directus/docs/reference/filter-rules.md

Filter Rules

Permissions, validation, and the API's filter parameter all rely on a specific JSON structure to define their rules. This page describes the syntax for creating flat, relational, or complex filter rules.

Syntax

• Field — Any valid root field, relational field, or logical operator
• Operator — Any valid API operator prefaced with an underscore
• Value — Any valid static value, or dynamic variable

{
	<field>: {
		<operator>: <value>
	}
}

Examples

{
	"title": {
		"_contains": "Directus"
	}
}

{
	"owner": {
		"_eq": "$CURRENT_USER"
	}
}

{
	"datetime": {
		"_lte": "$NOW"
	}
}

Supported Operators

Operator	Description
eq	Equal to
neq	Not equal to
lt	Less than
lte	Less than or equal to
gt	Greater than
gte	Greater than or equal to
in	Exists in one of the values
nin	Not in one of the values
null	It is null
nnull	It is not null
contains, like	Contains the substring
ncontains, nlike	Doesn't contain the substring
rlike	Contains a substring using a wildcard
nrlike	Not contains a substring using a wildcard
between	The value is between two values
nbetween	The value is not between two values
empty	The value is empty (null or falsy)
nempty	The value is not empty (null or falsy)
all	Contains all given related item's IDs
has	Has one or more related items's IDs

Relational

You can target related values by nesting field names. For example, if you have a relational Many-to-One author field, you can set a rule for the author.name field using the following syntax.

{
	"author": {
		"name": {
			"_eq": "Rijk van Zanten"
		}
	}
}

Logical Operators

You can nest or group multiple rules using the _and or _or logical operators. Each operator holds an array of rules, allowing for more complex filtering.

{
  "_or": [
    {
      "_and": [
        {
          "owner": {
            "_eq": "$CURRENT_USER"
          }
        },
        {
          "status": {
            "_in": [
              "published",
              "draft"
            ]
          }
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "_and": [
        {
          "owner": {
            "_neq": "$CURRENT_USER"
          }
        },
        {
          "status": {
            "_in": [
              "published"
            ]
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Dynamic Variables

In addition to static values, you can also filter against dynamic values using the following variables.

• $CURRENT_USER — The primary key of the currently authenticated user
• $CURRENT_ROLE — The primary key of the role for the currently authenticated user
• $NOW — The current timestamp