> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://spreecommerce.org/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # List categories > Returns a paginated list of the store's categories (manual hierarchical taxons; rule-based collections are excluded). **Required scope:** `read_categories` (for API-key authentication). ## OpenAPI ````yaml /api-reference/admin.yaml get /api/v3/admin/categories openapi: 3.0.3 info: title: Admin API contact: name: Spree Commerce url: https://spreecommerce.org email: hello@spreecommerce.org description: > Spree Admin API v3 - Administrative API for managing products, orders, and store settings. ## Authentication The Admin API requires a secret API key passed in the `x-spree-api-key` header. Secret API keys can be generated in the Spree admin dashboard. ## Response Format All responses are JSON. List endpoints return paginated responses with `data` and `meta` keys. Single resource endpoints return a flat JSON object. ## Resource IDs Every resource is identified by an opaque string ID (e.g. `prod_86Rf07xd4z`, `variant_k5nR8xLq`, `or_UkLWZg9DAJ`). Use these IDs everywhere — URL paths, request bodies, and Ransack filters all accept them directly. ## Error Handling Errors return a consistent format: ```json { "error": { "code": "validation_error", "message": "Validation failed", "details": { "name": ["can't be blank"] } } } ``` version: v3 servers: - url: http://{defaultHost} variables: defaultHost: default: localhost:3000 security: [] tags: - name: Authentication description: Admin user login, logout, token refresh, and current user profile - name: Allowed Origins description: CORS allowlist for storefront and admin client origins - name: API Keys description: Secret and publishable API keys - name: Channels description: Sales channels and product publication across channels - name: Custom Fields description: >- Custom field definitions for products, variants, customers, and other resources - name: Customer Groups description: >- Customer groups for segmenting customers (e.g. wholesale, VIP) used by pricing and promotions - name: Customers description: Customer profiles, addresses, credit cards, and store credits - name: Exports description: Async CSV exports of admin resources - name: Fulfillments description: Order fulfillments — shipments, fulfill, cancel, resume, split - name: Gift Cards description: Gift cards and gift card batches - name: Markets description: >- Markets — geographic groupings of countries used for pricing, tax, and fulfillment rules - name: Option Types description: >- Option types and option values used to build product variants (e.g. Size, Color) - name: Orders description: Orders, order items, applied gift cards, and applied store credits - name: Payment Methods description: Configured payment providers and their available types - name: Payments description: Order payments — list, capture, void - name: Pricing description: >- Prices and price lists for currency-, market-, and customer-group-specific pricing - name: Products description: >- Products, taxons/categories, product custom field values, and bulk product operations - name: Promotions description: Promotions, promotion rules, promotion actions, and coupon codes - name: Refunds description: Order refunds - name: Settings description: Store-level settings — store profile, tags, store credit categories - name: Staff description: Admin users, roles, and invitations to the store - name: Stock Locations description: Warehouses and physical fulfillment locations - name: Variants description: >- Product variants — the individual SKUs (size/color combinations) sold under a product - name: Webhooks description: Webhook endpoints and webhook delivery history paths: /api/v3/admin/categories: get: tags: - Categories summary: List categories description: >- Returns a paginated list of the store's categories (manual hierarchical taxons; rule-based collections are excluded). **Required scope:** `read_categories` (for API-key authentication). parameters: - name: x-spree-api-key in: header required: true schema: type: string - name: Authorization in: header required: true description: Bearer token for admin authentication schema: type: string - name: page in: query required: false description: Page number schema: type: integer - name: limit in: query required: false description: Number of records per page schema: type: integer - name: expand in: query required: false description: >- Comma-separated associations to expand (e.g., children, parent, ancestors). schema: type: string responses: '200': description: categories found content: application/json: example: data: - id: ctg_UkLWZg9DAJ name: Clothing permalink: clothing position: 0 depth: 0 meta_title: null meta_description: null meta_keywords: null children_count: 0 parent_id: null description: '' description_html: '' image_url: null square_image_url: null is_root: true is_child: false is_leaf: true metadata: {} pretty_name: Clothing lft: 1 rgt: 2 products_count: 0 created_at: '2026-07-11T15:37:03.120Z' updated_at: '2026-07-11T15:37:03.120Z' meta: page: 1 limit: 25 count: 1 pages: 1 from: 1 to: 1 in: 1 previous: null next: null schema: type: object properties: data: type: array items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Category' meta: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PaginationMeta' required: - data - meta security: - api_key: [] bearer_auth: [] components: schemas: Category: type: object properties: id: type: string name: type: string permalink: type: string position: type: number depth: type: number meta_title: type: string nullable: true meta_description: type: string nullable: true meta_keywords: type: string nullable: true children_count: type: number parent_id: type: string nullable: true description: type: string description_html: type: string image_url: type: string nullable: true square_image_url: type: string nullable: true is_root: type: boolean is_child: type: boolean is_leaf: type: boolean parent: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Category' children: type: array items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Category' ancestors: type: array items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Category' custom_fields: type: array items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/CustomField' translations: type: object metadata: type: object pretty_name: type: string lft: type: number rgt: type: number products_count: type: number created_at: type: string updated_at: type: string required: - id - name - permalink - position - depth - meta_title - meta_description - meta_keywords - children_count - parent_id - description - description_html - image_url - square_image_url - is_root - is_child - is_leaf - metadata - pretty_name - lft - rgt - products_count - created_at - updated_at x-typelizer: true PaginationMeta: type: object properties: page: type: integer example: 1 limit: type: integer example: 25 count: type: integer example: 100 description: Total number of records pages: type: integer example: 4 description: Total number of pages from: type: integer example: 1 description: Index of first record on this page to: type: integer example: 25 description: Index of last record on this page in: type: integer example: 25 description: Number of records on this page previous: type: integer nullable: true example: null description: Previous page number next: type: integer nullable: true example: 2 description: Next page number required: - page - limit - count - pages - from - to - in CustomField: type: object properties: id: type: string label: type: string type: type: string deprecated: true field_type: type: string enum: - short_text - long_text - rich_text - number - boolean - json key: type: string value: type: object created_at: type: string updated_at: type: string storefront_visible: type: boolean custom_field_definition_id: type: string required: - id - label - type - field_type - key - value - created_at - updated_at - storefront_visible - custom_field_definition_id x-typelizer: true securitySchemes: api_key: type: apiKey name: x-spree-api-key in: header description: Secret API key for admin access bearer_auth: type: http scheme: bearer bearerFormat: JWT description: JWT token for admin user authentication ````