PocketBase API Rules & Filter Expressions

Rule Types

Each collection has 5 rule types. Each rule is a filter expression that must evaluate to true for the request to proceed.

Critical: null/locked means only superusers can perform the action (regular users and guests are denied). Empty string "" means EVERYONE including guests. Superusers always bypass API rules entirely — see below.

Superuser Bypass

Superusers (formerly admins) always bypass API rules. Rules only apply to regular auth records and guests.

Filter Syntax

Operators

Critical: use ?= (not =) for multi-valued fields (multi-select, multi-relation, multi-file). = checks the raw JSON string, ?= checks individual values.

Logical Operators

status = "active" && author = @request.auth.id
status = "active" || status = "featured"

Parentheses for grouping: (a = 1 || b = 2) && c = 3

Values

• Strings: "value" or 'value'
• Numbers: 123, 45.67
• Booleans: true, false
• null — empty/missing value
• Identifiers: field names, macros

Request Macros (@request.*)

Access the current request context in rules:

Auth record relations

You can traverse relations on the auth record:

@request.auth.team.owner = @request.auth.id

Collection Macros (@collection.*)

Cross-collection lookups without explicit joins:

@collection.memberships.user ?= @request.auth.id &&
@collection.memberships.team ?= team

This checks if a record exists in the memberships collection where the user matches the current auth user and the team matches the current record's team field.

Note: @collection.* performs an implicit EXISTS subquery. It's powerful but can be slow on large datasets — add indexes.

Field Modifiers

Use in create/update rules to validate specific field behaviors:

Examples

// Only allow changing status if user is owner
status:changed = false || author = @request.auth.id

// Prevent setting role on create
@request.body.role:isset = false

// Require at least 2 tags
@request.body.tags:length >= 2

// Check each tag is from allowed list
@request.body.tags:each ?= @collection.allowed_tags.id

Datetime Macros

Arithmetic: @now - 7d, @now + 1h, @now - 30m

geoDistance()

For location-based filtering:

geoDistance(lat, lon, 40.7128, -74.0060) <= 10000

Arguments: geoDistance(latField, lonField, targetLat, targetLon) — returns meters.

Common Patterns

Owner-only access

// View/Update/Delete rule:
author = @request.auth.id

Authenticated users only

@request.auth.id != ""

Verified users only

@request.auth.verified = true

Role-based access

@request.auth.role = "admin" || author = @request.auth.id

Team membership

@collection.team_members.user ?= @request.auth.id &&
@collection.team_members.team ?= team

Public read, owner write

// List/View: ""  (empty = everyone)
// Create: @request.auth.id != ""
// Update/Delete: author = @request.auth.id

Prevent field modification

// Update rule: prevent changing `owner` after creation
owner:changed = false

Time-limited access

expires > @now