ServiceNow Data Action returning 400 Bad Request with nested JSON payload

Context:
Trying to understand why a specific Data Action in Architect is failing when pushing conversation metadata to ServiceNow. The environment is Genesys Cloud v24.4, utilizing a standard Integration object to handle authentication via OAuth 2.0 client credentials. The target is a ServiceNow REST API endpoint designed to accept a JSON body with nested objects for caller_info and interaction_summary.

The Architect flow successfully retrieves the conversation details using the Get Conversation task. The payload structure passed to the Data Action matches the ServiceNow schema exactly, as verified by Postman tests directly against the ServiceNow instance. However, the Data Action consistently returns a 400 Bad Request with the response body: {"error": {"message": "Invalid JSON structure", "status": "400"}}.

I have verified that the JSON payload is valid using JSON.stringify() in a debug step. The issue appears to stem from how Genesys Cloud serializes the nested objects before sending the POST request. The ServiceNow logs indicate that the caller_info object is being flattened or malformed during the transmission from the Data Action.

Question:
Has anyone encountered serialization issues with nested JSON objects in Genesys Cloud Data Actions? Are there specific limitations or workarounds for sending complex nested payloads to external REST APIs via the built-in Data Action connector, or should this be handled via a custom webhook with manual payload construction?

It depends, but generally… nested objects often fail validation if the schema definition in Architect is too loose. Check if the target endpoint expects flattened keys.

POST /api/incident HTTP/1.1
400 Bad Request: Invalid JSON structure for caller_info

Try flattening the payload in the Data Action mapping step. JMeter tests showed similar 400s when sending deep nests to strict APIs.

The root cause here is the ServiceNow REST API enforcing strict JSON schema validation on nested objects, which often conflicts with how Genesys Cloud Architect serializes complex data types. When the integration object pushes the payload, Architect might be sending null values for optional nested fields or using a format that the ServiceNow endpoint rejects as invalid JSON structure.

The suggestion above about flattening keys is a solid workaround, but it changes the data model on the ServiceNow side, which might break other integrations. A more robust fix is to ensure the JSON payload is explicitly constructed in a Set Variable step before hitting the Data Action. This gives you full control over the serialization and ensures no unexpected nulls or empty objects are included.

Here is a sample configuration for the Set Variable step:

{
 "caller_info": {
 "name": "{{caller.name}}",
 "phone": "{{caller.phone}}"
 },
 "interaction_summary": {
 "type": "inbound",
 "duration": "{{interaction.duration}}"
 }
}

Make sure the Data Action mapping references this constructed variable directly. Also, check the ServiceNow API documentation for specific required fields in the nested objects. If a field is mandatory but missing in the Genesys Cloud context, the API will return a 400 error.

Testing this with JMeter can help isolate whether the issue is with the Genesys Cloud serialization or the ServiceNow endpoint validation. Send the exact same JSON payload from JMeter to the ServiceNow endpoint to verify it accepts it. If it fails there, the issue is with the ServiceNow API configuration. If it succeeds, the issue is likely with how Architect is constructing the payload.