Directus Engine

Instant API

From database to data platform in 90 seconds

Directus introspects your SQL database, instantly giving you a connectivity toolkit for fetching and managing your database and its content.

GraphQL+REST APIs based on your schema
Includes a full JavaScript SDK and CLI
Caching and rate-limiting via Redis, memory, etc
Real-time websockets and GraphQL subscriptions (coming soon)

id   status     title             category     image    favorite
1    active     Rolling Hills     landscape    420      true
2    active     Pineapple Baby    random       483      true
3    draft      Headphones Alt    products     23       false
4    review     Pink Crystals     random       311      true
5    active     Avocado Toast     food         1038     true
6    active     Beach Chair       products     459      true
7    draft      Two Windows       landscape    460      false
8    active     Lolipops Galore   food         1039     false
9    active     Beautiful Bunny   animals      1738     true
// GET /items/products/4
{
  "id": 4,
  "status": "review",
  "title": "Pink Crystals",
  "category": "random",
  "image": {
    "id": 311,
    "name": "pink-crystals.png"
  },
  "date_added": "2020-11-12T17:56:41Z"
}

Query Engine

Never write an API again

Directus adds a connectivity layer for querying your database, without changing its architecture or removing access to run pure SQL queries.

We introspect your database to instantly provide APIs
Full REST and GraphQL APIs, a JavaScript SDK, and CLI
Support for CRUD, search, filter, group, aggregate, and sort
Schema manipulation (DDL) to define your data model

SQL
REST
GraphQL
SDK

SELECT id, status, title, category, images.id, images.name, date_added
FROM articles
LEFT JOIN images
WHERE articles.image = images.id;
id   status     title             category     images.id    images.name           date_added
4    review     Pink Crystals     random       311          pink-crystals.png     2020-11-12 17:56:41

GET /items/products/4?fields=*,image.id,image.name
{
	"id": 4,
	"status": "review",
	"title": "Pink Crystals",
	"category": "random",
	"image": {
		"id": 311,
		"name": "pink-crystals.png"
	},
	"date_added": "2020-11-12T17:56:41Z"
}

query {
	articles_by_id(id: 4) {
		id
		status
		title
		category
		image {
			id
			name
		}
		date_added
	}
}
{
	"id": 4,
	"status": "review",
	"title": "Pink Crystals",
	"category": "random",
	"image": {
		"id": 311,
		"name": "pink-crystals.png"
	},
	"date_added": "2020-11-12T17:56:41Z"
}

await directus.items('articles').readOne(4, {
	fields: ['id', 'status', 'title', 'category', 'image.id', 'image.name', 'date_added']
});
{
	"id": 4,
	"status": "review",
	"title": "Pink Crystals",
	"category": "random",
	"image": {
		"id": 311,
		"name": "pink-crystals.png"
	},
	"date_added": "2020-11-12T17:56:41Z"
}

Secure by design, private by default...

Built-in Authentication
Built-in JWT auth supports SSO via OAuth, OpenID, and LDAP, with 2FA and configurable password policies.
Role-Based Access Control
With filter rules, custom validation, field-level permissions, IP allow-lists, and configurable public access.
Encryption and Hashing
Support for both encrypted and hashed fields, with all data communicated over SSL/HTTPS.
Accountability
Detailed activity logs, revision history with data snapshots, item rollback, and soft-delete archiving.

Asset Engine

Store, transform, optimize and deliver your assets

Getting original assets, generating transformations, or optimizing media quality is as easy as requesting what you want via a URL.

On-the-fly resizing, compression, and transformations
Connect with any local filesystem or S3-compatible storage
Easy-to-use URL-based API for media processing
Automatic IPTC, EXIF and ICC metadata scraping

Original
Resize
Optimize
Advanced
Presets

example.com/assets/<file-id>?width=80&height=80&fit=cover

Generate cropped or contained thumbnails simply by requesting them via our Asset Engine's URL-API.

Directus Cloud storage infrastructure...

Storage Included
Every Directus Cloud project includes block storage where you can store all of your assets.
Global CDN
Low-latency file access across over 300 edge locations within our Cloud's built-in global CDN.
Caching Built-In
Deliver your assets with blazing speed thanks to integrated Redis caching for data and files.
Private Files
The Asset Engine is wrapped with our core Auth layer, so you decide which files are public or private.

Feature-Rich & Extensible

A robust developer toolkit

Directus includes all the core capabilities you need to build amazing data-driven projects faster and more efficiently, and is completely extensible so you never hit a feature ceiling.

Data & Schema Caching
Smart and configurable caching layer powered by Redis or memory.
Automation Workflows
Create automated tasks and processes with integrated Data Flows.
Custom API Endpoints
Extend the core APIs with your own endpoints for custom responses.
Real-Time Websockets
Avoid polling for data by opening a real-time connection. Coming soon.
Custom Event Hooks
Easily include event-driven logic within JavaScript hook extensions.
Transactional Email
Connect teams with internal alerting and external messages.
Data Validation
Ensure proper data governance with data validation rules per role.
Self-Documenting APIs
Generates OpenAPI Specification files to integrate with other tools.

View All Features

“We had departments using many different CMS. They ranged from extremely expensive to open-source projects. Directus has proven to be better than all the others.”
Dr. Brian Myers
Principal Cloud Engineer at Bose
In addition to our perfect rating on G2, Directus was also awarded six major accolades for the Summer 2022 quarter. These include High Performer, Easiest to Use, Best ROI, Most Likely to Recommend, and more.
G2 — 5.0 out of 5 rating
Summer 2022 Quarter
“Directus is a powerful tool offering a lot of flexibility. The back office is very intuitive and it’s possible to do many things. The tool can be used in open source and very customizable, Directus allowed us to develop websites using our favorite framework: next.js.”
Kiril Gorbatenko
CEO, Web Vision 360
“Directus is quite impressive about the potentials it have from a business point of view. The software is easy to configure and the community is very active continously improving the available functionalities and solving known issues”
Vincenzo Lupia
DevOps Developer, Doxee
“Directus cloud takes the amazing product the team has built and pushes it one step further. It's probably the least restrictive web-based data management system you'll find, and being able to run up an instance in a matter of minutes makes things so much easier when you just need to test something small.”
Austin Phillip Taylor
Web developer and designer
“It started with the ease of "just quickly set up a project" for small projects, but we soon discovered that so much more was possible! We replaced a lot of our Laravel/Nova projects without writing additional extensions, if we do need custom logic it’s super easy.”
Jeroen Ling
Senior Frontend Developer & DevOps Engineer, Vanling
“I never experienced any smoother experience setting up any content management system (including the old guys like WordPress or Drupal). From a product and/or IT lead perspective, it brings you so much power for so many use cases - without a huge price tag or complexity.”
Jens Kuerschner
Product Lead, arculus
“Directus enabled us to make our own choices and set the YIA website up in the right way, whereas other more opinionated situations prohibit that freedom of choice.”
Matt Skinner
Technical Lead, Cucumber Digital Agency
“Directus is open-source and provides an easy-to-use interface that allows me and my users to navigate the system to update data and content. The Rest API is well-documented making integration into any system very easy! I love being able to set up a new project in minutes rather than hours.”
Shea Lavington
Open Source Advocate
“Tripadvisor is using Directus to bring our products, data and content closer together. This will allow our users to plan and experience travel in new and innovative ways.”
Antoine Veliz
VP, Design at Tripadvisor
“Directus unifies our data coming in from across the country, adding value, and redistributing the consolidated data back out to stakeholders with its built-in API. Directus also acts as a validation and improvement tool, allowing non-technical staff to manually verify or flag issues with generated data connections.”
Brent Cartier
Strategy Lead for Digital Services, Canadian Government

A modern data stack to build anything... faster

From database to data platform in 90 seconds

Unopinionated to the core

Never write an API again

Secure by design, private by default...

Store, transform, optimize and deliver your assets

Directus Cloud storage infrastructure...

A robust developer toolkit

100% open-source, with no paywalls or limitations

21,650,848

47,568

20,749

Seamless integration with your favorite frameworks

Ready to learn more?

Take back control of your data.

A modern data stack to build anything... faster

From database to data platform in 90 seconds

Unopinionated to the core

Never write an API again

Secure by design, private by default...

Store, transform, optimize and deliver your assets

Directus Cloud storage infrastructure...

A robust developer toolkit

100% open-source, with no paywalls or limitations

21,650,848file_download

47,568file_download

20,749star_border

Seamless integration with your favorite frameworks

Ready to learn more?

Take back control of your data.

21,650,848

47,568

20,749