# List item categories

Operation ID: `itemCategories`

Group: Inventory › Item Categories

[Open in the interactive reference](https://docs.api.lensing.ai/lensing/v1/endpoints/itemCategories)

`GET /inventory/item-categories`

Read-only: Reads and returns; changes nothing.

Lists item categories. Each category comes back with every field except parentId, which GET inventory/item-categories/:id returns. To see where each category sits in the tree, with its parent, ancestors, and depth, use GET inventory/item-categories/tree.

## Parameters

| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `Api-Version` | header | string · v1 | yes | The API version this request targets, named by its public identifier. Required on every request; omitting it, or naming a version this company does not have, is answered with 400. This document describes version `v1`. |

## Query surface

- `id` — filter by eq, ne, gt, gte, lt, lte, in, notIn, between, like
- `name` — filter by eq, ne, gt, gte, lt, lte, in, notIn, between, like
- `active` — filter by eq, ne, gt, gte, lt, lte, in, notIn, between
- `lastModifiedDate` — filter by eq, ne, gt, gte, lt, lte, in, notIn, between
- Orderable: id, name, description, active, idealTurnoverRatio, lastModifiedDate
- Selectable: id, name, description, active, idealTurnoverRatio, lastModifiedDate
- `page[size]` — Page size
- `page[cursor]` — Opaque continuation cursor

## Response

`200` Success

Under `data`, an array of itemCategoriesRow:

| Field | Type | Required | Filter | Sort | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `id` | string | no | Exact (`eq`, `ne`), Range (`gt`, `gte`, `lt`, `lte`, `between`), Any of (`in`, `notIn`), Pattern (`like`) | yes | The unique identifier for the item category. Example: `"a2f47b91-0c6d-4e38-95b1-7d3e6a428c50"`. |
| `name` | string | no | Exact (`eq`, `ne`), Range (`gt`, `gte`, `lt`, `lte`, `between`), Any of (`in`, `notIn`), Pattern (`like`) | yes | The display name of the category, for example 'Hardware'. Not unique: two categories can share a name, so use id to address one. Example: `"Hardware"`. |
| `description` | string \| null | no | no | yes | A free-form description of what the category covers. Absent when none was set. Example: `"Fasteners, fittings and tooling"`. |
| `active` | boolean \| null | no | Exact (`eq`, `ne`), Range (`gt`, `gte`, `lt`, `lte`, `between`), Any of (`in`, `notIn`) | yes | Whether the category can be chosen on new items. When false the category is retired: existing items keep it and new ones cannot be assigned to it. Example: `true`. |
| `idealTurnoverRatio` | decimal \| null | no | no | yes | The target inventory turnover for items in this category, in times per year. For analytics only. A ratio rather than an amount, so it has no currency. Example: `"6.50"`. |
| `lastModifiedDate` | date-time \| null | no | Exact (`eq`, `ne`), Range (`gt`, `gte`, `lt`, `lte`, `between`), Any of (`in`, `notIn`) | yes | The date and time the category last changed, in UTC. Format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ. Example: `"2026-05-12T09:30:00.000Z"`. |

```json
{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "a2f47b91-0c6d-4e38-95b1-7d3e6a428c50",
      "name": "Hardware",
      "description": "Fasteners, fittings and tooling",
      "active": true,
      "idealTurnoverRatio": "6.50",
      "lastModifiedDate": "2026-05-12T09:30:00.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "pagination": {
    "hasMore": true,
    "nextCursor": "<nextCursor>"
  }
}
```

## Statuses

- `400` — Invalid request or business failure
- `401` — The request carries no valid access token.
- `403` — Not authorized
- `404` — Not found
- `429` — Too many requests from this client address. The response has no body and no `Retry-After` header.
- `500` — Internal server error