API Structure

Routes are organised by domain, not by HTTP verb. The same API serves the research app, the public web frontend, and external tooling.

The RELab backend exposes a REST-style API used by the Expo app, the public web frontend, and selected operational tooling. Public and authenticated surfaces are separated in practice, but the cleanest source of truth is the live OpenAPI docs.

For the live schema and request models, use the interactive API documentation. For practical usage guidance, see the API Interaction Guide.

Route Organisation

Authentication & User Management

• /auth/* — login, logout, refresh, registration, verification, password reset, and OAuth
• /users/* and /organizations/* — authenticated user and organization operations
• /admin/users/* and /admin/organizations/* — superuser administration

Data Collection

• /products/* — product creation, reads, updates, search, and parent-child component relations
• /users/me/products/* and /users/{user_id}/products/* — user-scoped product access

Reference Data

• public /taxonomies, /categories, /materials, /product-types, and /units endpoints for reference lookups
• /admin/* variants for controlled management of background data

Media

• /images/* and related file-storage endpoints for uploads, linked media, and retrieval

Hardware Integration

• /plugins/rpi-cam/* — camera registration, status, capture, streaming, and remote interactions

Supporting Services

• /newsletter/* — newsletter subscription operations
• health and readiness endpoints for deployment checks

Design Notes

• The backend serves both browser-oriented and app-oriented clients.
• Authentication supports both cookie and bearer transports (see Authentication).
• Public reference data is openly accessible; user-owned research data requires authentication.

Example Interaction Flow

sequenceDiagram
    participant Researcher
    participant API as FastAPI Backend
    participant DB as Database
    participant Storage as File Storage
    participant RPI as RPI Camera API

    Researcher->>API: Authenticate with bearer or cookie login
    API-->>Researcher: Access token and optional refresh cookie

    loop Add Products
        Researcher->>API: Create parent product
        API->>DB: Store Product
        API-->>Researcher: Product Details

        opt Capture Product Images
            Researcher->>API: Request image capture
            API->>RPI: Trigger Camera
            RPI-->>API: Image Data
            API->>Storage: Store Image
            API->>DB: Link to Product
            API-->>Researcher: Image Details
        end

        loop Add Components
            Researcher->>API: Create component
            API->>DB: Store Component
            API->>DB: Link Component to Parent
            API-->>Researcher: Component Details
        end
    end