Roam Research Docs · Developer documentation
Developer Hub
- Our different APIs and which one you should use
- Q:: When would you use this Append API vs other Roam APIs?
- Use Roam Backend API (Beta)
- IF you need to do reads and edits (and not just additions/appends)
- IF you do NOT need to support encrypted graphs (the backend API cannot work with encrypted graphs)
- Use [Append API](Roam Append API)
- IF you need to support BOTH unencrypted & encrypted graphs
- IF you want an easy-to-use API optimized for capture
- IF you do not need read functionality
- Use Roam Alpha API (our client side API)
- If you're building a Roam Depot extension or writing roam/js scripts for yourself
- Front-end API for read/write operations
- Access your Roam data over http! A read/write API for Roam data
- How to write and submit Roam Depot extensions
- Style your graph with custom CSS
- Write and run JavaScript/Clojurescript in your graph
- Front-end API for read/write operations, mostly a copy of Roam Alpha API for clojurescript with some additions for roam/render
- Render custom inline components in your graph
If you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out! Join our slack and head over to the #developers channel
markdown version · view in Roam Research · exported 2026-07-03