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

1. Install and run SiYuan (desktop or Docker)
2. Get your API token: Settings > About > API token
3. 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

msg

ID format: SiYuan IDs look like

20210808180117-6v0mkxr

Quick Reference

/api/search/fullTextSearchBlock

/api/query/sql

/api/block/getBlockKramdown

/api/block/getChildBlocks

/api/filetree/getHPathByID

/api/attr/getBlockAttrs

/api/notebook/lsNotebooks

/api/filetree/listDocsByPath

/api/notebook/createNotebook

/api/filetree/createDocWithMd

/api/block/appendBlock

/api/block/updateBlock

/api/filetree/renameDocByID

/api/attr/setBlockAttrs

/api/block/deleteBlock

/api/filetree/removeDocByID

/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

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

/api/block/insertBlock

previousID

parentID

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

{"id": "DOC_ID"}

/api/notebook/removeNotebook

{"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

d

p

h

l

i

c

m

t

b

s

html

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"