The category object

function buildTree(categories) {
  const byId = new Map()
  for (const c of categories) {
    byId.set(c.id, { ...c, children: [] })
  }
  const roots = []
  for (const c of byId.values()) {
    if (c.parent_id) {
      byId.get(c.parent_id)?.children.push(c)
    } else {
      roots.push(c)
    }
  }
  const bySort = (a, b) => a.sort_order - b.sort_order
  const walk = (n) => {
    n.children.sort(bySort)
    n.children.forEach(walk)
  }
  roots.sort(bySort)
  roots.forEach(walk)
  return roots
}

const flat = await fetch("https://api.awardee.com/v1/article-categories", {
headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${API_KEY}` },
}).then((r) => r.json())

const tree = buildTree(flat.data)

def build_tree(categories):
    by_id = {c["id"]: {**c, "children": []} for c in categories}
    roots = []
    for c in by_id.values():
        if c["parent_id"]:
            by_id[c["parent_id"]]["children"].append(c)
        else:
            roots.append(c)

    def sort_walk(nodes):
        nodes.sort(key=lambda n: n["sort_order"])
        for n in nodes:
            sort_walk(n["children"])

    sort_walk(roots)
    return roots

import requests
flat = requests.get(
    "https://api.awardee.com/v1/article-categories",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
).json()
tree = build_tree(flat["data"])

# The API returns a flat list; do the tree assembly client-side.
curl https://api.awardee.com/v1/article-categories \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer aw_live_4f8a3c7e2d1b9a5c6f8e3d2c1b4a9f7e"