# Retrieve an absence

Operation ID: `getAbsence`

Group: People Management › Absences

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

`GET /people/absences/{id}`

Read-only: Reads and returns; changes nothing.

Retrieves an absence. Use the absence's id, not its leaveNumber.

## 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`. |
| `id` | path | string | yes | The unique identifier of the absence you want to retrieve. |

## Response

`200` Success

Under `data` (getAbsenceOutput):

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `id` | string | yes | The unique identifier for the absence. |
| `leaveNumber` | string | no | The absence number. |
| `employeeId` | string | yes | The employee the absence belongs to. See id on GET people/person/:id. |
| `absenceTypeId` | string | yes | The type of the absence. See id on GET people/absence-types/:id. |
| `startDate` | date-time | yes | The date and time the absence starts, in UTC. Format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ. |
| `endDate` | date-time | yes | The date and time the absence ends, in UTC. Format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ. |
| `days` | decimal | no | The number of absence days. May be fractional for partial days. |
| `status` | any | no | The status of the absence. One of: `"requested"`, `"approved"`, `"rejected"`, `"canceled"`. |
| `leaveDescription` | string | no | The reason for the absence. |

```json
{
  "data": {
    "id": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
    "leaveNumber": "<leaveNumber>",
    "employeeId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
    "absenceTypeId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
    "startDate": "2026-01-15T09:30:00.000Z",
    "endDate": "2026-01-15T09:30:00.000Z",
    "days": "19.99",
    "status": "requested",
    "leaveDescription": "<leaveDescription>"
  },
  "diagnostics": [
    {
      "code": "<code>",
      "message": "<message>",
      "severity": "error",
      "path": [
        "<path>"
      ],
      "details": "<details>"
    }
  ]
}
```

## Errors

| Code | Status |
| --- | --- |
| `NOT_FOUND` | 400 |

## Statuses

- `400` — Invalid request or business failure. Codes: NOT_FOUND
- `401` — The request carries no valid access token.
- `403` — Not authorized
- `404` — Not found
- `429` — Too many requests from this client address. The response has no body and no `Retry-After` header.
- `500` — Internal server error