Content Collections API Reference

Added in: astro@2.0.0

Content collections offer APIs to configure and query your Markdown or MDX documents in src/content/. For features and usage examples, see our content collections guide.

Imports from astro:content

Section titled Imports from astro:content

import {
  z,
  defineCollection,
  getCollection,
  getEntry,
  getEntries,
  reference,
 } from 'astro:content';

defineCollection()

Section titled defineCollection()

Type: (input: CollectionConfig) => CollectionConfig

Added in: astro@2.0.0

defineCollection() is a utility to configure a collection in a src/content.config.* file.

src/content.config.ts

import { z, defineCollection } from 'astro:content';
import { glob } from 'astro/loaders';

const blog = defineCollection({
  loader: glob({ pattern: '**/*.md', base: './src/data/blog' }),
  schema: z.object({
    title: z.string(),
    permalink: z.string().optional(),
  }),
});

// Expose your defined collection to Astro
// with the `collections` export
export const collections = { blog };

This function accepts the following properties:

loader

Section titled loader

Type: () => Promise<Array<{ id: string, [key: string]: any }> | Record<string, Record<string, any>>> | Loader

Added in: astro@5.0.0

A loader is either an object or a function that allows you to load data from any source, local or remote, into content collections.

See the Content Collection guide for example usage.

schema

Section titled schema

Type: ZodType | (context: SchemaContext) => ZodType

Added in: astro@2.0.0

schema is an optional Zod object to configure the type and shape of document frontmatter for a collection. Each value must use a Zod validator.

See the Content Collection guide for example usage.

reference()

Section titled reference()

Type: (collection: string) => ZodEffects<ZodString, { collection, id: string }>

Added in: astro@2.5.0

The reference() function is used in the content config to define a relationship, or “reference,” from one collection to another. This accepts a collection name and validates the entry identifier(s) specified in your content frontmatter or data file.

This example defines references from a blog author to the authors collection and an array of related posts to the same blog collection:

import { defineCollection, reference, z } from 'astro:content';
import { glob, file } from 'astro/loaders';

const blog = defineCollection({
  loader: glob({ pattern: '**/*.md', base: './src/data/blog' }),
  schema: z.object({
    // Reference a single author from the `authors` collection by `id`
    author: reference('authors'),
    // Reference an array of related posts from the `blog` collection by `slug`
    relatedPosts: z.array(reference('blog')),
  })
});

const authors = defineCollection({
  loader: file("src/data/authors.json"),
  schema: z.object({ /* ... */ })
});

export const collections = { blog, authors };

See the Content Collection guide for example usage.

getCollection()

Section titled getCollection()

Type: (collection: string, filter?: (entry: CollectionEntry<collection>) => boolean) => CollectionEntry<collection>[]

Added in: astro@2.0.0

getCollection() is a function that retrieves a list of content collection entries by collection name.

It returns all items in the collection by default, and accepts an optional filter function to narrow by entry properties. This allows you to query for only some items in a collection based on id or frontmatter values via the data object.

---
import { getCollection } from 'astro:content';

// Get all `src/content/blog/` entries
const allBlogPosts = await getCollection('blog');

// Only return posts with `draft: true` in the frontmatter
const draftBlogPosts = await getCollection('blog', ({ data }) => {
  return data.draft === true;
});
---

See the Content Collection guide for example usage.

getEntry()

Section titled getEntry()

Type: ( collection: string, id: string ) => CollectionEntry<collection> | ({ collection: string, id: string }) => CollectionEntry<collection>

Added in: astro@2.5.0

getEntry() is a function that retrieves a single collection entry by collection name and the entry id. getEntry() can also be used to get referenced entries to access the data or body properties:

---
import { getEntry } from 'astro:content';

// Get `src/content/blog/enterprise.md`
const enterprisePost = await getEntry('blog', 'enterprise');

// Get `src/content/captains/picard.json`
const picardProfile = await getEntry('captains', 'picard');

// Get the profile referenced by `data.captain`
const enterpriseCaptainProfile = await getEntry(enterprisePost.data.captain);
---

See the Content Collections guide for examples of querying collection entries.

getEntries()

Section titled getEntries()

Type: (Array<{ collection: string, id: string }>) => Array<CollectionEntry<collection>>

Added in: astro@2.5.0

getEntries() is a function that retrieves multiple collection entries from the same collection. This is useful for returning an array of referenced entries to access their associated data and body properties.

---
import { getEntries } from 'astro:content';

const enterprisePost = await getEntry('blog', 'enterprise');

// Get related posts referenced by `data.relatedPosts`
const enterpriseRelatedPosts = await getEntries(enterprisePost.data.relatedPosts);
---

render()

Section titled render()

Type: () => Promise<RenderedEntry>

Added in: astro@5.0.0

A function to compile a given entry for rendering. This returns the following properties:

• <Content /> - A component used to render the document’s contents in an Astro file.
• headings - A generated list of headings, mirroring Astro’s getHeadings() utility on Markdown and MDX imports.
• remarkPluginFrontmatter - The modified frontmatter object after any remark or rehype plugins have been applied. Set to type any.

---
import { getEntry, render } from 'astro:content';
const entry = await getEntry('blog', 'entry-1');
const { Content, headings, remarkPluginFrontmatter } = await render(entry);
---

See the Content Collection guide for example usage.

astro:content types

Section titled astro:content types

import type {
  CollectionEntry,
  CollectionKey,
  ContentCollectionKey,
  DataCollectionKey,
  SchemaContext,
 } from 'astro:content';

CollectionEntry

Section titled CollectionEntry

Query functions including getCollection(), getEntry(), and getEntries() each return entries with the CollectionEntry type. This type is available as a utility from astro:content:

import type { CollectionEntry } from 'astro:content';

CollectionEntry is a generic type. Use it with the name of the collection you’re querying. For example, an entry in your blog collection would have the type CollectionEntry<'blog'>.

Each CollectionEntry is an object with the following values:

id

Section titled id

Example Type: 'author-1' | 'author-2' | ...

A unique ID. Note that all IDs from Astro’s built-in glob() loader are slugified.

collection

Section titled collection

Example Type: 'blog' | 'authors' | ...

The name of a collection in which entries are located. This is the name used to reference the collection in your schema, and in querying functions.

data

Section titled data

Type: CollectionSchema<TCollectionName>

An object of frontmatter properties inferred from your collection schema (see defineCollection() reference). Defaults to any if no schema is configured.

body

Section titled body

Type: string

A string containing the raw, uncompiled body of the Markdown or MDX document.

CollectionKey

Section titled CollectionKey

Added in: astro@3.1.0

A string union of all collection names defined in your src/content.config.* file. This type can be useful when defining a generic function that accepts any collection name.

import { type CollectionKey, getCollection } from 'astro:content';

async function getCollection(collection: CollectionKey) {
  return getCollection(collection);
}

SchemaContext

Section titled SchemaContext

The context object that defineCollection uses for the function shape of schema. This type can be useful when building reusable schemas for multiple collections.

This includes the following property:

• image - The image() schema helper that allows you to use local images in Content Collections

import type { SchemaContext } from 'astro:content';

export const imageSchema = ({ image }: SchemaContext) =>
    z.object({
        image: image(),
        description: z.string().optional(),
    });

const blog = defineCollection({
  loader: /* ... */,
  schema: ({ image }) => z.object({
    title: z.string(),
    permalink: z.string().optional(),
    image: imageSchema({ image })
  }),
});