SiYuan Note API

Use the SiYuan kernel API via curl to search, read, create, update, and delete blocks and documents in a self-hosted knowledge base. No extra tools needed -- just curl and an API token.

Prerequisites

Install and run SiYuan (desktop or Docker)
Get your API token: Settings > About > API token

Store it in

~/.hermes/.env

SIYUAN_TOKEN=your_token_here
SIYUAN_URL=http://127.0.0.1:6806

SIYUAN_URL

defaults to

http://127.0.0.1:6806

if not set.

API Basics

All SiYuan API calls are POST with JSON body. Every request follows this pattern:

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/..." \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"param": "value"}'

Responses are JSON with this structure:

{"code": 0, "msg": "", "data": { ... }}

code: 0

means success. Any other value is an error -- check

msg

for details.

ID format: SiYuan IDs look like

20210808180117-6v0mkxr

(14-digit timestamp + 7 alphanumeric chars).

Quick Reference

Operation	Endpoint
Full-text search	`/api/search/fullTextSearchBlock`
SQL query	`/api/query/sql`
Read block	`/api/block/getBlockKramdown`
Read children	`/api/block/getChildBlocks`
Get path	`/api/filetree/getHPathByID`
Get attributes	`/api/attr/getBlockAttrs`
List notebooks	`/api/notebook/lsNotebooks`
List documents	`/api/filetree/listDocsByPath`
Create notebook	`/api/notebook/createNotebook`
Create document	`/api/filetree/createDocWithMd`
Append block	`/api/block/appendBlock`
Update block	`/api/block/updateBlock`
Rename document	`/api/filetree/renameDocByID`
Set attributes	`/api/attr/setBlockAttrs`
Delete block	`/api/block/deleteBlock`
Delete document	`/api/filetree/removeDocByID`
Export as Markdown	`/api/export/exportMdContent`

Common Operations

Search (Full-Text)

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/search/fullTextSearchBlock" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "meeting notes", "page": 0}' | jq '.data.blocks[:5]'

Search (SQL)

Query the blocks database directly. Only SELECT statements are safe.

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/query/sql" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"stmt": "SELECT id, content, type, box FROM blocks WHERE content LIKE '\''%keyword%'\'' AND type='\''p'\'' LIMIT 20"}' | jq '.data'

Useful columns:

id

parent_id

root_id

box

(notebook ID),

path

content

type

subtype

created

updated

Read Block Content

Returns block content in Kramdown (Markdown-like) format.

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/block/getBlockKramdown" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "20210808180117-6v0mkxr"}' | jq '.data.kramdown'

Read Child Blocks

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/block/getChildBlocks" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "20210808180117-6v0mkxr"}' | jq '.data'

Get Human-Readable Path

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/filetree/getHPathByID" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "20210808180117-6v0mkxr"}' | jq '.data'

Get Block Attributes

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/attr/getBlockAttrs" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "20210808180117-6v0mkxr"}' | jq '.data'

List Notebooks

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/notebook/lsNotebooks" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}' | jq '.data.notebooks[] | {id, name, closed}'

List Documents in a Notebook

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/filetree/listDocsByPath" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"notebook": "NOTEBOOK_ID", "path": "/"}' | jq '.data.files[] | {id, name}'

Create a Document

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/filetree/createDocWithMd" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "notebook": "NOTEBOOK_ID",
    "path": "/Meeting Notes/2026-03-22",
    "markdown": "# Meeting Notes\n\n- Discussed project timeline\n- Assigned tasks"
  }' | jq '.data'

Create a Notebook

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/notebook/createNotebook" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "My New Notebook"}' | jq '.data.notebook.id'

Append Block to Document

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/block/appendBlock" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "parentID": "DOCUMENT_OR_BLOCK_ID",
    "data": "New paragraph added at the end.",
    "dataType": "markdown"
  }' | jq '.data'

Also available:

/api/block/prependBlock

(same params, inserts at the beginning) and

/api/block/insertBlock

(uses

previousID

instead of

parentID

to insert after a specific block).

Update Block Content

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/block/updateBlock" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "id": "BLOCK_ID",
    "data": "Updated content here.",
    "dataType": "markdown"
  }' | jq '.data'

Rename a Document

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/filetree/renameDocByID" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "DOCUMENT_ID", "title": "New Title"}'

Set Block Attributes

Custom attributes must be prefixed with

custom-

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/attr/setBlockAttrs" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "id": "BLOCK_ID",
    "attrs": {
      "custom-status": "reviewed",
      "custom-priority": "high"
    }
  }'

Delete a Block

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/block/deleteBlock" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "BLOCK_ID"}'

To delete a whole document: use

/api/filetree/removeDocByID

with

{"id": "DOC_ID"}

. To delete a notebook: use

/api/notebook/removeNotebook

with

{"notebook": "NOTEBOOK_ID"}

Export Document as Markdown

curl -s -X POST "${SIYUAN_URL:-http://127.0.0.1:6806}/api/export/exportMdContent" \
  -H "Authorization: Token $SIYUAN_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "DOCUMENT_ID"}' | jq -r '.data.content'

Block Types

Common

type

values in SQL queries:

Type	Description
`d`	Document (root block)
`p`	Paragraph
`h`	Heading
`l`	List
`i`	List item
`c`	Code block
`m`	Math block
`t`	Table
`b`	Blockquote
`s`	Super block
`html`	HTML block

Pitfalls

All endpoints are POST -- even read-only operations. Do not use GET.
SQL safety: only use SELECT queries. INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE/DROP are dangerous and should never be sent.
ID validation: IDs match the pattern
```
YYYYMMDDHHmmss-xxxxxxx
```
. Reject anything else.
Error responses: always check
```
code != 0
```
in responses before processing
```
data
```
.
Large documents: block content and export results can be very large. Use
```
LIMIT
```
in SQL and pipe through
```
jq
```
to extract only what you need.
Notebook IDs: when working with a specific notebook, get its ID first via
```
lsNotebooks
```
.

Alternative: MCP Server

If you prefer a native integration instead of curl, install the SiYuan MCP server:

# In ~/.hermes/config.yaml under mcp_servers:
mcp_servers:
  siyuan:
    command: npx
    args: ["-y", "@porkll/siyuan-mcp"]
    env:
      SIYUAN_TOKEN: "your_token"
      SIYUAN_URL: "http://127.0.0.1:6806"

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