The Box Metadata Query API enables programmatic search of Box content based
strictly on applied custom metadata values.
The structure of a metadata query is similar to that of a SQL query and allows
for Boolean operators, such as AND, OR, and NOT, as well as comparison or range
operators, such as equal to, greater-than, and less-than.
Some benefits of the Metadata Query API include:
- no indexing delay; query immediately after metadata creations, updates, and deletions
- ability to specify a sort order by one or more fields
- no limitation on the number of characters that are queryable
- queries return item properties and metadata instances
Overview
This guide will take you through the following steps.
-
- via API
- to at least one file
- to obtain the content from step 3
Last modified on January 19, 2026
