From 83fb89d9a9bd87eb2a61380896f7738bea4ac35c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: varun <varunjuneja7@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2026 03:07:29 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] Return the created row as a JSON object instead of a
 single-item list

---
 piccolo_api/crud/endpoints.py           |  6 +++++-
 tests/crud/test_crud_endpoints.py       | 19 +++++++++++++++++++
 tests/fastapi/test_fastapi_endpoints.py |  2 +-
 3 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/piccolo_api/crud/endpoints.py b/piccolo_api/crud/endpoints.py
index 5174a1f7..2b8bc28c 100644
--- a/piccolo_api/crud/endpoints.py
+++ b/piccolo_api/crud/endpoints.py
@@ -982,7 +982,11 @@ async def post_single(
                         request=request,
                     )
                 response = await row.save().run()
-                json = dump_json(response)
+                # `save()` on a new row inserts it and returns a list with
+                # a single item (the primary key of the inserted row) - we
+                # only ever insert one row here, so unwrap it into a plain
+                # object instead of returning a single-item list.
+                json = dump_json(response[0])
                 # Returns the id of the inserted row.
                 return CustomJSONResponse(json, status_code=201)
             except ValueError:
diff --git a/tests/crud/test_crud_endpoints.py b/tests/crud/test_crud_endpoints.py
index 669e5af4..141478dc 100644
--- a/tests/crud/test_crud_endpoints.py
+++ b/tests/crud/test_crud_endpoints.py
@@ -1357,6 +1357,25 @@ def test_success(self):
         self.assertEqual(movie.name, json["name"])
         self.assertEqual(movie.rating, json["rating"])
 
+    def test_response_body_is_a_dict_not_a_list(self):
+        """
+        The response body should be a JSON object (e.g. ``{"id": 1}``), not
+        a single-item list (e.g. ``[{"id": 1}]``), so a client can read the
+        id straight off the parsed response without unwrapping a list.
+
+        https://github.com/piccolo-orm/piccolo_api/issues/211
+        """
+        client = TestClient(PiccoloCRUD(table=Movie, read_only=False))
+
+        response = client.post("/", json={"name": "Star Wars", "rating": 93})
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 201)
+
+        body = response.json()
+        self.assertIsInstance(body, dict)
+
+        movie = Movie.objects().first().run_sync()
+        self.assertEqual(body["id"], movie.id)
+
     def test_post_user_success(self):
         client = TestClient(PiccoloCRUD(table=BaseUser, read_only=False))
 
diff --git a/tests/fastapi/test_fastapi_endpoints.py b/tests/fastapi/test_fastapi_endpoints.py
index b5cd0d51..8688e621 100644
--- a/tests/fastapi/test_fastapi_endpoints.py
+++ b/tests/fastapi/test_fastapi_endpoints.py
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ def test_post(self):
             "/movies/", json={"name": "Star Wars", "rating": 93}
         )
         self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 201)
-        self.assertEqual(response.json(), [{"id": 2}])
+        self.assertEqual(response.json(), {"id": 2})
 
     def test_put(self):
         client = TestClient(app)