Level 1 defines a read-only repository.

Level 2 defines methods for writing content and bidirectional interaction with the repository.

Initiating a session calling the login method with the name of desired workspace and client credentials. It involves some security mechanisms (JAAS) to authenticate the client and in case the client is authorized to use the data from a particular workspace, he can retrieve the session with a workspace tied to it.

Using the obtained session, the client can retrieve data (items) by traversing the tree, directly accessing a particular item (requesting path or UUID) or traversing the query result. So an application developer can choose the "best" form depending on the content structure and desired operation.

Reading property values. All content of a repository is ultimately accessed through properties and stored in property values of predefined types (Boolean, Binary Data, Double, Long, String) and special types Name, Reference, and Path. It is possible to read property value without knowing its real name as a primary item.

Export to XML. Repository supports two XML/JCR data model mappings: system and document views. The system view provides complete XML serialization without loss of information and is somewhat difficult for a human to read. In contrast, the document view is well readable but does not completely reflect the state of repository, it is used for Xpath queries.

Query facility with Xpath syntax. Xpath, originally developed for XML, suits the JCR data model as well because the JCR data model is very close to XML's one. It is applied to JCR as it would be applied to the document view of the serialized repository content, returning a table of property names and content matching the query.

Discovery of available node types. Every node should have only one primary node type that defines names, types and other characteristics of child nodes and properties. It also can have one or more mixin data types that defines additional characteristics. Level 1 provides methods for discovering available in repository node types and node types of a concrete node.

Transient namespace remapping. Item name can have prefix, delimited by a single ':' (colon) character that indicates the namespace of this name. It is patterned after XML namespaces, prefix is mapped to URI to minimize names collisions. In Level 1, a prefix can be temporarily overridden by another prefix in the scope of a session.

Adding, moving, copying and removing items inside workspace and moving, copying and cloning items between workspaces. The client can also compare the persisted state of an item with its unsaved states and either save the new state or discard it.

Modifying and writing value of properties. Property types are checked and can be converted to the defined format.

Importing XML document into the repository as a tree of nodes and properties. If the XML document is an export of JCR system view, the content of repository can be completely restored. If this is not the case, the document is interpreted as a document view and the import procedure builds a tree of JCR nodes and properties that matches the tree structure of the XML document.

Assigning node types to nodes. The primary node type is assigned when adding a node. This can be done automatically based on the parent node type definition and mixin node types.

Persistent namespaces changes. Adding, changing and removing namespaces stored in the namespace registry, excluding built-in namespaces required by JCR.