Collections

A collection is one box of similar things. If you are coming from SQL, it is roughly a table; if you are coming from Firebase, it is roughly a collection. One per kind of thing: todos, bookmarks, signups, posts.

Every collection has a name (what you see) and a slug (what you type in URLs). Create one from the dashboard with New collection, or from the API with collections:create.

You do not have to decide on fields up front. A new collection accepts any JSON. Add a schema later, once you know what the data looks like.

Create one from the API

curl -s -X POST "$BAAS_URL/workspaces/$BAAS_WS/collections" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BAAS_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Todos","slug":"todos","visibility":"private"}'

Who can see a collection

Visibility is a collection setting. There are four values:

Writing always needs a key or a signed-in person. Public and unlisted only ever open up reading.

Public and unlisted collections

This is the one case where you do not need an API key, which makes it the right choice for data a browser should fetch directly — a blog index, a changelog, a public leaderboard.

Set the collection's visibility to Public read in its settings, then anyone can call:

curl -s "https://www.wrongnotebook.com/v1/public/collections/COLLECTION_ID/records"

// Safe in browser JavaScript: no key involved.
const res = await fetch(
  'https://www.wrongnotebook.com/v1/public/collections/COLLECTION_ID/records?limit=20',
);
const { data } = await res.json();

Public endpoints use the collection's UUID, not its slug, and they accept the same filters, sorting and paging as the private API.

Unlisted works the same way but requires a token in the URL (?token=…), so only people with the link can read it. Rotate that token from the collection's settings if the link spreads further than you wanted.

Anything in a public collection is public. Do not put email addresses, private notes or anything you would not post on a web page into one.

Import and export

Your data is not locked in.

# Export (json, ndjson or csv)
curl -s "$BAAS_URL/workspaces/$BAAS_WS/collections/todos/export?format=json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BAAS_KEY" -o todos.json

# Import, all-or-nothing by default
curl -s -X POST "$BAAS_URL/workspaces/$BAAS_WS/collections/todos/import" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BAAS_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"records":[{"data":{"title":"From a file","done":false}}]}'

Useful flags on import:

• "dryRun": true — check the file without writing anything, and get a report.
• "mode": "partial" — write the valid records and report the rest. The default, atomic, writes everything or nothing, so a bad row cannot leave you half-imported.

NDJSON is accepted too, with Content-Type: application/x-ndjson and one record per line. Exported NDJSON can be imported straight back.

Duplicate, archive and delete

• Duplicate copies a collection, with or without its records. Handy for making a staging copy before a risky change.
• Archive moves it to the trash. Nothing is lost and you can restore it.
• Delete permanently is separate, asks you to type the slug to confirm, and cannot be undone.

Deleting a collection for good also removes its records, revisions, schema versions and files. The audit log keeps the record that it happened.

Limits

Next steps

• Records — writing and reading the contents.
• Schemas — enforcing a shape once you know it.