---
title: "EmDash REST API: External Access to Your Content"
description: "How to access EmDash content from external applications using the REST API. Authentication, endpoints, and common patterns."
article_type: child
canonical: https://dashstro.com/learn/emdash-rest-api
---
EmDash is primarily designed to power Astro pages via its TypeScript content API. But there are legitimate reasons to reach content from outside that context — a mobile app, a marketing tool, a data pipeline, or a separate frontend. For those cases, EmDash exposes a REST API.

This article covers the authentication model, the available endpoints, response shapes, and the important decision of when to use REST versus the internal TypeScript API.

## Authentication: API Tokens

The REST API uses token-based authentication. Generate a token in the EmDash admin panel under Settings > API Tokens. Tokens are scoped — you can create read-only tokens for external consumers and keep write-capable tokens limited to trusted integrations.

Pass the token in the `Authorization` header on every request:

```bash
# List entries from the 'posts' collection
curl https://yoursite.com/_emdash/api/collections/posts/entries \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"

# Get a single entry by slug
curl https://yoursite.com/_emdash/api/collections/posts/entries/my-post-slug \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"

# Search across collections
curl "https://yoursite.com/_emdash/api/search?q=your+query&collections=posts,docs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"
```

## Key Endpoints

All API routes are under `/_emdash/api/`. The table below covers the most commonly used endpoints for reading published content.

| Method | Endpoint | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | /_emdash/api/collections/:collection/entries | List published entries. Supports limit, cursor, orderBy query params. |
| GET | /_emdash/api/collections/:collection/entries/:slug | Get a single published entry by slug. |
| GET | /_emdash/api/search | Full-text search. Params: q, collections (comma-separated), limit. |
| GET | /_emdash/api/taxonomies/:taxonomy/terms | List all terms in a taxonomy (e.g. category, tag). |
| GET | /_emdash/api/settings | Read public site settings (title, description, logo). |

## Pagination and Filtering

List endpoints use cursor-based pagination. The response includes a `nextCursor` field when more results are available. Pass it as the `cursor` query parameter on the next request. The `limit` parameter defaults to 20 and caps at 100.

## REST vs Internal API: When to Use Which

If you're building Astro pages in your EmDash site, always use `getEmDashCollection()` and `getEmDashEntry()` from `emdash`. These query the database directly — no HTTP overhead, full TypeScript types, and cache hint support built in.

Use the REST API only when the consumer lives outside your Astro process: a React Native app, a Python script, a Zapier integration, or a separate headless frontend consuming your site as a backend.

:::pullquote
For Astro pages, the internal TypeScript API is always the right choice. REST is for when your consumer lives outside the Astro process entirely.
:::

## Response Format

All responses are JSON. List endpoints return `{ entries, nextCursor }`. Single-entry endpoints return the entry object directly. Error responses use standard HTTP status codes (401 for missing/invalid token, 404 for not found, 422 for validation errors) with a JSON body containing a `message` field.

The REST API gives you a clean, token-authenticated interface to your EmDash content from any HTTP client. For the next level of integration — using EmDash as a content source for an AI agent or automated workflow — the MCP server is worth exploring.

[Read: EmDash MCP Server](/learn/emdash-mcp-server)