Mutations

The mutation API lets you create and modify documents. All requests have to be authenticated.

This endpoint accepts the following query parameters:

curl 'https://<project-id>.api.sanity.io/v2021-06-07/data/mutate/<dataset-name>' \
    -H 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --data-binary '{"mutations":[<transactions>]}'

The mutation API is transactional. You may submit an array of mutations and if the operation succeeds you can rest assured that every mutation you submitted was executed. A transaction may look like this:

{ 
  "mutations": [
    {"createOrReplace": {
        "_id": "person-1",
        "_type": "person",
        "name": "John Appleseed"
    }},
    {"createOrReplace": {
        "_id": "person-2",
        "_type": "person",
        "name": "Carrie Anderton"
    }}
  ]
}

The following mutation types exist in Sanity:

• create
• createOrReplace
• createIfNotExists
• delete
• patch

A create mutation creates a new document. It takes the literal document content as its argument. The rules for the new document's identifier are as follows:

• If the _id attribute is missing, then a new, random, unique ID is generated.
• If the _id attribute is present but ends with ., then it is used as a prefix for a new, random, unique ID. For example, foo. might generate foo.s4tZYDUyXCCef1YpYu6Js5.
• If the _id attribute is present, it is used as-is.
• _createdAt and _updatedAt may be submitted and will override the default which is of course the current time. This can be used to reconstruct a data-set with its timestamp structure intact.

The _type attribute must always be included and must be a valid Sanity type-name.

The operation will fail if a document by the provided ID already exists.

{ "create": document }

{ 
  "mutations": [
    { 
      "create": { 
        "_id": "123", 
        "_type": "cms.article", 
        "title": "An article" 
      } 
    }
  ]
}

A createOrReplace mutation attempts to create a new document, and will replace its contents if it already exists. If the document already exists and the type is the same as before, the provided document will act as a set patch, replacing its entire contents. If the document changes type, it will act as a delete then create. If a document has hard references pointing to it, you won't be allowed to change its type with this (or any other) mutation.

{ "createOrReplace": document }

const mutations = [{
  createOrReplace: {
    _id: '123',
    _type: 'cms.article',
    title: 'An article'
  }
}]

fetch(`https://${projectId}.api.sanity.io/v2021-06-07/data/mutate/${datasetName}`, {
  method: 'post',
  headers: {
    'Content-type': 'application/json',
    Authorization: `Bearer ${tokenWithWriteAccess}`
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({mutations})
})
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(result => console.log(result))
  .catch(error => console.error(error))

A createIfNotExists mutation creates a new document, but will silently fail if the document already exists. It is otherwise identical to create.

{ "createIfNotExists": document }

{
  "mutations": [
    {
      "createIfNotExists": {
        "_id": "123",
        "_type": "cms.article",
        "title": "An article"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Deletes a document. The content should reference a single ID. The operation will be considered a success even if the document did not exist.

{ "delete": { "id": string } }

{
  "mutations": [
    {
      "delete": {
        "id": "123"
      }
    }
  ]
}

By submitting GROQ-query instead of an id, multiple documents can be deleted in a single mutation.

{
  "mutations": [
    {
      "delete": {
        "query": "*[_type == 'feature' && viewCount < $views]",
        "params": {
          "views": 5
        },
      }
    }
  ]
}

Deletes all documents of type "feature" where the visitCount is less than 5. See the GROQ documentation for valid queries.

You can use the optional flag purge to request the document history to be fully purged from the Content Lake. When using this option, all transactions related to the document will be immediately removed, consistent with our data retention policy, and no longer show on Studio's history experience, nor on the Content Lake history API endpoint.

{
  "mutations": [
    {
      "delete": {
        "id": "123",
        "purge": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

A patch mutation updates an existing document's contents. A patch will fail if the document does not exist. A patch mutation contains one or more patch operations.

If multiple patches are included, then the order of execution is as follows: set, setIfMissing, unset, inc, dec, insert.

For supported patches, see the patch reference.

{
  "mutations": [
    {
      "patch": {
        "id": id,
        "ifRevisionID": string,
        "set": set,
        "setIfMissing": setIfMissing,
        "unset": unset,
        "inc": inc,
        "dec": dec,
        "insert": insert,
        "diffMatchPatch": diffMatchPatch,
      }
    }
  ]
}

{
  "mutations": [
    {
      "patch": {
        "id": "123",
        "set": {
          "name.first": "John"
        },
        "inc": {
          "visitCount": 1
        },
        "params": {
          "id": "123"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

A patch may include an optional ifRevisionID field. If the document's current revision ID does not match the provided revision ID, the patch will fail. This can be used for optimistic locking, to make sure that mutations are applied in the exact order expected by the application.

By submitting a query instead of an id, you may patch multiple documents at once. This will reset the score and add a bonus point to any person that has more than 100 points:

{
  "mutations": [
    {
      "patch": {
        "query": "*[_type == 'person' && points >= $threshold]",
        "params": {
          "threshold": 100
        },
        "dec": {
          "points": 100
        },
        "inc": {
          "bonuses": 1
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

To test a mutation without impacting any documents, you can set the dryRun query parameter to true:

curl 'https://<project-id>.api.sanity.io/v2021-06-07/data/mutate/<dataset-name>?dryRun=true' \
    -H 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --data-binary '{"mutations": [{"patch": {"query": "*[_type == \"person\" && points >= 100]","dec": {"points": 100},"inc": {"bonuses": 1}}}]}'