RenewCMS/docs/api.md

API reference

The full, searchable reference is the Integration page of the running app (/integration). It renders web/src/data/apiCatalogue.ts, which is the single source for this page. This file is for readers without the UI.

Base URL

The origin that serves the app, for example https://cms.example. Every path starts with /v1, for example https://cms.example/v1/article/.

Authentication

• Public routes need nothing: GET /v1/article/ and GET /v1/article/{id}. They return online articles only.
• Everything else needs a signed-in browser session (the jwt cookie) or an API key: Authorization: Bearer rcms_.... Create keys at /integration/api-keys. A key acts as its creator, with that user's role, and shows in full once.
• A key cannot call POST /v1/auth/verify, DELETE /v1/auth/register, /v1/api-key/* or /v1/system/*. Those answer 403 "This action needs a real session." An invalid, unknown, expired or revoked key answers 401, even on public routes.
• Each key can make 120 requests per minute. Beyond that: 429 with a Retry-After header.

Routes a key can call (20)

Group	Routes
Articles	GET /v1/article/, GET /v1/article/{id}, POST /v1/article/, PATCH /v1/article/{id}, PATCH /v1/article/{id}/publish, PATCH /v1/article/{id}/unpublish, DELETE /v1/article/{id}
Media	GET /v1/media/, POST /v1/media/, PATCH /v1/media/{id}, DELETE /v1/media/{id}, POST /v1/media/merge, GET /v1/media/{id}/usage
Users and invites	GET /v1/user/, PATCH /v1/user/me, POST /v1/user/invite (owner only), DELETE /v1/user/invite/{id} (owner only), POST /v1/user/invite/{id}/renew (owner only), GET /v1/auth/me
Settings	GET /v1/settings

Activity log

The activity routes are session only: a key answers 403 "This action needs a real session." and a key never reads the audit trail. Events are append-only; there is no POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE under /v1/activity.

Route	Who	Purpose
GET /v1/activity	Any verified user	Filtered, paged events. Owner and admin see every event; any other role is scoped to its own events, and actor set to someone else answers 403 "Only owners and admins can do this."
GET /v1/activity/summary	Owner, admin	Counts for the range, the previous period, active people and seven-bucket series.
GET /v1/activity/export	Owner, admin	The same filters as the list without page or size, as a text/csv; charset=utf-8 attachment (when,actor,action,target,outcome,source,ip). Cells starting with =, +, - or @ get a leading quote.

Query: q, actor (user:ID, key:ID, system), category (articles, media, users, api_keys, auth, system), outcome (all, success, failed), security (true), range (today, 7d, 30d, custom; default 7d), from and to (dates, with custom), page (from

1. and size (25, 50 or 100). Any invalid value answers 400 with the body-mismatch message. Dates are UTC. The list answers { items, total, page, size }, newest first (created_at, then id).

GET /v1/settings also returns activity_retention_days (30, 90, 365 or 0 for forever, default 90), activity_last_cleanup_at and activity_last_cleanup_removed. PATCH /v1/settings with {"activity_retention_days": 30} is session only and owner only (403 "Only the owner can do this."); any other value answers 400.

What is recorded

Every real action is recorded by its use case, once, after the change was made (outcome success) or after the use case refused it (outcome failed, with a plain failure_reason). Nothing is recorded for a read (no GET, no list, no public article read, no status poll), for a request that fails validation, or for a target that does not exist (404). A failed audit write is logged and never changes the response or the change itself.

Category	Actions
articles	article.create, article.edit, article.publish, article.unpublish, article.delete
media	media.upload, media.rename, media.delete, media.merge, media.purge
users	user.register, user.verify, user.update_profile, invite.create, invite.cancel, invite.renew, invite.accept
system	system.media_purge (scheduled), system.update_checked, system.update_downloaded, system.restart_requested, system.activity_cleanup, system.activity_retention_changed

Target types: article, image, user, invite, api_key and release (id and name are the tag). Only the fields title, online, body, filename and display_name appear in changes, with the kinds text and body; a body edit carries a signed character count delta and never the text. A change that leaves a value as it was (same body, same publish state, same file name, same display name) records nothing. Params: media.merge and media.purge and system.media_purge carry merged and articles_updated, plus failed_groups when a group failed (still outcome success); system.update_checked carries update_available; system.restart_requested carries kind and, for an update, tag (it has no target). system.update_downloaded is recorded when the job reaches ready or failed, with the origin captured at request time; a refusal at the start is recorded immediately. A failed registration or invite acceptance has an anonymous actor named by the attempted username.

failure_reason is one fixed sentence per domain error, matched with errors.Is, at most 255 characters, for example "The title must be between 3 and 200 characters.", "That file name is not valid.", "The merge request is not valid.", "A purge is already running.", "Registration is closed on this site.", "That invitation has expired.", "The release feed could not be reached." or "The update could not be downloaded.". Any other error becomes "Something went wrong on our side. Please try again."; the text of the error never reaches the event, the API or the CSV. Passwords, hashes, codes, article bodies, file bytes, storage paths and asset urls are never recorded.

Article routes accept ?format=markdown|html|json (default markdown). GET /v1/media/ accepts q, hash, cursor, filter, sort and limit.

Errors

Every error is a plain-text body with one sentence; the status is in the HTTP status line. The statuses are 400, 401, 403, 404, 409, 429 and 500. Messages are listed on the Integration page.

Notes

• Images in body use paths like /static/uploadedImages/<uuid>.png. Prefix them with the base URL.
• Browsers can call the API only from origins in the server's CORS setting.