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Getting a custom automation outbound App to return values

  • July 27, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 64 views

I am developing a very basic Automation APP in app studio to call an external webhook and return some values.

What i can’t get working is getting the automation to provide my return values to the next step.
None of the examples show how to deal with values returned from the api calls.
I have tried the “provides” block which is in the schema but not documented and that didn’t have any effect.
I have also tried the map object which did show the map popup but none of my fields were displayed
“map”: {
“label”: “Map OneSeed Results to Contact Fields”,
“describe_source”: {
“label”: “OneSeed API Response”,
“options”: {
“!pipe”: [
{
“!jq”: “[{"value":"success_status", "display":"Success Status (true/false)"}, {"value":"result_message", "display":"Result Message"}, {"value":"tree_link", "display":"Tree Link"}, {"value":"oneseed_id", "display":"OneSeed Contact ID"}]”
}
]
}
},
“describe_target”: {
“label”: “ActiveCampaign Contact Fields”,
“options”: {
“!resource”: “ActiveCampaignContact.fields”
}
}
}
},

Does anyone have a working example of a config that returns values from an outbound API call to be used to either update the contact or in the if/else block etc.

4 replies

alannahurley
  • Community Manager
  • July 28, 2025

Hi Christopher! This is a common challenge. I’m no coding expert but there are a few key things to get right for it to work properly.

  1. Make sure the keys in your provides block exactly match the keys returned by your webhook
  2. The automation step needs to complete successfully for the provided values to be available
  3. Check that your webhook is returning a 200 status code with valid JSON

with an APP definition i assumed it didn’t have to actually run it to be able to use the provides values, i am planning on publishing this as a real app and customers will not do that extra step.
There is no debugging code or insights to this that i can find.
Ideally someone has a working template i can use as a guide, but not a single one that can find has the provides block…


  • Community Manager
  • July 31, 2025

Hi! I’m Greg with Developer Relations. You’re actually really close! I’d be happy to help. Give me a bit, I’m writing up a longer response for you.


alannahurley
  • Community Manager
  • July 31, 2025

Hey Christopher!

If you DM me your email address I can send you Greg’s advice! We are having a hard time gettin git to post here 😦

Sorry about this!