# Fetch Categories

Categories follow a three-level hierarchy (**L1 → L2 → L3**) in Fynd Commerce to organize products and enhance discoverability across your catalog. Each level serves a distinct purpose:

* **L1**: Top-level categories
* **L2**: Sub-categories that group related products
* **L3**: Leaf categories representing the most specific product classification


Category Workflow
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Categories are sales-channel specific, meaning L1 and L2 remain consistent across channels, while L3 names can be customized per channel to meet marketplace-specific requirements or unique business needs.

The Fetch Categories endpoint retrieves the complete category hierarchy configured for your company. Use this API to access category metadata (including IDs, names, slugs, hierarchy levels, and parent relationships) which is essential when creating products or mapping categories across different sales channels. The endpoint supports flexible querying by slug, hierarchy level, department ID, or specific L3 category IDs, along with pagination for handling extensive category trees.

> **Request Type:** `GET`
**Scheme:** `HTTPS`
**Endpoint:** `https://{{host}}/v3/catalog/category`


Try out Fynd Konnect's Fetch Categories Endpoint
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**Common Request Headers**

| Header | Mandatory | Description |
|  --- | --- | --- |
| `x-access-token` | Yes | Access token used for authenticating API requests to Fynd Konnect |
| `Content-Type` | Yes | `application/json` |


Want to create a custom L3 category?
1. Prepare details: target L1/L2 parent, proposed L3 name & slug, business rationale (channels it serves), sample SKUs, and any required attributes
2. Share this with your Fynd Onboarding POC (and raise a support ticket) for review
3. Once created by Fynd, fetch the new category via API and update your mappings


### Query Parameters

Filtering Tips
* Use `slug` for exact category lookups by slug identifier
* Use `level` to retrieve all categories at a specific hierarchy level
* Combine `department` and `level` to get categories within a department at a specific level
* Use `cat3_id` with comma-separated IDs to fetch multiple L3 categories efficiently
* Apply pagination when dealing with large category trees (e.g., fashion or grocery catalogs)


### Success Response

### API Call Example

### Example Response


```json
{
  "items": [
    {
      "id": 142037,
      "name": "Fruit Juices & Fruit Drinks",
      "slug": "fruit-juices-and-fruit-drinks",
      "level": 3,
      "parent_id": 8123,
      "department_id": 5957,
      "path": [
        {
          "id": 101,
          "name": "Beverages",
          "slug": "beverages",
          "level": 1
        },
        {
          "id": 8123,
          "name": "Juices",
          "slug": "juices",
          "level": 2
        },
        {
          "id": 142037,
          "name": "Fruit Juices & Fruit Drinks",
          "slug": "fruit-juices-and-fruit-drinks",
          "level": 3
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "page_number": 1,
  "page_size": 10,
  "total": 420
}
```

## Best Practices

1. **Cache category data**: Category hierarchies change infrequently, so implement caching to reduce API calls
2. **Use L3 categories for products**: Always assign products to L3 (leaf) categories for maximum specificity
3. **Store category IDs**: Save category IDs (UIDs) in your system for efficient product creation and updates
4. **Leverage the path array**: Use the path field to build breadcrumbs and understand category relationships
5. **Filter by department**: Combine `department` and `level` filters to retrieve relevant categories for specific product types
6. **Handle pagination**: Fashion and grocery catalogs can have hundreds of categories; implement proper pagination logic


Next Steps
* To retrieve departments for category filtering, see [Fetch Departments](/konnect/channels/erp-wms/api-documentation/catalog/get-departments)
* To fetch templates associated with categories, see [Fetch Templates](/konnect/channels/erp-wms/api-documentation/catalog/get-templates)
* To retrieve category-specific attributes, see [Fetch Attributes by Product](/konnect/channels/erp-wms/api-documentation/catalog/get-attributes-by-product)
* To create products with category assignments, see [Create Product](/konnect/channels/erp-wms/api-documentation/catalog/post-create-product)
* For complete catalog setup workflow, see [Catalog Management Guide](/konnect/channels/erp-wms/whats-new/catalog-management)