Create a new content item

4 min

This recipe shows how to create a new content item in draft status using the Content API. The request includes a display name, title, body content, and route segment. Use this when you want to programmatically add new content that is saved as a draft for later review or publishing.

Code Section Title

curl --request POST \
     --url https://api.cms.optimizely.com/v1/content \
     --header 'Accept: application/json' \
     --header 'Authorization: Bearer {access_token}' \
     --header 'content-type: application/json' \
     --data '{
       "contentType": "ArticlePage",
       "container": "{container_key}",
       "initialVersion": {
         "displayName": "My First Article",
         "locale": "en",
         "routeSegment": "my-first-article",
         "properties": {
           "heading": {
             "value": "Hello World"
           }
         }
       }
     }'

Define the request method and endpoint

Use POST to create a new content item at the Content API endpoint.

This corresponds to the following section in the code:

curl --request POST \
     --url https://api.cms.optimizely.com/v1/content \

Set required headers

Add headers to specify content type and authentication.

Accept – Response format.

Authorization – Your bearer token.

content-type – Request body format.

This corresponds to the following section in code:

--header 'Accept: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {access_token}' \
--header 'content-type: application/json' \

Provide the request body

Define the content item properties. In this example, the content item is created as a draft with a title, body text, and a route segment. Note that the v1 API uses a NewContent structure with initialVersion for version-specific data, and property values are wrapped in {"value": ...} objects.

This corresponds to the following section in code:

       --data '{
       "contentType": "ArticlePage",
       "container": "{container_key}",
       "initialVersion": {
         "displayName": "My First Article",
         "locale": "en",
         "routeSegment": "my-first-article",
         "properties": {
           "heading": {
             "value": "Hello World"
           }
         }
       }
     }'