Query Engine API

The Strapi backend provides a Query Engine API to interact with the database layer at a lower level.

Caution

In most cases you should not use the Query Engine API and rather use the Document Service API.

Only use the Query Engine API if you exactly know what you are doing, for instance if you want to use a lower-level API that directly interacts with unique rows of the database.

Please keep in mind that the Query Engine API is not aware of the most advanced Strapi 5 features like Draft & Publish, Internationalization, Content History, and possibly more. This also means that the Query Engine API will not be able to use documentId and will use id, which means it could lead to unattended consequences at the database level or partial or incomplete compatibility with Strapi 5 features.

Prerequisites

Before diving deeper into the Query Engine API documentation, it is recommended that you read the following introductions:

• the backend customization introduction,
• and the Content APIs introduction.

Basic usage

The Query Engine is available through strapi.db.query:

strapi.db.query('api::blog.article').findMany({ // uid syntax: 'api::api-name.content-type-name'
  where: {
    title: {
      $startsWith: '2021',
      $endsWith: 'v4',
    },
  },
  populate: {
    category: true,
  },
});

Available operations

The Query Engine allows the following operations on database entries:

Single operations

Create, read, update, and delete single database entries with the Query Engine API.

Bulk operations

Create, read, update, and delete multiple database entries with the Query Engine API.

Filters

Get exactly what you need by filtering database entries with the Query Engine API.

Populate

Get additional data with your Query Engine API queries by populating relations.

Order & Pagination

Sort and paginate the results of your Query Engine API queries.