What is Files API?

The Files API is a standard HTTP API that allows you to read, write, list, and delete files and directories by referring to their URI. The API makes working with file content as raw bytes easier and more efficient.

The API supports Unity Catalog volumes, where you specify the files and directories to operate on using their volume URI path, which follows the format /Volumes/<catalog_name>/<schema_name>/<volume_name>/<path_to_file>. The path is always absolute.

The Files API has two distinct endpoints: one for working with files (/fs/files) and another for working with directories (/fs/directories). Both endpoints use the standard HTTP methods GET, HEAD, PUT, DELETE, and POST to manage files and directories specified by their URI path. For every operation and its parameters, see the Files API 3.0 reference.

Use of the Files API may incur Azure Databricks data transfer charges.

Capabilities

With the Files API, you can:

• Upload a file of up to 5000 MiB in a single request, or upload a larger file in parts with multipart upload.
• Download a whole file in a single request, or download part of it with the Range header. See Download large files with range requests.
• Make a read, write, or delete depend on a file's current ETag or Last-Modified time with conditional requests.

Requirements

• Send requests to your workspace's regional hostname. See Use the Files API with the regional hostname.
• Network connectivity to Azure Databricks and to your storage. See Network connectivity for the Files API.

Versions

The Files API has two versions. To learn what changed between them, see Files API versions.