Troubleshooting

What to check when the API tab is missing or shows an error.

The API tab is missing

• The user needs a group with the View Delivery API output permission, for this document if the group sets permissions on part of the tree, or a group named in DeliveryApiInspector:UserGroups. See Access.
• A new document has no tab until it has been saved once.
• Administrators get the permission when the package’s migration runs on startup. If Umbraco:CMS:Unattended:PackageMigrationsUnattended is false, run it from Packages, Installed in the backoffice, or tick the permission on the group yourself.
• DeliveryApiInspector:Enabled may be off for this environment.
• On media items, DeliveryApiInspector:Media may be off.
• After changing a setting in appsettings, reload the backoffice. It reads the settings when it loads.

The tab says the Delivery API is not added

Call AddDeliveryApi() on the Umbraco builder in Program.cs. The inspector uses the Delivery API’s own builders, so it cannot show anything without them.

The tab says the document does not exist

For Draft, the document has to be saved. For Published, it has to be published in the culture you are editing. A user also needs the Browse permission on the document, inside their start nodes.

A property is missing or not expanded

The Delivery API leaves out properties whose property editor it cannot output, and returns linked items as references unless expand asks for more. Set Expand to All, or pick the property, and check that its property editor is supported by the Delivery API.

The output differs from my frontend’s

The inspector shows the API’s response for the request above the tree. Compare that request with your frontend’s: a different culture, a missing Preview header, or a different expand changes the output. Copy it as curl and run it against the site to see the public endpoint answer the same request.