Enable omitting specific fields from REST API responses (inverse of ?fields=) #509

New Issue

MrUnknownDE · 2026-04-05T16:37:59+02:00

MrUnknownDE commented

2026-04-05 16:37:59 +02:00

Originally created by @jeremystretch on 1/21/2026

NetBox version

v4.5.1

Feature type

New functionality

Proposed functionality

It's currently possible to limit the fields returned by the REST API by passing a list of fields names appended to the fields URL parameter. For example, GET /api/dcim/sites/?fields=id,name,status will return the following fields for each site:

{
    "id": 24,
    "name": "Butler Communications",
    "status": {
        "value": "active",
        "label": "Active"
    }
}

This FR proposes the introduction of an inverse parameter (i.e. exclude or omit) that allows the client to specify only the fields to exclude from the response. For example, GET /api/dcim/sites/?exclude=device_count,virtualmachine_count would omit the counts of assigned devices and VMs, but retain all other fields.

Use case

This parameter would be convenient in scenarios where the client wants to omit certain fields for performance reasons, but otherwise retain all default serializer fields.

Database changes

N/A

External dependencies

N/A

*Originally created by @jeremystretch on 1/21/2026* ### NetBox version v4.5.1 ### Feature type New functionality ### Proposed functionality It's currently possible to limit the fields returned by the REST API by passing a list of fields names appended to the `fields` URL parameter. For example, `GET /api/dcim/sites/?fields=id,name,status` will return the following fields for each site: ```json { "id": 24, "name": "Butler Communications", "status": { "value": "active", "label": "Active" } } ``` This FR proposes the introduction of an inverse parameter (i.e. `exclude` or `omit`) that allows the client to specify only the fields to _exclude_ from the response. For example, `GET /api/dcim/sites/?exclude=device_count,virtualmachine_count` would omit the counts of assigned devices and VMs, but retain all other fields. ### Use case This parameter would be convenient in scenarios where the client wants to omit certain fields for performance reasons, but otherwise retain all default serializer fields. ### Database changes N/A ### External dependencies N/A

MrUnknownDE closed this issue

2026-04-05 16:37:59 +02:00

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feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature type: feature

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Reference: github/netbox#509

Enable omitting specific fields from REST API responses (inverse of ?fields=) #509