Hey folks,
Running into a weird issue with the Conversations API. We’re trying to update participant attributes mid-call to trigger some downstream logic in our custom app. The flow is pretty standard: agent takes the call, we fetch the interaction and participant IDs via the GET endpoints, then we hit the PUT endpoint to patch the attributes.
The API returns a 200 OK, and the response body looks correct with the new attributes included. Here’s the payload we’re sending:
{
"attributes": {
"custom_tier": "gold",
"last_update": "2023-10-27T14:00:00Z"
}
}
The endpoint is PUT /api/v2/conversations/interactions/{interactionId}/participants/{participantId}.
The problem is, if we immediately call GET /api/v2/conversations/interactions/{interactionId}/participants/{participantId} right after, the attributes are empty. They just aren’t sticking. I’ve tried waiting 5 seconds, 10 seconds, even 30 seconds before re-polling, but it’s always blank.
I’ve double-checked the headers. Authorization is fine, Content-Type is application/json. I’m not seeing any 4xx or 5xx errors. It feels like the write is happening to a temporary state or maybe there’s a specific flag I need to set on the interaction itself before attributes can be attached?
We’re using the Python SDK, but I’ve also tried raw requests with curl just to rule out SDK quirks, same result. 200 OK but no data on the read.
Has anyone seen this behavior? Is there a specific sequence of calls required to make attributes persist on a live voice interaction?
Thanks,
that 200 OK is the classic “we received your request” trap. It doesn’t mean the data actually landed in the persistence layer. In Genesys Cloud, the participant object is immutable for most fields once the interaction starts. You can’t just PUT a whole object with new attributes and expect it to merge.
You need to use the PATCH method instead, and you have to target the specific endpoint for updating participant attributes. The PUT /api/v2/conversations/interactions/{id}/participants/{id} endpoint is often for re-assigning or changing the role, not for metadata updates.
Try this with the Node SDK. It’s much cleaner than wrestling with raw HTTP verbs for partial updates.
const platformClient = require('genesys-cloud-platform-client');
// Initialize your client
const client = new platformClient.PureCloudPlatformClientV2();
client.loginOAuthClientCredentials({
clientId: process.env.CLIENT_ID,
clientSecret: process.env.CLIENT_SECRET
});
async function updateParticipantAttributes(interactionId, participantId, newAttributes) {
try {
// Use the conversations API to PATCH the participant
// Note: The SDK method is usually patchConversationInteractionParticipant
const apiInstance = new platformClient.ConversationsApi();
// The body for a PATCH is just the attributes you want to change
// Do not send the whole participant object
const body = {
attributes: newAttributes
};
// Make sure you have the 'conversation:write' scope
const result = await apiInstance.patchConversationInteractionParticipant(
interactionId,
participantId,
body
);
console.log('Patch successful:', result);
return result;
} catch (error) {
console.error('Failed to update attributes:', error);
throw error;
}
}
// Usage
updateParticipantAttributes(
'your-interaction-id',
'your-participant-id',
{
'custom.key': 'some-value',
'triggered': true
}
);
A few things to watch out for. First, make sure your OAuth token has the conversation:write scope. If you’re using conversation:read only, the PUT/PATCH will silently fail or return a 200 with no changes applied in some older SDK versions. Second, attribute keys are case-sensitive. If you wrote Custom.Key before, you can’t update it with custom.key later. It has to match exactly.
Also, if you’re doing this in a webhook triggered by a conversation event, be careful about race conditions. The event might fire before the participant object is fully stable in the database. Adding a small delay or retry logic with exponential backoff helps. I usually wrap these calls in a retry loop because the API can be flaky right after an interaction starts.