use org or user external id to make management api calls
Hi hope all is well, I have external ids for the users and my orgs also but the management api doesn't seem to let me use the external id in order to make api calls against it. Is there a way to use the external ids against management api calls?
5 Replies
Hi, thanks for reaching out — hope you're doing well!
You're right that the Kinde Management API primarily uses Kinde’s internal identifiers (like
🔗 PATCH /api/v1/organization/{org_code} However, you can work with
🔗 GET /api/v1/organizations 2. Filter the response in your application logic by
🔗 PATCH /api/v1/organization/{org_code} This approach — using external IDs for mapping and internal IDs for operations — is common for performance and consistency reasons. Let me know if you'd like a quick code snippet or if you're trying to solve for something more specific!
org_code for organizations) for most operations:🔗 PATCH /api/v1/organization/{org_code} However, you can work with
external_id for organizations and provided_id for users.
For organizations, here’s how you can work with external_id:
1. List all organizations using🔗 GET /api/v1/organizations 2. Filter the response in your application logic by
external_id.
3. Extract the code (internal ID) and use that for follow-up actions (e.g., updates).
For example:
- When creating an org, you can set external_id:
🔗 POST /api/v1/organization
- But when updating, you'll need to use the org_code in the URL:🔗 PATCH /api/v1/organization/{org_code} This approach — using external IDs for mapping and internal IDs for operations — is common for performance and consistency reasons. Let me know if you'd like a quick code snippet or if you're trying to solve for something more specific!
Kinde docs
Kinde Management API
The management API is for managing your Kinde account. Most things that can be done via the Kinde admin UI can be done with this API
unfortunately for me that means I can't use Kinde, is this something on your roadmap to fix?
Thanks for the follow-up and totally understand the need for more flexibility here.
Just to clarify, is the blocker mainly due to needing to call the Management API directly using external IDs (without fetching the internal ones first)?
If you’re happy to share a bit more about your use case or the workflow you’re trying to support, we’d love to better understand and pass it along to the product team.
yeah no worries, I have used auth before and have users and would need to migrate them over. From what I've read I'd need to manually create a mapping table between my user ids in order to be able to use your apis to control the user. This is extra work and conflicts with the main reason I'd switch to kinde anyway which is a reduction of work
That totally makes sense, and thanks again for sharing more detail.
One possible approach is to import your existing users into Kinde, then run a one-time script on your end to update your system’s records to use Kinde’s internal user IDs going forward.
This would eliminate the need to maintain a mapping table long-term — all future API calls could rely directly on Kinde’s internal IDs. We're happy to assist with the import and guide you through the process if needed.
Just to confirm — do your current IDs need to follow a specific format or would switching to Kinde’s format work for your use case?