Genesys Cloud Webhook to ServiceNow Data Action Timeout on Digital Channel Conversation Start

Architect & Flows
1

Could someone explain the behavior of the Genesys Cloud Data Action when invoked via a Webhook trigger on a Digital Channel conversation? We are experiencing a consistent 504 Gateway Timeout when the flow attempts to create a ServiceNow incident immediately upon conversation start.

The environment details are as follows:

  • Genesys Cloud Version: 2023-12
  • ServiceNow Version: Washington DC (v15.0)
  • Integration Method: Genesys Cloud Data Action (POST /api/v2/data-actions/instances/{dataActionId}/invoke)
  • Trigger: Webhook from Architect Flow on conversation:start event for Web Chat.

The issue appears specific to the initial connection handshake. Subsequent updates to the same ticket via Agent Desktop events succeed without error. The 504 suggests the Genesys Cloud platform is waiting for a response from ServiceNow that never arrives, or the internal timeout threshold is being breached before the ServiceNow REST endpoint acknowledges the request.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Initiate a Web Chat session from a test browser.
  2. The Architect Flow triggers the conversation:start event.
  3. The flow executes the Data Action step configured to map conversation attributes (queue name, customer email, transcript snippet) to ServiceNow fields.
  4. The Data Action returns a 504 Gateway Timeout within 30 seconds.
  5. The flow falls back to the error handling path, logging the failure.

I have verified the ServiceNow REST message is functional using Postman with identical headers and payload structure. The response time from ServiceNow is under 200ms when tested externally. The Genesys Cloud logs show the Data Action invocation timestamp but no subsequent success or detailed failure message beyond the 504 status code.

Is there a known limitation on payload size or connection pooling for Data Actions triggered by high-volume digital channel webhooks? We are seeing this spike during peak London business hours (09:00-11:00 GMT). I have checked the Genesys Cloud documentation for Data Action limits, but nothing explicitly mentions timeout behavior under load for outbound HTTPS calls to external CMDBs. Any insights into debugging the handshake failure between the Genesys Cloud edge and our ServiceNow instance would be appreciated.