Webflow CMS API
Webflow’s CMS API lets you programmatically create, manage, and publish content. Use it to build custom workflows, integrate with external systems, and automate content management. For general information on the Webflow CMS, see the help center documentation.
Overview
Use the Data API to manage three core components of the Webflow CMS:
Database-like containers that define content structure and fields.
Individual data fields that define content types within a collection.
Content records stored within a collection.
The API supports both staged and live content, giving you precise control over your publishing workflow. You can create content programmatically, perform bulk updates, and manage multi-locale content.
Workflows
There are a few workflows that are particularly helpful to understand when working with the CMS API.
Learn how to create, manage, and publish collections and items.
Learn how items are published, updated, and unpublished.
Learn how to create and manage linked CMS items across multiple locales.
Learn how to deliver cached content to external applications.
Key concepts
Collections
Collections are structured containers for dynamic content, similar to database tables. Each collection defines a content type, like blog posts, team members, or testimonials, by specifying a set of fields.
Collections can contain various field types, including text, rich text, images, dates, numbers, and references to other collections.
Each collection has a unique ID used to manage its details, fields, and items.
Collections endpoints
Collection fields
Fields define the structure and data type for content in a collection. Each field has a unique ID used to manage its details and item data. Each field’s type determines the kind of content it can store. See the field types reference for a full list of types and their properties.
Collection fields endpoints
List fields
To list fields, retrieve collection details using the get collection endpoint.
Collection items
Items are individual records within a collection. Each item has a unique ID and contains data for the fields defined in that collection.
Collection Item states
Items exist in two main states:
Draft content not visible on your live site.
Published content that appears on your website.
This dual-state system lets you prepare content changes without affecting your live site. You can create, edit, and preview staged content before publishing. For more details, see the CMS publishing guide.
Collection items endpoints
Staged
Live
Manage staged items on a site. These endpoints also work with live items. Updating a live item automatically updates its staged version. Creating a new item with these endpoints always creates a draft.
Unpublish items
Use the unpublish live item endpoint to unpublish a live item.
Start working with the CMS API
Below is an interactive tutorial that will walk you through the basic steps of getting a collection, listing a collection schema, listing collection items, and creating a collection item.
Bulk operations
For most CMS operations, the API provides both single-item and bulk endpoints. Bulk endpoints allow you to perform CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete) on multiple items in a single API call, which is more efficient for managing content at scale.
To keep the sidebar clean, we’ve hidden most single-item endpoints. However, they are fully functional and not deprecated. The tables below show both the visible and hidden endpoints for staged and live collection items.
Staged Items
Live Items
Webhooks
Use webhooks to receive real-time notifications about changes to your content. This enables automated workflows and integrations with other systems.
Webhook events
Create a webhook and subscribe to the following events for a given collection:
- Collection item created
- Collection item updated
- Collection item deleted
- Collection item published
- Collection item un-published
