# Creates an item category.

`POST /inventory/item-categories`

Group: Inventory › Item Categories · Operation ID: `createItemCategory`

Creates one item category and returns only its id. Read the record back with GET inventory/item-categories/:id if you need its stored state. Names are not unique, so you cannot reliably find the category again by name afterwards: keep the id.

To create many at once, use POST inventory/item-categories/bulk, which is all-or-nothing over the whole batch.

[Open in the interactive reference](https://docs.api.lensing.ai/?op=createItemCategory)

## Parameters

| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `Api-Version` | header | `"v1"` | yes | The API version this request targets, named by its public identifier. Required on every request; omitting it, or naming a version this company does not have, is answered with 400. This document describes version `v1`. |
| `Idempotency-Key` | header | string | no | An opaque caller-chosen string (1-255 characters) that makes this request safe to retry. Repeating the same key with an identical request body replays the original response instead of re-executing - but only once that original request succeeded; a failed attempt re-executes on retry. Repeating the key with a different body is answered with 422. A key still in flight is answered with 409 - as is a key whose original request was interrupted before it finished, for a few minutes afterwards, until that attempt is presumed dead. A completed response stays replayable for 24 hours. The key is scoped to the caller, not to the action: reusing it for a different action is answered with 409 or 422 rather than treated independently. On read actions this header is ignored. On write actions that cannot offer the guarantee it is answered with `400 IDEMPOTENCY_NOT_SUPPORTED` rather than silently ignored. |

## Request body

Required, `application/json`: createItemCategoryInput.

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `name` | string | yes | The display name of the category, for example 'Hardware'. Not checked for uniqueness: creating a second category with an existing name succeeds. |
| `description` | string | no | A free-form description of what the category covers. |
| `active` | boolean | no | Whether the category can be chosen on new items. Defaults to true. |
| `idealTurnoverRatio` | string (decimal) | no | The target inventory turnover for items in this category, in times per year. For analytics only. A ratio rather than an amount, so it has no currency. |
| `parentId` | string | no | The identifier of the category this one sits under. Omit for a top-level category. See id on GET inventory/item-categories/:id. |

Example:

```json
{
  "name": "Hardware",
  "description": "Fasteners, fittings and tooling",
  "active": true,
  "idealTurnoverRatio": "6.50",
  "parentId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6"
}
```

## Response

`200` Success

Under `data` (createItemCategoryOutput):

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `id` | string | yes | The unique identifier for the created item category. |

## Response headers

- `Idempotency-Replayed` — Present and `true` only when this response replays a previously stored one for the same Idempotency-Key, rather than reflecting a live execution. Absent on a live response - never sent as `false`.

## Errors

| Code | Status |
| --- | --- |
| `PARENT_NOT_FOUND` | 400 |
| `IDEMPOTENCY_KEY_CONFLICT` | 409 |
| `IDEMPOTENCY_PAYLOAD_MISMATCH` | 422 |

## Statuses

- `400` — Invalid request or business failure. Codes: PARENT_NOT_FOUND
- `401` — Missing or invalid access token
- `403` — Not authorized
- `404` — Not found
- `409` — The Idempotency-Key is still being processed by another request.
- `422` — The Idempotency-Key was already used with a different request payload.
- `429` — Too many requests
- `500` — Internal server error