects for a DeviceSerializer).

Related objects (e.g. ForeignKey fields) are representable in several different ways. By default, when retrieving an object via the REST API, related objects are represented by URLs, or by a JSON null if no such related object exists. These URLs may be accessed in order to retrieve the full details of such related objects if needed/desired. For example, when retrieving an IPAddress, you might see:

{
    "id": "83445aa3-bbd3-4ab4-86f5-36942ce9df60",
    "url": "http://localhost:8080/api/ipam/ip-addresses/83445aa3-bbd3-4ab4-86f5-36942ce9df60/",
    "display": "10.0.60.39/32",
    "address": "10.0.60.39/32",
    ...
    "role": {
        "id": "e7a815b0-2c48-499a-84b8-f20350abe415",
        "object_type": "extras.role",
        "url": "http://localhost:8080/api/extras/roles/e7a815b0-2c48-499a-84b8-f20350abe415/",
    },
    "status": {
        "id": "b7f6a447-5616-4533-a6d5-a4ece50cd08c",
        "object_type": "extras.status",
        "url": "http://localhost:8080/api/extras/statuses/b7f6a447-5616-4533-a6d5-a4ece50cd08c/",
    },
    "vrf": null,
    "tenant": {
        "id": "501fffe7-5302-40ae-b9e4-27d5e3ff2108",
        "object_type": "tenancy.tenant",
        "url": "http://localhost:8080/api/tenancy/tenants/501fffe7-5302-40ae-b9e4-27d5e3ff2108/",
    },
    "nat_inside": null,
    "tags": []
}

Here, the role, status, vrf, tenant, and nat_outside fields represent objects related to this IPAddress, and the tags field is a list of such objects (no tags in this example).

Changed in version 2.0.0

The representation of related objects on retrieval has changed from Nautobot 1.x. The brief query parameter has been removed, and distinct "nested" serializers no longer exist. Instead, the depth parameter controls whether related objects are represented by URLs or as nested objects. Please see Depth Query Parameter for more details.

When performing write API actions (POST, PUT, and PATCH), related objects may be specified by either UUID (primary key), or by a set of attributes sufficiently unique to return the desired object, or by their natural key.

Added in version 2.0.0

Support for specifying a related object by composite-key was added.

For example, when creating a new device, its rack can be specified by Nautobot ID (PK):

{
    "name": "MyNewDevice",
    "rack": "7f3ca431-8103-45cc-a9ce-b94c1f784a1d",
    ...
}

Or by a set of nested attributes which uniquely identify the rack:

{
    "name": "MyNewDevice",
    "rack": {
        "location": {
            "name": "Equinix DC6"
        },
        "name": "R204"
    },
    ...
}

Or by the natural key of the rack (for the Rack model, this is just its name, but this will vary by object type - you can always find this information under the Advanced tab of an object's detail view):

{
    "name": "MyNewDevice",
    "rack": "R204",
    ...
}

Note that if the provided parameters do not match exactly one object, a validation error will be raised.

Generic Relations¶

Some objects within Nautobot have attributes which can reference an object of multiple types, known as generic relations. For example, a Cable can be terminated (connected) to an Interface, or a FrontPort, or a RearPort, etc. For such generic relations, when making this assignment via the REST API, we must specify two attributes, typically an object_type and an object_id, and by convention in Nautobot's API:

the object_type is the type of assigned object, typically represented as <app_label>.<model_name>
the object_id is the UUID (primary key) of the assigned object.

For example, the two ends of a Cable are identified by termination_a_type/termination_a_id and termination_b_type/termination_b_id, and might be specified on creation as something like:

curl -X POST \
-H "Authorization: Token $TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0; indent=4" \
http://nautobot/api/dcim/cables/ \
--data '{
    "termination_a_type": "dcim.interface",
    "termination_a_id": "96ee6c25-d689-46f4-b552-eb72977c27b8",
    "termination_b_type": "dcim.frontport",
    "termination_b_id": "ca54e2cc-d1b5-46e2-bb7d-85b1a9e3c1d0",
    ...
}'

On retrieval, the REST API will include the object_type and object_id fields, but will also typically for convenience include an object field containing the URL or nested details of the object identified by the type/id fields. For the above Cable example, the retrieval response might look something like:

{
    "id": "549dae0d-3345-4bd1-8626-085e46a36ded",
    "url": "http://localhost:8080/api/dcim/cables/549dae0d-3345-4bd1-8626-085e46a36ded/",
    ...
    "termination_a_type": "dcim.interface",
    "termination_b_type": "dcim.frontport",
    "termination_a_id": "96ee6c25-d689-46f4-b552-eb72977c27b8",
    "termination_b_id": "ca54e2cc-d1b5-46e2-bb7d-85b1a9e3c1d0",
    "termination_a": "http://localhost:8080/api/dcim/interfaces/96ee6c25-d689-46f4-b552-eb72977c27b8/",
    "termination_b": "http://localhost:8080/api/dcim/front-ports/ca54e2cc-d1b5-46e2-bb7d-85b1a9e3c1d0/",
    ...
}

Many-To-Many Relationships¶

Added in version 2.0.0

Many-to-many relationships differ from one-to-many and one-to-one relationships because they utilize a separate database table called a "through table" to track the relationships instead of a single field in an existing table. In Nautobot 2.0, some relationships such as IPAddress to Interface/VMInterface, Prefix to VRF, and VRF to Device/VirtualMachine are represented as many-to-many relationships. The REST API represents these relationships as nested objects for retrieval, but in order to create, update or delete these relationships, the through table endpoint must be used. Currently, the only through table endpoint available is the IPAddress to Interface/VMInterface at /api/ipam/ip-address-to-interface/.

Pagination¶

API responses which contain a list of many objects will be paginated for efficiency. The root JSON object returned by a list endpoint contains the following attributes:

count: The total number of all objects matching the query
next: A hyperlink to the next page of results (if applicable)
previous: A hyperlink to the previous page of results (if applicable)
results: The list of objects on the current page

Here is an example of a paginated response:

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
API-Version: 1.2
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "count": 2861,
    "next": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/devices/?limit=50&offset=50",
    "previous": null,
    "results": [
        {
            "id": "fa069c4b-4f6e-4349-88ac-8b6baf9d70c5",
            "name": "Device1",
            ...
        },
        {
            "id": "a37df58c-8bf3-4b97-bad5-301ef3880bea",
            "name": "Device2",
            ...
        },
        ...
    ]
}

The default page is determined by the PAGINATE_COUNT configuration parameter, which defaults to 50. However, this can be overridden per request by specifying the desired offset and limit query parameters. For example, if you wish to retrieve a hundred devices at a time, you would make a request for:

http://nautobot/api/dcim/devices/?limit=100

The response will return devices 1 through 100. The URL provided in the next attribute of the response will return devices 101 through 200:

{
    "count": 2861,
    "next": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/devices/?limit=100&offset=100",
    "previous": null,
    "results": [...]
}

The maximum number of objects that can be returned is limited by the MAX_PAGE_SIZE configuration parameter, which is 1000 by default. Setting this to 0 or None will remove the maximum limit. An API consumer can then pass ?limit=0 to retrieve all matching objects with a single request.

Warning

Disabling the page size limit introduces a potential for very resource-intensive requests, since one API request can effectively retrieve an entire table from the database.

Sorting¶

By default, objects are sorted by their model-defined ordering property. However, this can be overridden by specifying the ?sort query parameter. For example, to retrieve devices sorted by their rack position:

http://nautobot/api/dcim/devices/?sort=position

To sort in descending order, prefix the field name with a minus sign (-):

http://nautobot/api/dcim/devices/?sort=-position

Currently only direct model attributes are validated to be sorted as expected.

Interacting with Objects¶

Retrieving Multiple Objects¶

To query Nautobot for a list of objects, make a GET request to the model's list endpoint. Objects are listed under the response object's results parameter. Specifying the Accept header with the Nautobot API version is not required, but is strongly recommended.

curl -s -X GET \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/ipam/ip-addresses/ | jq '.'

{
  "count": 42031,
  "next": "http://nautobot/api/ipam/ip-addresses/?limit=50&offset=50",
  "previous": null,
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "bd307eca-de34-4bda-9195-d69ca52206d6",
      "address": "192.0.2.1/24",
      ...
    },
    {
      "id": "6c52e918-4f0c-4c50-ae49-6bef22c97fd5",
      "address": "192.0.2.2/24",
      ...
    },
    {
      "id": "b8cde1ee-1b86-4ea4-a884-041c472d8999",
      "address": "192.0.2.3/24",
      ...
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Retrieving a Single Object¶

To query Nautobot for a single object, make a GET request to the model's detail endpoint specifying its UUID.

Note

Note that the trailing slash is required. Omitting this will return a 302 redirect.

curl -s -X GET \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/ipam/ip-addresses/bd307eca-de34-4bda-9195-d69ca52206d6/ | jq '.'

{
  "id": "bd307eca-de34-4bda-9195-d69ca52206d6",
  "address": "192.0.2.1/24",
  ...
}

Depth Query Parameter¶

Added in version 2.0.0

A ?depth query parameter is introduced in Nautobot 2.0 to replace the ?brief parameter. It enables nested serialization functionality and offers a more dynamic and comprehensive browsable API. It is available for both retrieving a single object and a list of objects. This parameter is an positive integer value that can range from 0 to 10. In most use cases, you will only need a maximum depth of 2 to get all the information you need.

Note

The ?brief query parameter is removed for Nautobot v2.x. Use ?depth=0 instead.

Important

The ?depth query parameter should only be used for GET operations in the API. It should not be used in POST, PATCH and DELETE requests. For these requests, only ?depth=0 should be used.

Default/?depth=0¶

?depth parameter defaults to 0 and offers a very lightweight view of the API where all object-related fields are represented by a simple object, containing only the id, object_type and url attributes.

curl -s -X GET \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/0e19e475-89c9-4cf4-8b5f-a0589f0950cd/ | jq '.'

{
    "id": "0e19e475-89c9-4cf4-8b5f-a0589f0950cd",
    "display": "Campus-01",
    "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/0e19e475-89c9-4cf4-8b5f-a0589f0950cd/",
    "tree_depth": 0,
    "time_zone": "Asia/Baghdad",
    "circuit_count": 7,
    "device_count": 0,
    "prefix_count": 0,
    "rack_count": 0,
    "virtual_machine_count": 0,
    "vlan_count": 0,
    "created": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.884754Z",
    "last_updated": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.906503Z",
    "name": "Campus-01",
    "description": "Local take each compare court exactly.",
    "facility": "328",
    "asn": null,
    "physical_address": "",
    "shipping_address": "",
    "latitude": null,
    "longitude": "104.200000",
    "contact_name": "Frances Hernandez",
    "contact_phone": "",
    "contact_email": "",
    "comments": "Sort share road candidate.",
    "status": {
        "id": "28eb334b-4171-4da4-a03a-fa6d0c6a9442",
        "object_type": "extras.status",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/28eb334b-4171-4da4-a03a-fa6d0c6a9442/",

    },
    "parent": null,
    "location_type": {
        "id": "e3d4a9af-c6c1-4582-b483-a13301eb6e28",
        "object_type": "dcim.locationtype",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/e3d4a9af-c6c1-4582-b483-a13301eb6e28/",
    },
    "tenant": {
        "id": "5b1feadb-fab0-4f81-a53f-5192d83b0216",
        "object_type": "tenancy.tenant",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/tenancy/tenants/5b1feadb-fab0-4f81-a53f-5192d83b0216/",
    },
    "tags": [
        {
            "id": "a50d4568-27ae-4743-87ac-ffdc22b7f5d2",
            "object_type": "extras.tag",
            "url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/tags/a50d4568-27ae-4743-87ac-ffdc22b7f5d2/",
        }
    ],
    "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/0e19e475-89c9-4cf4-8b5f-a0589f0950cd/notes/",
    "custom_fields": {
        "example_app_auto_custom_field": null
    }
}

?depth=1¶

When ?depth=1 is added to the query parameters, all object-related fields, instead of being represented as light-weight objects as they are when ?depth=0, will be represented as fully-detailed nested objects, similar (but not necessarily identical!) to the objects that would be retrieved when querying the API directly for those related objects.

Important

Nested objects retrieved with a greater-than-zero depth parameter do not necessarily include all fields that would be included on the fully detailed object that can be retrieved by querying their url directly. In particular:

Nested objects will not include a field for tags or any other many-to-many relations on the object (such as a Status object's content_types relation).
Nested objects will not include the relationships or computed_fields keys, even if those are opted-in on the request.
Nested objects may omit any derived (non-database) attributes, such as related object counts, tree-depth information, etc.

For example, retrieving a Location with ?depth=1 would provide nested objects for the status, parent, location_type, tenant, and tags fields:

curl -s -X GET \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/ce69530e-6a4a-4d3c-9f95-fc326ec39abf/?depth=1 | jq '.'

{
    ...
    "status": {
        "id": "91a53d61-4180-4820-835d-533b34dbb5b4",
        "display": "Active",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/91a53d61-4180-4820-835d-533b34dbb5b4/",
        "custom_fields": {},
        "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/91a53d61-4180-4820-835d-533b34dbb5b4/notes/",
        "created": "2023-04-12T00:00:00Z",
        "last_updated": "2023-04-12T19:25:51.413824Z",
        "name": "Active",
        "color": "4caf50",
        "description": "Unit is active"
    },
    "parent": {
        "id": "0e19e475-89c9-4cf4-8b5f-a0589f0950cd",
        "display": "Campus-01",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/0e19e475-89c9-4cf4-8b5f-a0589f0950cd/",
        "custom_fields": {
            "example_app_auto_custom_field": null
        },
        "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/0e19e475-89c9-4cf4-8b5f-a0589f0950cd/notes/",
        "tree_depth": null,
        "time_zone": "Asia/Baghdad",
        "created": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.884754Z",
        "last_updated": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.906503Z",
        "name": "Campus-01",
        "description": "Local take each compare court exactly.",
        "facility": "328",
        "asn": null,
        "physical_address": "",
        "shipping_address": "",
        "latitude": null,
        "longitude": "104.200000",
        "contact_name": "Frances Hernandez",
        "contact_phone": "",
        "contact_email": "",
        "comments": "Sort share road candidate.",
        "status": "http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/28eb334b-4171-4da4-a03a-fa6d0c6a9442/",
        "parent": null,
        "location_type": "http://nautobot/api/extras/location-types/e3d4a9af-c6c1-4582-b483-a13301eb6e28/",
        "tenant": "http://nautobot/api/tenancy/tenants/5b1feadb-fab0-4f81-a53f-5192d83b0216/",
    },
    "location_type": {
        "id": "4edcc111-e3f7-4309-ab0e-eb34c001874e",
        "display": "Campus → Building",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/4edcc111-e3f7-4309-ab0e-eb34c001874e/",
        "custom_fields": {},
        "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/4edcc111-e3f7-4309-ab0e-eb34c001874e/notes/",
        "tree_depth": null,
        "created": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.707759Z",
        "last_updated": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.716482Z",
        "name": "Building",
        "description": "Protect growth bill all hair along.",
        "nestable": false,
        "parent": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/e3d4a9af-c6c1-4582-b483-a13301eb6e28/"
    },
    "tenant": {
        "id": "d043b6bc-6892-45f9-b460-4b006eb68016",
        "display": "Page Inc",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/tenancy/tenants/d043b6bc-6892-45f9-b460-4b006eb68016/",
        "custom_fields": {},
        "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/tenancy/tenants/d043b6bc-6892-45f9-b460-4b006eb68016/notes/",
        "created": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.257345Z",
        "last_updated": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.262563Z",
        "name": "Page Inc",
        "description": "Citizen father policy door science light. Glass improve place understand against ground.\nLarge firm per sing. Item they side walk test open tend.",
        "comments": "",
        "tenant_group": null,
    },
    "tags": [
        {
            "id": "a50d4568-27ae-4743-87ac-ffdc22b7f5d2",
            "display": "Light blue",
            "url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/tags/a50d4568-27ae-4743-87ac-ffdc22b7f5d2/",
            "custom_fields": {},
            "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/tags/a50d4568-27ae-4743-87ac-ffdc22b7f5d2/notes/",
            "name": "Light blue",
            "created": "2023-04-12T19:29:05.753433Z",
            "last_updated": "2023-04-12T19:29:05.770752Z",
            "color": "03a9f4",
            "description": "Want task generation. Commercial candidate performance financial guess modern.\nEarly toward adult black. Join black land sit. It smile standard possible reach."
        }
    ]
}

Note

As previously explained, note that the status nested object included in this response does not include the content_types many-to-many relation that exists on all Status objects. If this information is needed, you would need to directly query the URL of the status object itself (above, http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/91a53d61-4180-4820-835d-533b34dbb5b4/) to get a fully detailed response. Similarly, the parent and tenant nested objects do not include their tags relations, the parent object does not include its derived tree_depth and related object counters, and the tags nested object list does not include the content_types for each Tag.

?depth=2 and beyond¶

A higher depth parameter in the query presents you with more insight to the object and can be useful in situations that demand information of an indirectly related field of the object.

Important

Using higher depth values may substantially increase the amount of time it takes for the REST API to respond to your query when there are a large number of related objects. In some cases it may be more efficient to initially query with a lower depth and then follow the url values that the REST API response provides for specific related objects to query those objects directly as a more narrowly focused query approach.

For example, if you need information on the parent of a location instance's parent.

curl -s -X GET \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/3b71a669-faa4-4f8d-a72a-8c94d121b793/?depth=2 | jq '.'

{
    ...
    "parent": {
        ...
        "status": {
            "id": "39ea1ea4-3028-4a81-81e0-24a5743d3657",
            "url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/39ea1ea4-3028-4a81-81e0-24a5743d3657/",
            "display": "Retired",
            "object_type": "extras.status",
            "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/39ea1ea4-3028-4a81-81e0-24a5743d3657/notes/",
            "created": "2023-04-12T00:00:00Z",
            "last_updated": "2023-04-12T19:26:16.982697Z",
            "name": "Retired",
            "color": "f44336",
            "description": "Location has been retired",
            "custom_fields": {}
        },
        "parent": {
            "id": "0e19e475-89c9-4cf4-8b5f-a0589f0950cd",
            "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/0e19e475-89c9-4cf4-8b5f-a0589f0950cd/",
            "display": "Campus-01",
            "object_type": "dcim.location",
            "time_zone": "Asia/Baghdad",
            "created": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.884754Z",
            "last_updated": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.906503Z",
            "name": "Campus-01",
            "description": "Local take each compare court exactly.",
            "facility": "328",
            "asn": null,
            "physical_address": "",
            "shipping_address": "",
            "latitude": null,
            "longitude": "104.200000",
            "contact_name": "Frances Hernandez",
            "contact_phone": "",
            "contact_email": "",
            "comments": "Sort share road candidate.",
            "status": "http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/28eb334b-4171-4da4-a03a-fa6d0c6a9442/",
            "parent": null,
            "location_type": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/e3d4a9af-c6c1-4582-b483-a13301eb6e28/",
            "tenant": "http://nautobot/api/tenancy/tenants/5b1feadb-fab0-4f81-a53f-5192d83b0216/",
            "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/0e19e475-89c9-4cf4-8b5f-a0589f0950cd/notes/",
            "custom_fields": {
                "example_app_auto_custom_field": null
            }
        },
        "location_type": {
            "id": "4edcc111-e3f7-4309-ab0e-eb34c001874e",
            "display": "Campus → Building",
            "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/4edcc111-e3f7-4309-ab0e-eb34c001874e/",
            "created": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.707759Z",
            "last_updated": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.716482Z",
            "name": "Building",
            "description": "Protect growth bill all hair along.",
            "nestable": false,
            "parent": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/e3d4a9af-c6c1-4582-b483-a13301eb6e28/",
            "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/4edcc111-e3f7-4309-ab0e-eb34c001874e/notes/",
            "custom_fields": {}
        },
        "tenant": null,
    },
    "location_type": {
        ...
        "parent": {
            "id": "4edcc111-e3f7-4309-ab0e-eb34c001874e",
            "display": "Campus → Building",
            "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/4edcc111-e3f7-4309-ab0e-eb34c001874e/",
            "created": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.707759Z",
            "last_updated": "2023-04-12T19:29:06.716482Z",
            "name": "Building",
            "description": "Protect growth bill all hair along.",
            "nestable": false,
            "parent": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/e3d4a9af-c6c1-4582-b483-a13301eb6e28/",
            "notes_url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/location-types/4edcc111-e3f7-4309-ab0e-eb34c001874e/notes/",
            "custom_fields": {}
        }
    },
    ...
}

Retrieving Object Relationships and Relationship Associations¶

Added in version 1.4.0

Objects that are associated with another object by a custom Relationship are also retrievable and modifiable via the REST API. Due to the additional processing overhead involved in retrieving and representing these relationships, they are not included in default REST API GET responses. To include relationships data, pass include=relationships as a query parameter; in this case an additional key, "relationships", will be included in the API response, as seen below:

GET /api/dcim/locations/f472bb77-7f56-4e79-ac25-2dc73eb63924/?include=relationships

{
    "id": "f472bb77-7f56-4e79-ac25-2dc73eb63924",
    "display": "alpha",
    "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/f472bb77-7f56-4e79-ac25-2dc73eb63924/",
...
    "relationships": {
        "site-to-vrf": {
            "id": "e74cb7f7-15b0-499d-9401-a0f01cb96a9a",
            "url": "/api/extras/relationships/e74cb7f7-15b0-499d-9401-a0f01cb96a9a/",
            "name": "Single Site to Single VRF",
            "type": "one-to-one",
            "destination": {
                "label": "VRF",
                "object_type": "ipam.vrf",
                "objects": [
                    {
                        "id": "36641ba0-50d6-43be-b9b5-86aa992402e0",
                        "url": "http://nautobot/api/ipam/vrfs/36641ba0-50d6-43be-b9b5-86aa992402e0/",
                        "name": "red",
                        "rd": null,
                        "display": "red"
                    }
                ]
            }
        },
        "vrfs-to-locations": {
            "id": "e39c53e4-78cf-4572-b116-1d8830b81b2e",
            "url": "/api/extras/relationships/e39c53e4-78cf-4572-b116-1d8830b81b2e/",
            "name": "VRFs to Locations",
            "type": "many-to-many",
            "source": {
                "label": "VRFs",
                "object_type": "ipam.vrf",
                "objects": []
            }
        },
    }
}

Under the "relationships" key, there will be one key per Relationship that applies to this model, corresponding to the key of that Relationship.
- Under each key, there will be information about the Relationship itself, plus any of "source", "destination", or "peer" keys (depending on the type and directionality of the Relationship).
  - Under the "source", "destination", or "peer" keys, there are the following keys:
    - "label" - a human-readable description of the related objects
    - "object_type" - the content-type of the related objects
    - "objects" - a list of all related objects, each represented in nested-serializer form as described under Related Objects above.

In the example above we can see that a single VRF, green, is a destination for the site-to-vrf Relationship from this Site, while there are currently no VRFs associated as sources for the vrfs-to-locations Relationship to this Site.

Including Config Contexts¶

When retrieving Devices and Virtual Machines via the REST API, it is possible to also retrive the rendered configuration context data for each such object if desired. Because rendering this data can be time consuming, it is not included in the REST API responses by default. If you wish to include config context data in the response, you must opt in by specifying the query parameter include=config_context as a part of your request.

Changed in version 2.0.0

In Nautobot 1.x, the rendered configuration context was included by default in the REST API response unless specifically excluded with the query parameter exclude=config_context. This behavior has been reversed in Nautobot 2.0 and the exclude query parameter is no longer supported.

Creating a New Object¶

To create a new object, make a POST request to the model's list endpoint with JSON data pertaining to the object being created. Note that a REST API token is required for all write operations; see the authentication documentation for more information. Also be sure to set the Content-Type HTTP header to application/json. As always, it's a good practice to also set the Accept HTTP header to include the requested REST API version.

curl -s -X POST \
-H "Authorization: Token $TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/ipam/prefixes/ \
--data '{"prefix": "192.0.2.0/24", "status": "fc32b83f-2448-4602-9d43-fecc6735e4e5", "location": "8df9e629-4338-438b-8ea9-06114f7be08e", "namespace": "1fa6a1a9-84a3-4cf3-a9ad-7e4e7baa134a"}' | jq '.'

{
  "id": "48df6965-0fcb-4155-b5f8-00fe8b9b01af",
  "url": "http://nautobot/api/ipam/prefixes/48df6965-0fcb-4155-b5f8-00fe8b9b01af/",
  "family": {
    "value": 4,
    "label": "IPv4"
  },
  "prefix": "192.0.2.0/24",
  "location": {
    "id": "8df9e629-4338-438b-8ea9-06114f7be08e",
    "object_type": "dcim.location",
    "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/8df9e629-4338-438b-8ea9-06114f7be08e/",
  },
  "namespace": {
    "id": "1fa6a1a9-84a3-4cf3-a9ad-7e4e7baa134a",
    "object_type": "ipam.namespace",
    "url": "http://nautobot/api/ipam/namespaces/1fa6a1a9-84a3-4cf3-a9ad-7e4e7baa134a/",
  },
  "tenant": null,
  "vlan": null,
  "status": {
    "id": "fc32b83f-2448-4602-9d43-fecc6735e4e5",
    "object_type": "extras.status",
    "url": "http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/fc32b83f-2448-4602-9d43-fecc6735e4e5/",
  },
  "role": null,
  "type": "network",
  "description": "",
  "tags": [],
  "custom_fields": {},
  "created": "2020-08-04T20:08:39.007125Z",
  "last_updated": "2020-08-04T20:08:39.007125Z"
}

Related fields can be specified using either the primary key, the URL of the related object, or a nested representation similar to what is returned in the ?depth=0 response. For example, the following request is equivalent to the one above:

curl -s -X POST \
-H "Authorization: Token $TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/ipam/prefixes/ \
--data '{"prefix": "192.0.2.0/24", "status": {"id": "fc32b83f-2448-4602-9d43-fecc6735e4e5", "object_type": "extras.status"}, "location": {"id": "8df9e629-4338-438b-8ea9-06114f7be08e", "object_type": "dcim.location"}, "namespace": { "id": "1fa6a1a9-84a3-4cf3-a9ad-7e4e7baa134a", "object_type": "ipam.namespace"} }' | jq '.'

Creating Multiple Objects¶

To create multiple instances of a model using a single request, make a POST request to the model's list endpoint with a list of JSON objects representing each instance to be created. If successful, the response will contain a list of the newly created instances. The example below illustrates the creation of three new locations.

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Token $TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0; indent=4" \
http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/ \
--data '[
{"name": "Location 1", "parent": {"name": "United States"}, "location_type": {"name": "City"}},
{"name": "Location 2", "parent": {"name": "United States"}, "location_type": {"name": "City"}},
{"name": "Location 3", "parent": {"name": "United States"}, "location_type": {"name": "City"}},
]'

[
    {
        "id": "0238a4e3-66f2-455a-831f-5f177215de0f",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/0238a4e3-66f2-455a-831f-5f177215de0f/",
        "name": "Location 1",
        ...
    },
    {
        "id": "33ac3a3b-0ee7-49b7-bf2a-244096051dc0",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/33ac3a3b-0ee7-49b7-bf2a-244096051dc0/",
        "name": "Location 2",
        ...
    },
    {
        "id": "10b3134d-960b-4794-ad18-0e73edd357c4",
        "url": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/10b3134d-960b-4794-ad18-0e73edd357c4/",
        "name": "Location 3",
        ...
    }
]

Updating an Object¶

To modify an object which has already been created, make a PATCH request to the model's detail endpoint specifying its UUID. Include any data which you wish to update on the object. As with object creation, the Authorization and Content-Type headers must also be specified, and specifying the Accept header is also strongly recommended.

curl -s -X PATCH \
-H "Authorization: Token $TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/ipam/prefixes/b484b0ac-12e3-484a-84c0-aa17955eaedc/ \
--data '{"status": "fc32b83f-2448-4602-9d43-fecc6735e4e5"}' | jq '.'

{
  "id": "48df6965-0fcb-4155-b5f8-00fe8b9b01af",
  "url": "http://nautobot/api/ipam/prefixes/48df6965-0fcb-4155-b5f8-00fe8b9b01af/",
  "family": {
    "value": 4,
    "label": "IPv4"
  },
  "prefix": "192.0.2.0/24",
  "site": "http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/8df9e629-4338-438b-8ea9-06114f7be08e/",
  "vrf": null,
  "tenant": null,
  "vlan": null,
  "status": "http://nautobot/api/extras/statuses/fc32b83f-2448-4602-9d43-fecc6735e4e5/",
  "role": null,
  "type": "network",
  "description": "",
  "tags": [],
  "custom_fields": {},
  "created": "2020-08-04T00:00:00Z",
  "last_updated": "2020-08-04T20:14:55.709430Z"
}

PUT versus PATCH

The Nautobot REST API support the use of either PUT or PATCH to modify an existing object. The difference is that a PUT request requires the user to specify a complete representation of the object being modified, whereas a PATCH request need include only the attributes that are being updated. For most purposes, using PATCH is recommended.

Updating Relationship Associations¶

Added in version 1.4.0

It is possible to modify the objects associated via Relationship with an object as part of a REST API PATCH request by specifying the "relationships" key, any or all of the relevant Relationships, and the list of desired related objects for each such Relationship. Since nested serializers are used for the related objects, they can be identified by ID (primary key) or by one or more attributes in a dictionary. For example, either of the following requests would be valid:

{
    "relationships": {
        "site_to_vrf": {
            "destination": {
                "objects": [
                    {"name": "blue"}
                ]
            }
        },
        "vrfs_to_locations": {
            "source": {
                "objects": [
                    {"name": "green"},
                    {"name": "red"},
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}

{
    "relationships": {
        "site_to_vrf": {
            "destination": {
                "objects": ["3e3c58f9-4f63-44ba-acee-f0c42430eba7"]
            }
        }
    }
}

Note

Relationship keys can be omitted from the "relationships" dictionary, in which case the associations for that Relationship will be left unmodified. In the second example above, the existing association for the "site_to_vrf" Relationship would be replaced, but the "vrfs_to_locations" Relationship's associations would remain as-is.

Updating Multiple Objects¶

Multiple objects can be updated simultaneously by issuing a PUT or PATCH request to a model's list endpoint with a list of dictionaries specifying the UUID of each object to be deleted and the attributes to be updated. For example, to update locations with UUIDs 18de055e-3ea9-4cc3-ba78-b7eef6f0d589 and 1a414273-3d68-4586-ba22-6ae0a5702b8f to a status of "Active", issue the following request:

curl -s -X PATCH \
-H "Authorization: Token $TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/ \
--data '[{"id": "18de055e-3ea9-4cc3-ba78-b7eef6f0d589", "status": {"name": "Active"}}, {"id": "1a414273-3d68-4586-ba22-6ae0a5702b8f", "status": {"name": "Active"}}]'

Note that there is no requirement for the attributes to be identical among objects. For instance, it's possible to update the status of one site along with the name of another in the same request.

Note

The bulk update of objects is an all-or-none operation, meaning that if Nautobot fails to successfully update any of the specified objects (e.g. due a validation error), the entire operation will be aborted and none of the objects will be updated.

Deleting an Object¶

To delete an object from Nautobot, make a DELETE request to the model's detail endpoint specifying its UUID. The Authorization header must be included to specify an authorization token, however this type of request does not support passing any data in the body.

curl -s -X DELETE \
-H "Authorization: Token $TOKEN" \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/ipam/prefixes/48df6965-0fcb-4155-b5f8-00fe8b9b01af/

Note that DELETE requests do not return any data: If successful, the API will return a 204 (No Content) response.

Note

You can run curl with the verbose (-v) flag to inspect the HTTP response codes.

Deleting Multiple Objects¶

Nautobot supports the simultaneous deletion of multiple objects of the same type by issuing a DELETE request to the model's list endpoint with a list of dictionaries specifying the UUID of each object to be deleted. For example, to delete locations with UUIDs 18de055e-3ea9-4cc3-ba78-b7eef6f0d589, 1a414273-3d68-4586-ba22-6ae0a5702b8f, and c2516019-caf6-41f0-98a6-4276c1a73fa3, issue the following request:

curl -s -X DELETE \
-H "Authorization: Token $TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Accept: application/json; version=2.0" \
http://nautobot/api/dcim/locations/ \
--data '[{"id": "18de055e-3ea9-4cc3-ba78-b7eef6f0d589"}, {"id": "1a414273-3d68-4586-ba22-6ae0a5702b8f"}, {"id": "c2516019-caf6-41f0-98a6-4276c1a73fa3"}]'

Note

The bulk deletion of objects is an all-or-none operation, meaning that if Nautobot fails to delete any of the specified objects (e.g. due a dependency by a related object), the entire operation will be aborted and none of the objects will be deleted.

CSV Format¶

Added in version 2.0.0

In addition to the standard JSON format for REST APIs, Nautobot's REST API also supports most (but not all) REST operations in CSV format when specifying a ?format=csv query parameter or an Accept: text/csv header on requests, allowing Nautobot object data to be created, retrieved, and updated in this format as an alternative to JSON.

Tip

Nautobot's JSON support in the REST API is more fully-featured than its CSV support; not all data can be populated, retrieved, or modified by CSV at this time due to limitations of the CSV format in describing certain types of data. When in doubt, prefer JSON over CSV when interacting with the REST API.

REST API Overview¶

What is a REST API?¶

Interactive Documentation¶

Endpoint Hierarchy¶

Versioning¶

Default Versions¶

Non-Breaking Changes¶

Breaking Changes¶

Example of API Version Behavior¶

APISelect with versioning capability¶

Serialization¶

Related Objects¶

Generic Relations¶

Many-To-Many Relationships¶

Pagination¶

Sorting¶

Interacting with Objects¶

Retrieving Multiple Objects¶

Retrieving a Single Object¶

Depth Query Parameter¶

Default/?depth=0¶

?depth=1¶

?depth=2 and beyond¶

Retrieving Object Relationships and Relationship Associations¶

Including Config Contexts¶

Creating a New Object¶

Creating Multiple Objects¶

Updating an Object¶

Updating Relationship Associations¶

Updating Multiple Objects¶

Deleting an Object¶

Deleting Multiple Objects¶

CSV Format¶