Architect GetExternalContactAction returning 404 despite valid phone number

Architect & Flows
1

I’m trying to look up customer details in our external system before the agent takes the call. I’ve set up a Data Action in Architect that calls our internal API, and I’m using the GetExternalContactAction block to trigger it. The goal is simple: pass the caller’s phone number and get back their account status.

The issue is that the action consistently fails with a 404 Not Found error, even when I know the phone number exists in the database. I’ve double-checked the endpoint URL in the Data Action configuration. It looks like this:

https://api.internal.company.com/v1/customers/lookup?phone={{trigger.phoneNumber}}

Here is the JSON payload I’m expecting back:

{
 "customerId": "12345",
 "status": "active",
 "lastInteraction": "2023-10-01T12:00:00Z"
}

I’ve tested the endpoint directly in Postman with the same phone number, and it works fine. I’m getting a 200 OK. But inside Architect, it’s always a 404. I’m wondering if there’s something specific about how GetExternalContactAction handles the request headers or if I need to encode the phone number differently. The trigger variable trigger.phoneNumber definitely has a value.

Has anyone run into this? I’ve checked the logs, but they just show the 404 without much detail. I’m stuck on this one.

2

The 404 usually isn’t about the phone number itself, but how you’re passing it to the external endpoint. Architect strips formatting, so if your API expects +44... and you’re sending 44..., it’ll fail. Also, check the GetExternalContactAction configuration. You need to map the phoneNumber variable explicitly in the “Input” section of the action block.

Here’s how I structured it in my flow:

{
 "actionName": "GetCustomerData",
 "input": {
 "phone": "{{flowData.phoneNumber}}"
 }
}

Make sure your external API logs the incoming request. If it’s receiving an empty string or a malformed number, that’s your culprit. I had this exact issue last week. Turned out the phoneNumber variable was null because I hadn’t enabled CTI integration for that specific routing queue. Check the queue settings under Integrations. If CTI is off, Architect can’t see the caller ID.