# Retrieve a department

Operation ID: `getDepartment`

Group: People Management › Departments

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

`GET /people/departments/{id}`

Read-only: Reads and returns; changes nothing.

Retrieves a department. Use the department's id, not its departmentNumber.

## 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 department you want to retrieve. |

## Response

`200` Success

Under `data` (getDepartmentOutput):

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `id` | string | yes | The unique identifier for the department. |
| `departmentNumber` | string | no | The system-generated department number, for example '100010'. Absent while none has been assigned. |
| `name` | string | yes | The display name of the department. |
| `departmentCode` | string | no | The short code for the department, for example 'IT', 'HR' or 'FIN'. |
| `description` | string | no | A free-form description of the department's purpose and responsibilities. |
| `managerId` | string | no | The identifier of the managing employee. Absent when no manager is assigned. See id on GET people/person/:id. |
| `managerName` | string | no | The full name of the managing employee. Absent when no manager is assigned. |
| `parentId` | string | no | The identifier of the parent department. Absent for a top-level department. See id on GET people/departments/:id. |
| `parentName` | string | no | The display name of the parent department. Absent for a top-level department. |
| `status` | string | no | The timeline status of the department. Possible values: 'planned', 'inactive', 'active', 'canceled'. |
| `startDate` | string | no | The date the department becomes active. Format YYYY-MM-DD. |
| `endDate` | string | no | The date the department becomes inactive. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Absent for an open-ended department. |
| `employeeCount` | number | no | The number of employees in the department. |
| `lastModifiedDate` | date-time | yes | The date and time the department record last changed, in UTC. Format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ. |
| `externalIdentifiers` | array<object> | no | The department's identifiers in other systems, one per configured field name. An empty array or absent when the department has none. |
| `externalIdentifiers[].fieldName` | string | yes | The configured field name of the identifier, for example 'netsuiteDepartmentId'. |
| `externalIdentifiers[].value` | string | yes | The identifier in the other system. |
| `externalIdentifiers[].externalUrl` | string | no | A link to the record in the other system. Absent when none is set. |

```json
{
  "data": {
    "id": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
    "departmentNumber": "<departmentNumber>",
    "name": "<name>",
    "departmentCode": "<departmentCode>",
    "description": "<description>",
    "managerId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
    "managerName": "<managerName>",
    "parentId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
    "parentName": "<parentName>",
    "status": "<status>",
    "startDate": "<startDate>",
    "endDate": "<endDate>",
    "employeeCount": 0,
    "lastModifiedDate": "2026-01-15T09:30:00.000Z",
    "externalIdentifiers": [
      {
        "fieldName": "<fieldName>",
        "value": "<value>",
        "externalUrl": "<externalUrl>"
      }
    ]
  },
  "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