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GET
Retrieve Multiple Collections by Key
Retrieve items from one or more Collections in a single request, by passing a comma-delimited list of collection keys. This is the only way to fetch several collections’ items in one call; the per-collection GET /content/{collection_key}/ endpoint always returns exactly one collection. Legacy Endpoint: This is an older, lighter-weight endpoint. With two or more keys, the response has no pagination meta and all items for each key are returned. With exactly one key that names a collection, the request is handled by GET /content/{collection_key}/: the response includes meta (count, next_page, previous_page) and accepts the same page, page_size, order, preview and fields.<name> parameters.

Authorizations

Authorization
string
header
required

Set the Authorization header to Token your_read_api_token.

Example: Authorization: Token abc123def456

Note: The header value includes the Token prefix. Authorization: Bearer ... is not accepted and returns 401.

You can access your API token from your settings page.

Query Parameters

keys
string
required

Comma-delimited list of Collection keys to retrieve. Every key must match an existing collection, or the request returns a 404.

auth_token
string

Your ButterCMS read API token

test
enum<integer>
default:0

Set to 1 to include draft/unpublished collection items (the alias used by this legacy endpoint; equivalent to preview=1 elsewhere).

Available options:
0,
1
locale
string

Set to the api slug of your configured locale (e.g. en or fr). When omitted, this query parameter will default to your organization's default locale.

Maximum string length: 10
Example:

"en"

levels
integer
default:2

Depth of relationship serialization.

Controls how many levels of referenced content to include:

  • 1: Direct fields only, references as URIs
  • 2: Direct fields + one level of references (default)
  • 3-5: Deeper relationship traversal

Important: Higher levels increase response size. Maximum 10MB per response.

Valid range: 1-5 (inclusive). Values outside this range will be automatically capped.

Required range: 1 <= x <= 5

Response

Collections retrieved successfully. The data object is keyed by each requested collection key. For two or more keys there is no pagination meta and all items for each key are included; a single collection key returns the GET /content/{collection_key}/ shape, with meta.

data
object