Building APIs in Xano

Before continuing, make sure you’re familiar with:

If you need a primer on what an API is, we’ve added a quick summary below. For more detailed information, check out What is an API in the Before You Begin section.

APIs are a core part of any backend. They allow you to connect your backend to other services and applications. Each API is assigned a name, a verb, and a URL.

The name is the unique identifier for the API. For example, user_list. We’ll be referencing this sample API throughout the rest of this page.
The verb is the HTTP verb that will be used to make the request. For example, GET.
The URL is the endpoint that the API will be accessed at. For example, https://myapi.com/user_list.

APIs in Xano are built in three parts:

Inputs — Inputs are the data that the API will accept. For example, name and email.
Logic — The logic is the logic that will be executed when the API is called. For example, retrieving a record from your database or calculating a user’s age.
Response — The response is the data that the API will return. For our user_list API, it might return a list of users, or a single user.

API Groups

APIs live inside of API groups. Think of groups as folders that you can use to organize all of your different APIs. For example, you might have a group for your authentication APIs, a group for your user APIs, and a group for file storage APIs.

Creating a new API Group

From the sidebar, click API, and then click + Add API Group.

In the panel that opens, give your API group a name. You can also provide a description, tags for organization, and choose whether or not to make auto-generated API documentation available for this group.

Visually
With Code

Parameter	Description
name	The name of the API group. This comes immediately after the `api_group` definition, and before the opening curly brace.
description	A description of the API group.
tags	Tags for organization.
Swagger (OpenAPI) Documentation	Options for auto-generated API documentation. By default, it will be public, non-tokenized documentation. You can switch to tokenized documentation by clicking the toggle and choosing “Private (requires token)”, or disable it by clicking the toggle and selecting “Disabled”.

You can also create an API group using XanoScript.

    api_group my_new_API_group {
        description = "This is an awesome API group with awesome APIs"
        tags = ["awesome"]
        canonical = "awesome"
        history = {inherit: true}
        }

Parameter	Description
name	The name of the API group. This comes immediately after the `api_group` definition, and before the opening curly brace.
description	A description of the API group.
canonical	The canonical ID of the API group.
swagger	Options for auto-generated API documentation. If not provided, it will default to public, non-tokenized documentation. Use `swagger = {token: "<token_here>"}` to create tokenized documentation. Use `swagger = {active: false}` to disable auto-generated API documentation.
tags	Tags for organization.
history	The request history settings for the API group. Defaults to `{inherit: true}`, which means it will inherit the request history settings from the workspace.

The canonical ID is used to generate the endpoint URLs for the APIs in this group. If not provided, Xano will auto-generate one for you.For example, if the canonical ID is set to awesome, the base URL for the APIs in this group will be https://yourdomain.com/api:awesome/api_name.

Creating a new API

Clicking the + Add API Endpoint button will open a panel that allows you to create a new API. You can choose from one of the following options:

Type	Description
Custom Endpoint	Creates a blank canvas for you to build your API from scratch.
External API request	Creates a pre-built API for making requests to external APIs.
CRUD Database Operations	Creates a pre-built API for performing CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete) on a database table.
Webhook	Creates a pre-built API for receiving webhooks from external services.
Authentication	Creates a pre-built API for authentication.
Upload Content	Creates a pre-built API for uploading files, such as images or attachments.
HTML Page	Creates a pre-built API for serving HTML pages.
Use XanoScript	Opens the XanoScript editor so you can build your API from scratch.

You’ll be asked to provide some basic information about your API before continuing.

Parameter	Description
Name	The name of the API.
Verb	The HTTP verb that will be used to make the request.
Description	A description of the API.
Tags	Tags for organization.
Authentication	Choose whether this endpoint requires a valid authentication token present in the headers to execute.

You can build APIs in Xano in three different ways. Choose the one that best fits your needs. You can switch between them at any time.

Canvas View
Function Stack
XanoScript

The Canvas View

The canvas view is a visual representation of your API in a node-based format. If you’re new to the canvas view, review the Canvas View basics first.

Add Inputs to define what your API accepts

Learn how to work with Inputs

Inputs define the data your API expects. Learn how to add and configure them.

Build your logic in the Function Logic or Canvas View

Learn how to work with Functions

Functions define the behavior of your API. Add and arrange functions to process inputs and fetch data.

Define what your API returns with the Response

Learn how to configure Responses

Control exactly what data your API sends back.

A basic API in XanoScript has three parts — inputs, functions, and response — just like in the visual builder:

Example of a basic API in XanoScript

query user_list verb=GET {
  description = "Query all user records"

  input {
    text name? filters=trim
  }

  stack {
    db.query user {
      search = $db.user.name ==? $input.name
      return = {type: "list"}
    } as $model
  }

  response {
    value = $model
  }

  history = {inherit: true}
}

Learn how to build APIs in XanoScript

For more information on how to build APIs in XanoScript, see the XanoScript API documentation.