# Replace placeholders with employees

Operation ID: `assignEmployeesToPlaceholders`

Group: PSA › Team Members

[Open in the interactive reference](https://docs.api.lensing.ai/lensing/v1/endpoints/assignEmployeesToPlaceholders)

`POST /psa/team-members/assign-placeholder`

Retry-safe: A write that accepts Idempotency-Key: repeating a request with the same key replays the stored answer instead of executing twice.

Replaces placeholders with employees. Each item moves one placeholder's position assignments to an employee. When the employee already has the same position, the placeholder's assignment is merged into the employee's and then removed. If any placeholder can't be replaced, none are.

You need edit permission on each project. The response lists the ids of the resulting position assignments. A merged assignment adds no id, so you can't match ids to items by their place in the list.

## Parameters

| Name | In | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `Api-Version` | header | string · 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`: assignEmployeesToPlaceholdersInput.

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `assignments` | array<object> | yes | One entry per placeholder-to-employee conversion. Each entry re-points the placeholder's position assignments to the employee. Example: `[{"employeeId":3845142,"placeholderId":91,"psaProjectId":32341}]`. |
| `assignments[].employeeId` | number | yes | The employee taking over the placeholder's assignments. They are added to the team if not already a member. It is a numeric key. |
| `assignments[].placeholderId` | number | yes | The placeholder being replaced. It is a numeric key. |
| `assignments[].psaProjectId` | number | yes | The PSA project the placeholder belongs to. Needs edit permission on this project. It is a numeric key, not the UUID that GET psa/projects/:id takes. |

```json
{
  "assignments": [
    {
      "employeeId": 3845142,
      "placeholderId": 91,
      "psaProjectId": 32341
    }
  ]
}
```

## Response

`200` Success

Under `data` (assignEmployeesToPlaceholdersOutput):

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `assigned` | array<object> | yes | The ids of the position assignments now held by the employee. A placeholder assignment merged into one the employee already held is removed and contributes no id, so this can be shorter than the input. Read a record back with GET psa/team-member-positions/:id. Example: `[{"id":"5f2e1c40-9a3b-4d71-8e05-6b4c2d1a7f93"}]`. |
| `assigned[].id` | string | yes | The unique identifier of the resulting position assignment. This is the id GET psa/team-member-positions returns. |

```json
{
  "data": {
    "assigned": [
      {
        "id": "5f2e1c40-9a3b-4d71-8e05-6b4c2d1a7f93"
      }
    ]
  },
  "diagnostics": [
    {
      "code": "<code>",
      "message": "<message>",
      "severity": "error",
      "path": [
        "<path>"
      ],
      "details": "<details>"
    }
  ]
}
```

## 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 |
| --- | --- |
| `IDEMPOTENCY_KEY_CONFLICT` | 409 |
| `IDEMPOTENCY_PAYLOAD_MISMATCH` | 422 |

## Statuses

- `400` — Invalid request or business failure
- `401` — The request carries no valid 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 from this client address. The response has no body and no `Retry-After` header.
- `500` — Internal server error