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Documentation

Customers

customers.create

Add a new customer to the shop's book
WritesWrite budget

REST

Shipping
POST /api/v1/customers/create

MCP tool

Live
customers.create

Exposed on: REST API · Shop MCP server · Claude connector · Dash (in-app copilot) · Zapier. Part of the Customers domain.

Operating contract

Creates one customer. A phone number or an email address is required — the database refuses a contact with a name alone, because a customer nobody can reach is not a customer.

CALL customers.find_by_contact FIRST. If that contact is already on file this refuses rather than minting a duplicate, and the refusal names the existing id.

name is split on the first space into first and last name, the same way the shop's own quick-add does.

CONSENT: consent_source records WHY this shop may message them and consent_captured_at records SINCE WHEN — the two things a CASL audit asks for. Leave them out and the record honestly says the basis is unknown; do not invent one on the integration's behalf, and only send a captured date when you actually know it.

Returns the created customer. Its id is the customer_id every other capability takes.

Who may call it

Permission
customers.accessThe caller must hold Customers at the ACT level. A read-only dashboard grant on the same section is refused.
Plan
Every planNo plan gate. Available on every Service VIN plan.
Retries
naturalNaturally idempotent — running it twice leaves the same world as running it once. A retrying integration needs no key.
Rate class
writeCounted against the write budget, which is tighter than a read.

Input

FieldTypeDescription
namerequiredstringmax 200 chars, min 1 chars

The customer's full name.

phonestringmax 40 chars

A phone number in any format. Required unless an email is given.

emailstringmax 200 chars

An email address. Required unless a phone number is given.

consent_sourcestring

How this shop came to be allowed to message them. Omit when unknown.

One of: express_written, express_verbal, online_booking, web_form, implied_existing_business, implied_inquiry, imported, unknown
consent_captured_atstringdate-time

When that basis was captured, ISO 8601 with an offset. Only with consent_source.

consent_notestringmax 500 chars

A short note about the basis, for the shop's own audit trail.

Output

FieldTypeDescription
idstring

namestring

emailstring | null

phonestring | null

citystring | null

regionstring | null

postal_codestring | null

tagsstring[]

is_vipboolean

created_atstring

Examples

Built from this capability's own schema — required fields and the ones carrying a default, and nothing invented. Paste one and it validates.

curl
export SERVICEVIN_API_KEY=svk_live_…

curl -X POST https://www.servicevin.com/api/v1/customers/create \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SERVICEVIN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Sam Henderson"}'

TypeScript (fetch)
const res = await fetch("https://www.servicevin.com/api/v1/customers/create", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.SERVICEVIN_API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "name": "Sam Henderson"
  }),
});

// Success and failure are both envelopes. Switch on error.code, never
// on error.message — the codes are stable, the messages are for people.
const payload = await res.json();
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(payload.error.code);
const data = payload.data;

Python (requests)
import os, requests

res = requests.post(
    "https://www.servicevin.com/api/v1/customers/create",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SERVICEVIN_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
    "name": "Sam Henderson"
},
    timeout=30,
)
payload = res.json()
if not res.ok:
    raise RuntimeError(payload["error"]["code"])
data = payload["data"]

MCP tools/call — https://www.servicevin.com/api/mcp
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "customers.create",
    "arguments": {
      "name": "Sam Henderson"
    }
  }
}

Refusals

The four gates run in this order on every surface, and the order is not arbitrary — see Authentication.

StatusCodeWhen
404not_foundThe id is unknown, or the feature is not enabled for this account. Deliberately the same answer for both.
403forbiddenThis login does not hold customers.access.
403insufficient_scopeThe credential is read-only and this capability writes.
422validation_errorAn argument was wrong. The message names the field.
429rate_limitedToo many write calls. Back off and retry.
500internal_errorSomething failed on our side. Nothing was changed.