# Update Item Category

`PATCH /inventory/item-categories/{id}`

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

Updates the item category with the given identifier. Only the fields in the request body change.

Updates one item category. Every mutable field is optional and flat on the body: a field you omit is left unchanged.

name cannot be cleared, and it stays non-unique, so renaming onto a name another category already has is allowed. Setting active to false retires a category without deleting it. parentId re-parents the category and moves its whole subtree without touching any item.

Be aware that integrations may match categories by name. A rename is a change the API permits and downstream systems may not expect, and because names are not unique a rename can merge two categories from a name-matching consumer's point of view.

The response contains only the id. Read the record back with GET inventory/item-categories/:id if you need its state after the update.

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

## 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. |
| `id` | path | string | yes | The unique identifier for the item category to update. |

## Request body

Required, `application/json`: updateItemCategoryInput.

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `name` | string | no | The new display name of the category, for example 'Hardware'. Cannot be cleared, and is not checked for uniqueness: renaming onto a name another category already has is allowed. |
| `description` | string | no | A new free-form description of what the category covers. |
| `active` | boolean | no | Whether the category can be chosen on new items. Set false to retire the category without deleting it: existing items keep their assignment and new ones cannot choose it. |
| `idealTurnoverRatio` | string (decimal) | no | A new 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 or null | no | The identifier of the category this one sits under. This is how a category is re-parented. Pass null to make it a top-level category. Re-parenting moves the whole subtree and touches no item: items stay assigned to the categories they already had. See id on GET inventory/item-categories/:id. |

Example:

```json
{
  "name": "<name>",
  "description": "<description>",
  "active": true,
  "idealTurnoverRatio": "8.00",
  "parentId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6"
}
```

## Response

`200` Success

Under `data` (updateItemCategoryOutput):

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `id` | string | yes | The unique identifier for the updated 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 |
| --- | --- |
| `NOT_FOUND` | 400 |
| `PARENT_NOT_FOUND` | 400 |
| `CATEGORY_CYCLE` | 400 |
| `CATEGORY_TOO_DEEP` | 400 |
| `IDEMPOTENCY_KEY_CONFLICT` | 409 |
| `IDEMPOTENCY_PAYLOAD_MISMATCH` | 422 |

## Statuses

- `400` — Invalid request or business failure. Codes: NOT_FOUND, PARENT_NOT_FOUND, CATEGORY_CYCLE, CATEGORY_TOO_DEEP
- `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