Skip to main content
Legacy data modeling
This resource is part of the asset-centric data model.
  • New projects: We recommend using the data modeling service for greater flexibility and performance.
  • Existing projects: Asset-centric file metadata and the asset filters assetIds, rootAssetIds, and assetSubtreeIds are deprecated on advanced list, aggregate, list, and search. Look up files by querying CogniteFile instances connected to CogniteAsset. Metadata updates for CogniteFile are blocked on the files update endpoint, and files cannot be linked to asset-centric assets. Data set and label governance on files is removed. File content upload and download stay available through instanceId. initUpload stays available for files that are not CogniteFile when you have the files:write capability. See Deprecated and retired features and Data modeling status for CDF projects.
Looking for file upload/download? See File content for uploading and downloading files.This page focuses on file metadata management for asset-centric projects.
The files API lets you create, update, search, and manage file metadata in asset-centric projects. For data modeling projects, use the Instances API to manage files as instances in your data model. Files in CDF can be related to one or more assets. For example, a file can contain a piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) that shows how several assets connect. Each file has a unique id generated at file creation. Specify a fileName when the file is created. If you want to be in control of the file identifier, you can specify an externalId which must be unique within a project. A file can also have metadata key-value fields that are searchable. You can use these fields to store source system IDs and other information. Additionally, files can have labels attached to them, making it easier to organize and categorize files.

Geographic location of files

Specify a file’s geographic location, for example, its geometric features and coordinates, in the geoLocation field. Data in this field needs to follow the GeoJSON specification, explained in detail in RFC 7946. The coordinate reference system for all GeoJSON coordinates is a geographic coordinate reference system that uses the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84).

GeoJSON types

A GeoJSON object has one of 3 types:
  • Feature - Geometric objects with (optional) extra features.
  • FeatureCollection - A collection of Features.
  • GeometryCollection - A collection of Geometry objects (see below).
Currently, Feature is the only type supported by CDF. To describe a geographic feature, the Geometry object needs a type and a corresponding array of coordinates. Below are the supported Geometry types:

Adding geoLocation to a file

The geoLocation field requires the following properties:

type

The type of GeoJSON. CDF only supports the Feature type.

geometry

Represents the points, curves, and surfaces in coordinate space. The property consists of:
  • type - Must be one of the following geometry types: Point, MultiPoint, LineString, MultiLineString, Polygon, and MultiPolygon. See GeoJSON types above.
  • coordinates - An array describing the specified geometry type. The type of geometry determines the shape of this array. For instance, a Point geometry type will contain a coordinate array consisting of just a single x and a single y coordinate. See example 1 below.
  • A LineString geometry type will contain a coordinate array with two or more points, as shown in example 2. A Polygon geometry type will need to contain an array of closed LineStrings with four or more points, as shown in example 3. See the GeoJSON spec for more details on the various shapes of the coordinates field.

properties

An optional field specifying extra information to enrich the Feature. Example 1
Example 2
Example 3 Note that in this example, the Polygon specifies an outer and inner LineString. A Polygon can (but doesn’t have to) contain several of these LineStrings, where the first must be the exterior ring, and the next LineStrings are interior rings. This is how you would define a surface with holes.

Upload example

Update example

GeoLocation filtering

Filtering on, or searching for files matching a certain geoLocation requires two properties:
  • relation - The geographic relation, either INTERSECTS, WITHIN, or DISJOINT.
  • shape - The geometry, as described in the geometry section. Filtering is not available for the MultiPoint type.

Filter example

Rate and concurrency limits

For Files rate and concurrency limits, see API rate limits.
Last modified on April 23, 2026