Does anyone know why genesyscloud_ai_knowledge returns 422 Unprocessable Entity when updating synonyms in bulk via CLI?
error says “invalid character in snippet” but payload is clean utf-8. works fine for single item updates. breaking our nightly IaC sync.
This is typically caused by the Terraform provider’s handling of special characters within the synonyms array during bulk operations, particularly when the payload exceeds the standard request size or contains nested objects that trigger strict JSON serialization checks in the Genesys Cloud API. The 422 error often masks a deeper issue with how the provider constructs the POST body for batch updates, especially in the ap-southeast-2 region where latency can exacerbate timeout-related serialization failures.
When performing bulk updates via IaC, the provider may inadvertently include trailing commas or escape sequences that are valid in Terraform HCL but invalid in the strict JSON schema expected by the /api/v2/ai-knowledge/synonyms endpoint. Single updates work because they bypass the batch processor, which has more stringent validation rules.
To resolve this, ensure the synonyms list is explicitly defined as a flat array of strings without nested objects or empty entries. Additionally, verify that the knowledge_source_id is correctly referenced and that the language_code matches the knowledge base configuration. A common fix is to isolate the problematic synonym entries by splitting the bulk update into smaller batches (e.g., 10-20 items per apply) to identify the specific character causing the rejection.
Example configuration adjustment:
resource "genesyscloud_ai_knowledge_synonyms" "bulk_synonyms" {
knowledge_source_id = var.knowledge_source_id
language_code = "en-US"
synonyms = ["valid_term", "another_term"] # Ensure no special chars or empty strings
}
Also, check the Terraform provider logs for detailed API responses, as the 422 error body often contains the specific character index causing the failure. If the issue persists, consider using the Genesys Cloud API directly via a null_resource with a local-exec provider to bypass the Terraform provider’s serialization logic.