Extend with Go - Routing - Docs

PocketBase routing is built on top of the standard Go net/http.ServeMux. The router can be accessed via the app.OnServe() hook allowing you to register custom endpoints and middlewares.

Routes

Registering new routes

Every route have a path, handler function and eventually middlewares attached to it. For example:

app.OnServe().BindFunc(func(se *core.ServeEvent) error {
    // register "GET /hello/{name}" route (allowed for everyone)
    se.Router.GET("/hello/{name}", func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        name := e.Request.PathValue("name")

        return e.String(http.StatusOK, "Hello " + name)
    })

    // register "POST /api/myapp/settings" route (allowed only for authenticated users)
    se.Router.POST("/api/myapp/settings", func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        // do something ...
        return e.JSON(http.StatusOK, map[string]bool{"success": true})
    }).Bind(apis.RequireAuth())

    return se.Next()
}) 

There are several routes registration methods available, but the most common ones are:

se.Router.GET(path, action)
se.Router.POST(path, action)
se.Router.PUT(path, action)
se.Router.PATCH(path, action)
se.Router.DELETE(path, action)

// If you want to handle any HTTP method define only a path (e.g. "/example")
// OR if you want to specify a custom one add it as prefix to the path (e.g. "TRACE /example")
se.Router.Any(pattern, action) 

The router also supports creating groups for routes that share the same base path and middlewares. For example:

g := se.Router.Group("/api/myapp")

// group middleware
g.Bind(apis.RequireAuth())

// group routes
g.GET("", action1)
g.GET("/example/{id}", action2)
g.PATCH("/example/{id}", action3).BindFunc(
    /* custom route specific middleware func */
)

// nested group
sub := g.Group("/sub")
sub.GET("/sub1", action4) 

The example registers the following endpoints
(all require authenticated user access):

GET /api/myapp -> action1
GET /api/myapp/example/{id} -> action2
PATCH /api/myapp/example/{id} -> action3
GET /api/myapp/example/sub/sub1 -> action4

Each router group and route could define middlewares in a similar manner to the regular app hooks via the Bind/BindFunc methods, allowing you to perform various BEFORE or AFTER action operations (e.g. inspecting request headers, custom access checks, etc.).

Path parameters and matching rules

Because PocketBase routing is based on top of the Go standard router mux, we follow the same pattern matching rules. Below you could find a short overview but for more details please refer to net/http.ServeMux.

In general, a route pattern looks like [METHOD ][HOST]/[PATH] (the METHOD prefix is added automatically when using the designated GET(), POST(), etc. methods)).

Route paths can include parameters in the format {paramName}.
You can also use {paramName...} format to specify a parameter that target more than one path segment.

A pattern ending with a trailing slash / acts as anonymous wildcard and matches any requests that begins with the defined route. If you want to have a trailing slash but to indicate the end of the URL then you need to end the path with the special {$} parameter.

If your route path starts with /api/ consider combining it with your unique app name like /api/myapp/... to avoid collisions with system routes.

Here are some examples:

// match "GET example.com/index.html"
se.Router.GET("example.com/index.html")

// match "GET /index.html" (for any host)
se.Router.GET("/index.html")

// match "GET /static/", "GET /static/a/b/c", etc.
se.Router.GET("/static/")

// match "GET /static/", "GET /static/a/b/c", etc.
// (similar to the above but with a named wildcard parameter)
se.Router.GET("/static/{path...}")

// match only "GET /static/" (if no "/static" is registered, it is 301 redirected)
se.Router.GET("/static/{$}")

// match "GET /customers/john", "GET /customer/jane", etc.
se.Router.GET("/customers/{name}") 

In the following examples e is usually *core.RequestEvent value.

Reading path parameters

id := e.Request.PathValue("id") 

Retrieving the current auth state

The request auth state can be accessed (or set) via the RequestEvent.Auth field.

authRecord := e.Auth

isGuest := e.Auth == nil

// the same as "e.Auth != nil && e.Auth.IsSuperuser()"
isSuperuser := e.HasSuperuserAuth() 

Alternatively you could also access the request data from the summarized request info instance (usually used in hooks like the OnRecordEnrich where there is no direct access to the request) .

info, err := e.RequestInfo()

authRecord := info.Auth

isGuest := info.Auth == nil

// the same as "info.Auth != nil && info.Auth.IsSuperuser()"
isSuperuser := info.HasSuperuserAuth() 

Reading query parameters

search := e.Request.URL.Query().Get("search")

// or via the parsed request info
info, err := e.RequestInfo()
search := info.Query["search"] 

Reading request headers

token := e.Request.Header.Get("Some-Header")

// or via the parsed request info
// (the header value is always normalized per the @request.headers.* API rules format)
info, err := e.RequestInfo()
token := info.Headers["some_header"] 

Writing response headers

e.Response.Header().Set("Some-Header", "123") 

Retrieving uploaded files

// retrieve the uploaded files and parse the found multipart data into a ready-to-use []*filesystem.File
files, err := e.FindUploadedFiles("document")

// or retrieve the raw single multipart/form-data file and header
mf, mh, err := e.Request.FormFile("document") 

Reading request body

Body parameters can be read either via e.BindBody OR through the parsed request info (requires manual type assertions).

The e.BindBody argument must be a pointer to a struct or map[string]any.
The following struct tags are supported (the specific binding rules and which one will be used depend on the request Content-Type):

json (json body)- uses the builtin Go JSON package for unmarshaling.
xml (xml body) - uses the builtin Go XML package for unmarshaling.
form (form data) - utilizes the custom router.UnmarshalRequestData method.

NB! When binding structs make sure that they don't have public fields that shouldn't be bindable and it is advisable such fields to be unexported or define a separate struct with just the safe bindable fields.

// read/scan the request body fields into a typed struct
data := struct {
    // unexported to prevent binding
    somethingPrivate string

    Title       string `json:"title" form:"title"`
    Description string `json:"description" form:"description"`
    Active      bool   `json:"active" form:"active"`
}{}
if err := e.BindBody(&data); err != nil {
    return e.BadRequestError("Failed to read request data", err)
}

// alternatively, read the body via the parsed request info
info, err := e.RequestInfo()
title, ok := info.Body["title"].(string) 

Writing response body

For all supported methods, you can refer to router.Event .

// send response with JSON body
// (it also provides a generic response fields picker/filter if the "fields" query parameter is set)
e.JSON(http.StatusOK, map[string]any{"name": "John"})

// send response with string body
e.String(http.StatusOK, "Lorem ipsum...")

// send response with HTML body
// (check also the "Rendering templates" section)
e.HTML(http.StatusOK, "<h1>Hello!</h1>")

// redirect
e.Redirect(http.StatusTemporaryRedirect, "https://example.com")

// send response with no body
e.NoContent(http.StatusNoContent)

// serve a single file
e.FileFS(os.DirFS("..."), "example.txt")

// stream the specified reader
e.Stream(http.StatusOK, "application/octet-stream", reader)

// send response with blob (bytes slice) body
e.Blob(http.StatusOK, "application/octet-stream", []byte{ ... }) 

Reading the client IP

// The IP of the last client connecting to your server.
// The returned IP is safe and can be always trusted.
// When behind a reverse proxy (e.g. nginx) this method returns the IP of the proxy.
// https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/tools/router#Event.RemoteIP
ip := e.RemoteIP()

// The "real" IP of the client based on the configured Settings.TrustedProxy header(s).
// If such headers are not set, it fallbacks to e.RemoteIP().
// https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/core#RequestEvent.RealIP
ip := e.RealIP() 

Request store

The core.RequestEvent comes with a local store that you can use to share custom data between middlewares and the route action.

// store for the duration of the request
e.Set("someKey", 123)

// retrieve later
val := e.Get("someKey").(int) // 123 

Middlewares

Registering middlewares

Middlewares allow inspecting, intercepting and filtering route requests.

All middleware functions share the same signature with the route actions (aka. func(e *core.RequestEvent) error) but expect the user to call e.Next() if they want to proceed with the execution chain.

Middlewares can be registered globally, on group and on route level using the Bind and BindFunc methods.

Here is a minimal example of a what global middleware looks like:

app.OnServe().BindFunc(func(se *core.ServeEvent) error {
    // register a global middleware
    se.Router.BindFunc(func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        if e.Request.Header.Get("Something") == "" {
            return e.BadRequestError("Something header value is missing!", nil)
        }
        return e.Next()
    })

    return se.Next()
}) 

RouterGroup.Bind(middlewares...) / Route.Bind(middlewares...) registers one or more middleware handlers.
Similar to the other app hooks, a middleware handler has 3 fields:

Id (optional) - the name of the middleware (could be used as argument for Unbind)
Priority (optional) - the execution order of the middleware (if empty fallbacks to the order of registration in the code)
Func (required) - the middleware handler function

Often you don't need to specify the Id or Priority of the middleware and for convenience you can instead use directly RouterGroup.BindFunc(funcs...) / Route.BindFunc(funcs...) .

Below is a slightly more advanced example showing all options and the execution sequence (2,0,1,3,4):

app.OnServe().BindFunc(func(se *core.ServeEvent) error {
    // attach global middleware
    se.Router.BindFunc(func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        println(0)
        return e.Next()
    })

    g := se.Router.Group("/sub")

    // attach group middleware
    g.BindFunc(func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        println(1)
        return e.Next()
    })

    // attach group middleware with an id and custom priority
    g.Bind(&hook.Handler[*core.RequestEvent]{
        Id: "something",
        Func: func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
            println(2)
            return e.Next()
        },
        Priority: -1,
    })

    // attach middleware to a single route
    //
    // "GET /sub/hello" should print the sequence: 2,0,1,3,4
    g.GET("/hello", func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        println(4)
        return e.String(200, "Hello!")
    }).BindFunc(func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        println(3)
        return e.Next()
    })

    return se.Next()
}) 

Removing middlewares

To remove a registered middleware from the execution chain for a specific group or route you can make use of the Unbind(id) method.

Note that only middlewares that have a non-empty Id can be removed.

app.OnServe().BindFunc(func(se *core.ServeEvent) error {
    // global middleware
    se.Router.Bind(&hook.Handler[*core.RequestEvent]{
        Id: "test",
        Func: func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
            // ...
            return e.Next()
        },
    )

    // "GET /A" invokes the "test" middleware
    se.Router.GET("/A", func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        return e.String(200, "A")
    })

    // "GET /B" doesn't invoke the "test" middleware
    se.Router.GET("/B", func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        return e.String(200, "B")
    }).Unbind("test")

    return se.Next()
}) 

Builtin middlewares

The apis package exposes several middlewares that you can use as part of your application.

// Require the request client to be unauthenticated (aka. guest).
// Example: Route.Bind(apis.RequireGuestOnly())
apis.RequireGuestOnly()

// Require the request client to be authenticated
// (optionally specify a list of allowed auth collection names, default to any).
// Example: Route.Bind(apis.RequireAuth())
apis.RequireAuth(optCollectionNames...)

// Require the request client to be authenticated as superuser
// (this is an alias for apis.RequireAuth(core.CollectionNameSuperusers)).
// Example: Route.Bind(apis.RequireSuperuserAuth())
apis.RequireSuperuserAuth()

// Require the request client to be authenticated as superuser OR
// regular auth record with id matching the specified route parameter (default to "id").
// Example: Route.Bind(apis.RequireSuperuserOrOwnerAuth(""))
apis.RequireSuperuserOrOwnerAuth(ownerIdParam)

// Changes the global 32MB default request body size limit (set it to 0 for no limit).
// Note that system record routes have dynamic body size limit based on their collection field types.
// Example: Route.Bind(apis.BodyLimit(10 << 20))
apis.BodyLimit(limitBytes)

// Compresses the HTTP response using Gzip compression scheme.
// Example: Route.Bind(apis.Gzip())
apis.Gzip()

// Instructs the activity logger to log only requests that have failed/returned an error.
// Example: Route.Bind(apis.SkipSuccessActivityLog())
apis.SkipSuccessActivityLog() 

Default globally registered middlewares

The below list is mostly useful for users that may want to plug their own custom middlewares before/after the priority of the default global ones, for example: registering a custom auth loader before the rate limiter with apis.DefaultRateLimitMiddlewarePriority - 1 so that the rate limit can be applied properly based on the loaded auth state.

All PocketBase applications have the below internal middlewares registered out of the box (sorted by their priority):

WWW redirect apis.DefaultWWWRedirectMiddlewareId apis.DefaultWWWRedirectMiddlewarePriority
Performs www -> non-www redirect(s) if the request host matches with one of the values in certificate host policy.
CORS apis.DefaultCorsMiddlewareId apis.DefaultCorsMiddlewarePriority
By default all origins are allowed (PocketBase is stateless and doesn't rely on cookies) and can be configured with the --origins flag but for more advanced customization it can be also replaced entirely by binding with apis.CORS(config) middleware or registering your own custom one in its place.
Activity logger apis.DefaultActivityLoggerMiddlewareId apis.DefaultActivityLoggerMiddlewarePriority
Saves request information into the logs auxiliary database.
Auto panic recover apis.DefaultPanicRecoverMiddlewareId apis.DefaultPanicRecoverMiddlewarePriority
Default panic-recover handler.
Auth token loader apis.DefaultLoadAuthTokenMiddlewareId apis.DefaultLoadAuthTokenMiddlewarePriority
Loads the auth token from the Authorization header and populates the related auth record into the request event (aka. e.Auth).
Security response headers apis.DefaultSecurityHeadersMiddlewareId apis.DefaultSecurityHeadersMiddlewarePriority
Adds default common security headers (X-XSS-Protection, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options) to the response (can be overwritten by other middlewares or from inside the route action).
Rate limit apis.DefaultRateLimitMiddlewareId apis.DefaultRateLimitMiddlewarePriority
Rate limits client requests based on the configured app settings (it does nothing if the rate limit option is not enabled).
Body limit apis.DefaultBodyLimitMiddlewareId apis.DefaultBodyLimitMiddlewarePriority
Applies a default max ~32MB request body limit for all custom routes ( system record routes have dynamic body size limit based on their collection field types). Can be overwritten on group/route level by simply rebinding the apis.BodyLimit(limitBytes) middleware.

Error response

PocketBase has a global error handler and every returned error from a route or middleware will be safely converted by default to a generic ApiError to avoid accidentally leaking sensitive information (the original raw error message will be visible only in the Dashboard > Logs or when in --dev mode).

To make it easier returning formatted JSON error responses, the request event provides several ApiError methods.
Note that ApiError.RawData() will be returned in the response only if it is a map of router.SafeErrorItem/validation.Error items.

import validation "github.com/go-ozzo/ozzo-validation/v4"

se.Router.GET("/example", func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
    ...

    // construct ApiError with custom status code and validation data error
    return e.Error(500, "something went wrong", map[string]validation.Error{
        "title": validation.NewError("invalid_title", "Invalid or missing title"),
    })

    // if message is empty string, a default one will be set
    return e.BadRequestError(optMessage, optData)      // 400 ApiError
    return e.UnauthorizedError(optMessage, optData)    // 401 ApiError
    return e.ForbiddenError(optMessage, optData)       // 403 ApiError
    return e.NotFoundError(optMessage, optData)        // 404 ApiError
    return e.TooManyRequestsError(optMessage, optData) // 429 ApiError
    return e.InternalServerError(optMessage, optData)  // 500 ApiError
}) 

This is not very common but if you want to return ApiError outside of request related handlers, you can use the below apis.* factories:

import (
    validation "github.com/go-ozzo/ozzo-validation/v4"
    "github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/apis"
)


app.OnRecordCreate().BindFunc(func(e *core.RecordEvent) error {
    ...

    // construct ApiError with custom status code and validation data error
    return apis.NewApiError(500, "something went wrong", map[string]validation.Error{
        "title": validation.NewError("invalid_title", "Invalid or missing title"),
    })

    // if message is empty string, a default one will be set
    return apis.NewBadRequestError(optMessage, optData)      // 400 ApiError
    return apis.NewUnauthorizedError(optMessage, optData)    // 401 ApiError
    return apis.NewForbiddenError(optMessage, optData)       // 403 ApiError
    return apis.NewNotFoundError(optMessage, optData)        // 404 ApiError
    return apis.NewTooManyRequestsError(optMessage, optData) // 429 ApiError
    return apis.NewInternalServerError(optMessage, optData)  // 500 ApiError
}) 

Helpers

Serving static directory

apis.Static() serves static directory content from fs.FS instance.

Expects the route to have a {path...} wildcard parameter.

app.OnServe().BindFunc(func(se *core.ServeEvent) error {
    // serves static files from the provided dir (if exists)
    se.Router.GET("/{path...}", apis.Static(os.DirFS("/path/to/public"), false))

    return se.Next()
}) 

Auth response

apis.RecordAuthResponse() writes standardized JSON record auth response (aka. token + record data) into the specified request body. Could be used as a return result from a custom auth route.

app.OnServe().BindFunc(func(se *core.ServeEvent) error {
    se.Router.POST("/phone-login", func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        data := struct {
            Phone    string `json:"phone" form:"phone"`
            Password string `json:"password" form:"password"`
        }{}
        if err := e.BindBody(&data); err != nil {
            return e.BadRequestError("Failed to read request data", err)
        }

        record, err := e.App.FindFirstRecordByData("users", "phone", data.Phone)
        if err != nil || !record.ValidatePassword(data.Password) {
            // return generic 400 error as a basic enumeration protection
            return e.BadRequestError("Invalid credentials", err)
        }

        return apis.RecordAuthResponse(e, record, "phone", nil)
    })

    return se.Next()
}) 

Enrich record(s)

apis.EnrichRecord() and apis.EnrichRecords() helpers parses the request context and enrich the provided record(s) by:

expands relations (if defaultExpands and/or ?expand query parameter is set)
ensures that the emails of the auth record and its expanded auth relations are visible only for the current logged superuser, record owner or record with manage access

app.OnServe().BindFunc(func(se *core.ServeEvent) error {
    se.Router.GET("/custom-article", func(e *core.RequestEvent) error {
        records, err := e.App.FindRecordsByFilter("article", "status = 'active'", "-created", 40, 0)
        if err != nil {
            return e.NotFoundError("No active articles", err)
        }

        // enrich the records with the "categories" relation as default expand
        err = apis.EnrichRecords(e, records, "categories")
        if err != nil {
            return err
        }

        return e.JSON(http.StatusOK, records)
    })

    return se.Next()
}) 

Go http.Handler wrappers

If you want to register standard Go http.Handler function and middlewares, you can use apis.WrapStdHandler(handler) and apis.WrapStdMiddleware(func) functions.

Sending request to custom routes using the SDKs

The official PocketBase SDKs expose the internal send() method that could be used to send requests to your custom route(s).

import PocketBase from 'pocketbase';

const pb = new PocketBase('http://127.0.0.1:8090');

await pb.send("/hello", {
    // for other options check
    // https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/fetch#options
    query: { "abc": 123 },
}); 

import 'package:pocketbase/pocketbase.dart';

final pb = PocketBase('http://127.0.0.1:8090');

await pb.send("/hello", query: { "abc": 123 }) 