Paginate and sort

By default only 20 query results are returned per page and the order of these results is not guaranteed and may change. Pagination and sorting allow for getting more results and defining the order of the results.

Pagination

By default the API only returns the first page of 20 results. To request more results per page the limit query parameter can be send with the request.

curl -X POST https://api.box.com/2.0/metadata_queries/execute_read \
    -H 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{
      "from": "enterprise_123456.contractTemplate",
      "fields": ["name"],
      "ancestor_folder_id": "5555",
      "limit": 100
    }'

The maximum value for limit is 100. To return more pages of results each page returns a next_marker value.

{
  "entries": [...],
  "next_marker": "AAAAAmVYB1FWec8GH6yWu2nwmanfMh07IyYInaa7DZDYjgO1H4KoLW29vPlLY173OKsci6h6xGh61gG73gnaxoS+o0BbI1/h6le6cikjlupVhASwJ2Cj0tOD9wlnrUMHHw3/ISf+uuACzrOMhN6d5fYrbidPzS6MdhJOejuYlvsg4tcBYzjauP3+VU51p77HFAIuObnJT0ff"
}

This next_marker can be used to form a new request for the next page of results.

curl -X POST https://api.box.com/2.0/metadata_queries/execute_read \
    -H 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{
      "from": "enterprise_123456.contractTemplate",
      "fields": ["name"],
      "ancestor_folder_id": "5555",
      "limit": 100,
      "marker": "AAAAAmVYB1FWec8GH6yWu2nwmanfMh07IyYInaa7DZDYjgO1H4KoLW29vPlLY173OKsci6h6xGh61gG73gnaxoS+o0BbI1/h6le6cikjlupVhASwJ2Cj0tOD9wlnrUMHHw3/ISf+uuACzrOMhN6d5fYrbidPzS6MdhJOejuYlvsg4tcBYzjauP3+VU51p77HFAIuObnJT0ff"
    }'

When a response does not include a next marker it indicates that no more matching results exist.

To use the next_marker it is important to use the exact same query for the next page of results. The API will return an error if any of the parameters like the query, query_params, or others are changed.

Sort

Results can be ordered by any of the supported metadata field types. These only supported types currently are float, date, and string . Ordering by enum or multiSelect value is currently not supported. To order result, provide one or more field keys to sort by, as well as a direction.

"order_by": [
  {
    "field_key": "amount”,
    "direction": "desc"
  },
  {
    "field_key": "created_at",
    "direction": "desc"
  }
]

The ordering direction must be the same for all specified keys. In other words, for each field_key the direction must be the same.

Last modified on June 10, 2026

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