# Download Operation with directy content (without file repository)

**URL:** <https://community.cumulocity.com/t/download-operation-with-directy-content-without-file-repository/14605>\
**Category:** Forum\
**Tags:** cumulocity-edge, thin-edge-io, device-management, operations\
**Created:** [June 1, 2026, 12:09pm UTC](https://community.cumulocity.com/t/download-operation-with-directy-content-without-file-repository/14605 "2026-06-01T12:09:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![david.boenisch](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.cumulocity.com/david.boenisch/32/32411_2.png) [@david.boenisch](https://community.cumulocity.com/u/david.boenisch)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 12:09pm UTC](https://community.cumulocity.com/t/download-operation-with-directy-content-without-file-repository/14605/1 "2026-06-01T12:09:09Z")

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Hello everyone,

I have the following question for you:

Is a download operation (c8y\_DownloadConfigFile) (from the device’s perspective) only possible using a binary file from the repository? Or can I specify the content directly during the operation?  
I’d like to use features that work out-of-the-box with ThinEdge!

For upload operations, it is possible to use an event binary.

Best regards, David

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david.presuhn](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.cumulocity.com/david.presuhn/32/32123_2.png) [@david.presuhn](https://community.cumulocity.com/u/david.presuhn)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 12:50pm UTC](https://community.cumulocity.com/t/download-operation-with-directy-content-without-file-repository/14605/2 "2026-06-01T12:50:33Z")

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We use AWS S3 for all our file operations - both download and upload. We only use the internal repository to hold files generated by Cumulocity itself.

From a security perspective, if you’re going to use an external repository, it’s better to use a pre-signed URL for file transfer than to send credentials.

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**Author:** ![Stefan\_Witschel](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.cumulocity.com/stefan_witschel/32/31955_2.png) [@Stefan\_Witschel](https://community.cumulocity.com/u/Stefan_Witschel)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2026, 7:17am UTC](https://community.cumulocity.com/t/download-operation-with-directy-content-without-file-repository/14605/3 "2026-06-02T07:17:28Z")

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In the repository you can define if the snapshot is a binary (stored in cumulocity) or a external URL:

 ![image](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/cumulocity/original/3X/a/8/a8092513e989a29dd0ec5e2c252828b77011a157.png)

When clicking on “Send configuration to device” this information will be used to create the operation with the fragment `c8y_DownloadConfigFile`.

I think [thin-edge.io](http://thin-edge.io) doesn’t care where to download the file unless it has access to do so.