Improvements to /db/table/pk.json row page

[simonw]

• Add {"ok": true} for consistency with the table endpoint
• Change it to {"row": {"...": "..."}} to make it nicer to use

[simonw]

The {"row": ...} bit is a little harder because our plugin renderers depend on that existing "rows": [...] list for the case when they are applied to an individual row. https://docs.datasette.io/en/stable/plugin_hooks.html#register-output-renderer-datasette

[simonw]

Interesting suggestion from Claude Code:

diff --git a/datasette/renderer.py b/datasette/renderer.py
index acf23e59..e9ed1874 100644
--- a/datasette/renderer.py
+++ b/datasette/renderer.py
@@ -31,6 +31,28 @@ def json_renderer(request, args, data, error, truncated=None):
     """Render a response as JSON"""
     status_code = 200
 
+    # If this is a row endpoint, transform to {"row": {...}} format
+    is_row_endpoint = data.pop("_row_endpoint", False)
+    if is_row_endpoint:
+        if error:
+            data["ok"] = False
+            data["error"] = error
+            status_code = 400
+        else:
+            data["ok"] = True
+        # Transform rows[0] to row dict
+        rows = data.pop("rows", [])
+        data.pop("columns", None)
+        if rows:
+            data["row"] = dict(rows[0])
+        body = json.dumps(data, cls=CustomJSONEncoder)
+        return Response(
+            body,
+            status=status_code,
+            headers={},
+            content_type="application/json; charset=utf-8",
+        )
+
     # Handle the _json= parameter which may modify data["rows"]
     json_cols = []
     if "_json" in args:
diff --git a/datasette/views/row.py b/datasette/views/row.py
index 4f896632..b7ab20f1 100644
--- a/datasette/views/row.py
+++ b/datasette/views/row.py
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ class RowView(DataView):
             "columns": columns,
             "primary_keys": resolved.pks,
             "primary_key_values": pk_values,
+            "_row_endpoint": True,  # Signal to renderer to output as {"row": {...}}
         }
 
         if "foreign_key_tables" in (request.args.get("_extras") or "").split(","):

[simonw]

That's not a complete solution, it disables the ?_json= logic and others like it by terminating early.

I think /db/table/row.json should still obey the ?_shape= option which should cause it to go back to behaving exactly like tables do.