# Search people

Operation ID: `searchPeople`

Group: People Management › People

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

`POST /people/person/search`

Read-only: A read that takes its filters in the body. Changes nothing, and ignores Idempotency-Key.

Searches people.

## 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`. |

## Request body

Required, `application/json`: searchPeopleInput.

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `filters` | object | yes | The filters to apply. A person must match every filter you send. |
| `filters.firstName` | string | no | Limits results to people with this first name. |
| `filters.lastName` | string | no | Limits results to people with this last name. |
| `filters.name` | string | no | Limits results to people with this full name. |
| `filters.email` | string | no | Limits results to people with this work email address. |
| `filters.employeeNumber` | string | no | Limits results to the person with this business number. The match is exact. |
| `filters.entityName` | string | no | Limits results to people in the legal entity with this name. The match is exact. |
| `filters.status` | string | no | Limits results to people with this employment status. Accepted values: 'Active', 'Inactive', 'Planned', 'Cancelled'. Any other value matches no person. |
| `filters.employmentCategory` | string | no | Limits results to people with this employment category. |
| `filters.externalIdentifier` | object | no | Limits results to people with this external identifier. Both fieldName and value are required. Several people may share a value, so this returns the items array, not a single record. |
| `filters.externalIdentifier.fieldName` | string | yes | The configured key of the external identifier, a camelCase slug such as 'netsuiteEmployeeId'. It must be the fieldName of an existing employee external-identifier configuration, or the request fails with UNKNOWN_EXTERNAL_IDENTIFIER. |
| `filters.externalIdentifier.value` | string | yes | The identifier as the source system holds it. The match is exact. |
| `page` | object | no | The pagination controls. Omit for the first page. |
| `page.cursor` | string | no | The cursor from the previous response's pagination.nextCursor. Omit on the first request. |
| `page.size` | number | no | The maximum number of people per page, between 1 and 200. Defaults to 50. A value above 200 is treated as 200. |

```json
{
  "filters": {
    "firstName": "<firstName>",
    "lastName": "<lastName>",
    "name": "<name>",
    "email": "<email>",
    "employeeNumber": "<employeeNumber>",
    "entityName": "<entityName>",
    "status": "<status>",
    "employmentCategory": "<employmentCategory>",
    "externalIdentifier": {
      "fieldName": "<fieldName>",
      "value": "<value>"
    }
  },
  "page": {
    "cursor": "<cursor>",
    "size": 0
  }
}
```

## Response

`200` Success

Under `data` (searchPeopleOutput):

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `items` | array<object> | yes | The people that match this page of the search. An empty array when nothing matches. |
| `items[].id` | string | yes | The unique identifier for the person. |
| `items[].employeeNumber` | string | no | The person's business number. |
| `items[].firstName` | string | no | The person's first name. |
| `items[].lastName` | string | no | The person's last name. |
| `items[].middleName` | string | no | The person's middle name. |
| `items[].preferredFirstName` | string | no | The person's preferred first name. |
| `items[].preferredLastName` | string | no | The person's preferred last name. |
| `items[].name` | string | no | The person's full name, in first-name-last-name order. |
| `items[].email` | string | no | The person's work email address. |
| `items[].status` | string | no | The current employment status of the person. Possible values: 'Active', 'Inactive', 'Planned', 'Cancelled'. |
| `items[].employmentCategory` | string | no | The employment category assigned to this person. |
| `items[].startDate` | string | no | The employment start date. Format YYYY-MM-DD. |
| `items[].endDate` | string | no | The employment end date. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Absent while the person is still employed. |
| `items[].probationEndDate` | string | no | The probation end date. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Absent when no probation period applies. |
| `items[].jobId` | string | no | The identifier of this person's active primary job. Absent when the person has no active primary job. There is no endpoint for it. |
| `items[].departmentName` | string | no | The name of the department this person belongs to. Absent when no department is assigned. |
| `items[].positionName` | string | no | The position or job title assigned to this person. Absent when no position is assigned. |
| `items[].managerName` | string | no | The full name of this person's primary manager. Absent when there is no active primary job or no manager assigned to it. |
| `items[].compensation` | object | no | The person's current active compensation record. Absent when no compensation record exists. |
| `items[].compensation.amount` | object | no | The base salary as a currency amount. |
| `items[].compensation.amount.currency` | string | no | The currency of the base salary. Format ISO 4217, for example 'USD'. |
| `items[].compensation.amount.amount` | decimal | no | The numeric value of the base salary, in the given currency. |
| `items[].compensation.paymentFrequency` | string | no | The frequency at which this person is paid. Possible values: 'monthly', 'biweekly', 'weekly', 'yearly'. |
| `items[].compensation.unit` | string | no | The unit the base salary is measured in. Possible values: 'annually', 'quarterly', 'monthly', 'semiMonthly', 'weekly', 'biWeekly', 'daily', 'hourly', 'fixed'. |
| `items[].compensation.monthlyAmount` | object | no | The base salary converted to a monthly amount. Only the 'annually' and 'hourly' units are converted. For every other unit this repeats the base salary unchanged and is not a monthly figure. |
| `items[].compensation.monthlyAmount.currency` | string | no | The currency of the monthly-equivalent salary. Format ISO 4217, for example 'USD'. |
| `items[].compensation.monthlyAmount.amount` | decimal | no | The numeric value of the monthly-equivalent salary, in the given currency. |
| `items[].compensation.salaryType` | string | no | The name of the compensation type. Absent when none is assigned. |
| `items[].compensation.salaryCode` | string | no | The code of the compensation type. Absent when the type has no code or none is assigned. |
| `items[].compensation.startDate` | string | no | The date from which this compensation record is effective. Format YYYY-MM-DD. |
| `items[].compensation.endDate` | string | no | The date on which this compensation record expires. Format YYYY-MM-DD. Absent when it is open-ended. |
| `items[].entityName` | string | no | The name of the legal entity this person belongs to. |
| `items[].locationName` | string | no | The name of this person's work location. Absent when none is assigned. |
| `items[].customFields` | UnknownObject | no | The person's custom field values, as key-value pairs of field name and value. Free-form JSON object. |
| `items[].lastModifiedDate` | date-time | yes | The date and time the person record last changed, in UTC. Format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ. |
| `items[].externalIdentifiers` | array<object> | no | The external identifiers owned by other systems, at most one per fieldName. Absent when the person has none. |
| `items[].externalIdentifiers[].fieldName` | string | yes | The configured key of the external identifier, a camelCase slug such as 'netsuiteEmployeeId'. It is the fieldName of an existing employee external-identifier configuration. |
| `items[].externalIdentifiers[].value` | string | yes | The identifier as the source system holds it. |
| `items[].externalIdentifiers[].externalUrl` | string | no | An absolute http(s) link to the object in the source system. Absent when none is set. |
| `pagination` | object | yes | The pagination details for this page. |
| `pagination.nextCursor` | string | no | The cursor for the next page. Pass it as page.cursor. Absent on the last page. |
| `pagination.hasMore` | boolean | yes | Whether more results remain after this page. |

```json
{
  "data": {
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
        "employeeNumber": "<employeeNumber>",
        "firstName": "<firstName>",
        "lastName": "<lastName>",
        "middleName": "<middleName>",
        "preferredFirstName": "<preferredFirstName>",
        "preferredLastName": "<preferredLastName>",
        "name": "<name>",
        "email": "<email>",
        "status": "<status>",
        "employmentCategory": "<employmentCategory>",
        "startDate": "<startDate>",
        "endDate": "<endDate>",
        "probationEndDate": "<probationEndDate>",
        "jobId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
        "departmentName": "<departmentName>",
        "positionName": "<positionName>",
        "managerName": "<managerName>",
        "compensation": {
          "amount": {
            "currency": "<currency>",
            "amount": "19.99"
          },
          "paymentFrequency": "<paymentFrequency>",
          "unit": "<unit>",
          "monthlyAmount": {
            "currency": "<currency>",
            "amount": "19.99"
          },
          "salaryType": "<salaryType>",
          "salaryCode": "<salaryCode>",
          "startDate": "<startDate>",
          "endDate": "<endDate>"
        },
        "entityName": "<entityName>",
        "locationName": "<locationName>",
        "customFields": {},
        "lastModifiedDate": "2026-01-15T09:30:00.000Z",
        "externalIdentifiers": [
          {
            "fieldName": "<fieldName>",
            "value": "<value>",
            "externalUrl": "<externalUrl>"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "pagination": {
      "nextCursor": "<nextCursor>",
      "hasMore": true
    }
  },
  "diagnostics": [
    {
      "code": "<code>",
      "message": "<message>",
      "severity": "error",
      "path": [
        "<path>"
      ],
      "details": "<details>"
    }
  ]
}
```

## Errors

| Code | Status |
| --- | --- |
| `UNKNOWN_EXTERNAL_IDENTIFIER` | 400 |

## Statuses

- `400` — Invalid request or business failure. Codes: UNKNOWN_EXTERNAL_IDENTIFIER
- `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