# Internal Cascade API

> The internal Cascade API exposes a set of operations to developers for code run within Cascade CMS in Formats, Publish Triggers, Asset Factory Plugins, and other types of plugins.

URL: https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/developing-in-cascade/internal-cascade-api/index.html
category: Developing in Cascade
article-type: concept
content-kind: article
release-availability: all
tags: api
updated: 2026-10-06

The internal Cascade API exposes a set of operations to developers for code run within Cascade CMS in formats, Publish Triggers, Asset Factory Plugins, and other types of plugins. Currently the API supports the following operations:

- **Reading** assets and asset data.
- **Creating** new assets.
- Making **edits** to existing assets.
- Making **copies** of existing assets.
- Adding assets to the **publish** queue.
- **Deleting** assets.

The Cascade API is a library written in Java.

To use the API inside of formats, use the [Locator Tool or Query API](https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/developing-in-cascade/script-formats/velocity-tools.html#LocatorTool) to retrieve API objects.

To use the API inside of an [Asset Factory Plugin](https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/content-authoring/asset-factories/plugins/index.html) or [Publish Trigger](https://www.hannonhill.com/cascadecms/latest/articles/developing-in-cascade/publish-triggers.html), developers need to include the Cascade API JAR file in their classpath. The API JAR is bundled with the [Asset Factory Plugin SDK](https://github.com/hannonhill/Cascade-Server-Asset-Factory-Plugin-SDK) and the [Publish Trigger SDK](https://github.com/hannonhill/Cascade-Server-Publish-Trigger-SDK).