Webflow hello world

Webflow Hello World

Overview

Minimal working examples demonstrating the three core Webflow Data API v2 operations: listing sites, reading CMS collections/items, and creating a CMS item.

Prerequisites

• Completed webflow-install-auth setup
• webflow-api package installed
• Valid API token with sites:read and cms:read scopes

Instructions

Step 1: List Your Sites

Every Webflow API call starts with a site_id. List your sites to find it:

// hello-webflow.ts
import { WebflowClient } from "webflow-api";

const webflow = new WebflowClient({
  accessToken: process.env.WEBFLOW_API_TOKEN!,
});

async function listSites() {
  const { sites } = await webflow.sites.list();

  for (const site of sites!) {
    console.log(`${site.displayName}`);
    console.log(`  ID: ${site.id}`);
    console.log(`  Short name: ${site.shortName}`);
    console.log(`  Custom domains: ${site.customDomains?.map(d => d.url).join(", ")}`);
    console.log(`  Last published: ${site.lastPublished}`);
    console.log(`  Locales: ${site.locales?.map(l => l.displayName).join(", ")}`);
  }
}

listSites().catch(console.error);

Step 2: List CMS Collections

Collections define your content types (blog posts, team members, products, etc.):

async function listCollections(siteId: string) {
  const { collections } = await webflow.collections.list(siteId);

  for (const col of collections!) {
    console.log(`Collection: ${col.displayName}`);
    console.log(`  ID: ${col.id}`);
    console.log(`  Slug: ${col.slug}`);
    console.log(`  Item count: ${col.itemCount}`);
    console.log(`  Fields:`);
    for (const field of col.fields || []) {
      console.log(`    - ${field.displayName} (${field.type}, required: ${field.isRequired})`);
    }
  }
}

// Usage: pass your site_id
listCollections("your-site-id").catch(console.error);

Step 3: Read CMS Items

Fetch items from a collection — staged (draft) or live (published):

async function readItems(collectionId: string) {
  // Get staged (draft + published) items
  const { items } = await webflow.collections.items.listItems(collectionId, {
    limit: 10,
    offset: 0,
  });

  for (const item of items!) {
    console.log(`Item: ${item.fieldData?.name || item.id}`);
    console.log(`  ID: ${item.id}`);
    console.log(`  Slug: ${item.fieldData?.slug}`);
    console.log(`  Draft: ${item.isDraft}`);
    console.log(`  Archived: ${item.isArchived}`);
    console.log(`  Created: ${item.createdOn}`);
  }

  // Get live (published) items only
  const live = await webflow.collections.items.listItemsLive(collectionId, {
    limit: 10,
  });
  console.log(`\nLive items: ${live.items?.length}`);
}

Step 4: Create a CMS Item

async function createBlogPost(collectionId: string) {
  // Items are created as drafts by default (isDraft: true)
  const item = await webflow.collections.items.createItem(collectionId, {
    fieldData: {
      name: "Hello from the API",
      slug: "hello-from-api",
      // Field names must match your collection schema
      // Use the slug version of field names (lowercase, hyphens)
      "post-body": "<p>This post was created via the Webflow Data API v2.</p>",
      "author": "API Bot",
      "published-date": new Date().toISOString(),
    },
    isDraft: false, // Set false to stage for publishing
  });

  console.log(`Created item: ${item.id}`);
  console.log(`  Draft: ${item.isDraft}`);
  console.log(`  Slug: ${item.fieldData?.slug}`);

  return item;
}

Step 5: Complete Hello World Script

import { WebflowClient } from "webflow-api";

const webflow = new WebflowClient({
  accessToken: process.env.WEBFLOW_API_TOKEN!,
});

async function main() {
  // 1. Get first site
  const { sites } = await webflow.sites.list();
  const site = sites![0];
  console.log(`Using site: ${site.displayName} (${site.id})\n`);

  // 2. List collections
  const { collections } = await webflow.collections.list(site.id!);
  console.log(`Found ${collections!.length} collections:`);
  for (const col of collections!) {
    console.log(`  - ${col.displayName} (${col.itemCount} items)`);
  }

  // 3. Read items from first collection
  if (collections!.length > 0) {
    const firstCol = collections![0];
    const { items } = await webflow.collections.items.listItems(firstCol.id!, {
      limit: 5,
    });
    console.log(`\nFirst ${items!.length} items in "${firstCol.displayName}":`);
    for (const item of items!) {
      console.log(`  - ${item.fieldData?.name} (${item.id})`);
    }
  }

  console.log("\nWebflow connection verified successfully.");
}

main().catch(console.error);

Run it:

npx tsx hello-webflow.ts

Output

• Console listing of all accessible sites with IDs
• Collection schemas with field types
• CMS item data (draft and live)
• Success confirmation: Webflow connection verified successfully.

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
401 Unauthorized	Bad token	Re-check token at developers.webflow.com
403 Forbidden	Missing cms:read scope	Add scope to token or app
404 Not Found	Wrong site_id or collection_id	List sites first to get valid IDs
429 Too Many Requests	Rate limited	Wait 60s (Retry-After header)
Empty sites array	Token has no site access	Check workspace token permissions

Key Concepts

• site_id: Every API call is scoped to a site. Get it from sites.list().
• collection_id: CMS collections hold typed content. Get IDs from collections.list(siteId).
• fieldData: Item fields use the slug form of field names (e.g., post-body, not Post Body).
• isDraft: New items default to isDraft: true. Set false to stage for publishing.
• Staged vs Live: listItems() returns all items; listItemsLive() returns only published.

Resources

• Webflow API Quick Start
• CMS API Reference
• SDK npm package

Next Steps

Proceed to webflow-local-dev-loop for development workflow setup.