Content Operations | IPFS

add

Uploads binary content to IPFS via a multipart request and returns its CID. Binary input.

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
`inputDataKey`	text	No	`data`	Key in the upstream node's InputData holding the bytes to add.
`dataMode`	select	No	`base64`	`base64` \| `text` — how to decode inline/string content.
`inlineContent`	text	No	—	Inline content fallback (encoded per `dataMode`) when nothing is found under `inputDataKey`.
`fileName`	text	No	`file`	File name recorded on the multipart part.
`pin`	bool	No	`true`	Pin the content after adding.
`wrapWithDirectory`	bool	No	`false`	Wrap the file in a directory listing.
`chunker`	text	No	—	Chunking algorithm, e.g. `size-262144`.
`cidVersion`	int	No	`0`	CID version (0 or 1).
`hash`	text	No	—	Hash function, e.g. `sha2-256`.
`onlyHash`	bool	No	`false`	Compute the CID without actually adding the content to the repo.
`nocopy`	bool	No	`false`	Reference filestore blocks instead of copying (filestore must be enabled on the daemon).

Example response:

{
  "cid": "QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco",
  "name": "file",
  "size": "1024"
}

cat

Reads the raw bytes of a resolved IPFS path. Binary output.

Field	Type	Required	Description
`path`	text	✓ Yes	IPFS path to read, e.g. `/ipfs/<cid>` or a bare CID (also accepted under a `cid` alias). Missing → `CFG_MISSING_PATH`.
`offset`	int (long)	No	Byte offset to start reading from.
`length`	int (long)	No	Maximum number of bytes to return.

Output record carries the raw byte[] under data for downstream nodes.

get

Fetches a resolved path as a TAR archive (optionally gzip-compressed). Binary output.

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
`path`	text	✓ Yes	—	IPFS path to fetch. Missing → `CFG_MISSING_PATH`.
`compress`	bool	No	`false`	Gzip-compress the TAR archive.
`compressionLevel`	int	No	`-1`	Gzip compression level when `compress=true`.

ls

Lists the links under a directory CID.

Field	Type	Required	Description
`path`	text	✓ Yes	IPFS path to list. Missing → `CFG_MISSING_PATH`.

refs

Lists the CIDs referenced by a CID.

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
`path`	text	✓ Yes	—	IPFS path whose references to list. Missing → `CFG_MISSING_PATH`.
`recursive`	bool	No	`false`	Recurse into referenced objects' own references.
`unique`	bool	No	`false`	De-duplicate the reference list.

Binary I/O pattern: add is the input side (bytes resolved from inputDataKey → inlineContent fallback, decoded per dataMode) and cat/get are the output side (raw byte[] placed directly in the items record). This same input/output pattern repeats across dag/put, dag/export, block/put, block/get, and files/write/files/read — see Input & Output.