README

!Directus

 The Collaborative Backend for Builders & AI

Connect any SQL database and get instant REST and GraphQL APIs, a visual management Studio, and a native MCP server for
AI agents.

45M+ downloads · 500K+ projects deployed


 [!NOTE] 
 Free for most organizations. Under $5M annual revenue and 50 employees? Directus is completely free.
 Apply for an Open Innovation Grant license and get a key in minutes.
 Learn more about our license.

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 🐇 Introduction

Directus wraps any SQL database with a REST and GraphQL API layer and a visual Studio. Engineers control schema and
access. Non-technical teammates and AI agents work directly with live data. No tickets, no boilerplate.

- REST & GraphQL APIs: Automatically generated from your database schema. No configuration required.
- Visual Studio: A full management interface for non-technical teammates.
- AI Assistant: Embedded in the Studio. Creates, translates, and takes direct action on your content.
- Native MCP Server: Connect Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, or any MCP-compatible tool directly to your data.
- Policy-based Access Control: Granular permissions down to the field level, for humans and AI agents alike.
- Bring your own database: Postgres, MySQL, MariaDB, MS SQL, SQLite, OracleDB, CockroachDB, and more.
- Fully extensible: Custom endpoints, hooks, interfaces, and modules.
- Self-host or cloud: Run locally, on your own infrastructure, or on Directus Cloud.

Learn more about Directus · Documentation

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 🤖 AI & MCP

Directus includes a built-in AI Assistant and a native MCP server. AI works with your live data, not a copy of it.

- AI Assistant: Creates content, runs translations, and triggers workflows directly from the Studio.
- Native MCP Server: Any MCP-compatible agent or tool can connect to Directus. Same access policies that apply to
  your team apply to AI.
- Governed by default: AI agents operate under the same role-based permissions as human users. No special cases, no
  workarounds.

Read the AI & MCP docs

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 🚀 Directus Cloud

Directus Cloud provisions a fully managed project in under 90 seconds.

- Centrally managed: Self-service dashboard to create and monitor all your projects in one place
- All-in-one solution: Database, storage, and auto-scaling included with a global CDN
- Simple setup: Select a region and get a running instance immediately

Create a Directus Cloud Project

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 ⚡ One-Click Deployment Options

 Deploy on Railway

One click. Fully provisioned with PostgreSQL, Redis, and S3-compatible storage, connected via Railway's private network.



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 🙋 Community Help

The Directus Documentation is a great place to start, or explore these other channels:

- Community Forum (Questions, Discussions)
- Discord (Live Chat)
- GitHub Issues (Report Bugs)
- Roadmap (Roadmap & Feature Requests)
- Resources (Latest News)
- YouTube (Video Tutorials)

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 ❤️ Contributing

Read our Contributing Guide before submitting pull
requests.

Report security vulnerabilities per ou

Top issues

Discussions

Latest release

✨ New Features & Improvements

- @directus/app
  - Added an "Allowed Link Protocols" option to the WYSIWYG interface so text and image links with custom URL schemes (e.g. myapp://) are kept, and made the link drawer show an error for a scheme that is not allowed instead of saving an empty link (28447 by @alvarosabu)
- @directus/utils
  - Fixed searching a many-to-many list so it matches the related fields shown in the list, not only the junction's own fields. Searching a number no longer matches hidden ID fields, such as the junction row ID (28422 by @robluton)
- @directus/cli
  - Added