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Pollable Outbound

Pollable Outbound is an opt-in, pull-based delivery mode for outbound use cases. Instead of epilot pushing events to a webhook URL, your system polls an SQS-like queue inside the ERP Integration API and acknowledges items once it has durably consumed them. It is configured per outbound mapping via delivery.type: "poll" and coexists with the default "webhook" push โ€” two delivery strategies over the same outbound event stream.

Availability

Pollable Outbound is a new capability (June 2026) that is currently rolling out. If the endpoints on this page are not yet available for your organization, contact your epilot representative.

When to use poll instead of webhook push
  • Your ERP or middleware is firewalled / on-prem, with no inbound HTTP endpoint reachable from the public internet.
  • Your integration is batch-oriented: runs are scheduled (nightly, hourly), so there is no listener at the moment epilot would push.
  • Your network tunnel is one-directional: the ERP calls out to epilot, never the reverse.

For these systems the pull model uses the same access pattern you already use for inbound sync โ€” your system calls epilot on its own schedule.

How It Worksโ€‹

sequenceDiagram participant EC as epilot (Event Catalog) participant Q as Outbound Queue (ERP Integration API) participant ERP as ERP / Middleware EC->>Q: Standardized business event (e.g. contract.updated) Note over Q: Optional JSONata transform applied,<br/>item stored (idempotent โ€” redelivery creates no duplicate) ERP->>Q: POST /outbound/messages/poll { limit } Q-->>ERP: Leased batch + lease_token per message Note over ERP: Durably persist the items ERP->>Q: POST /outbound/messages/ack { acks: [{id, lease_token}] } Q-->>ERP: Per-id results (accepted / rejected) Note over Q: Acked items are deleted โ€”<br/>never delivered again

Key properties:

  • Lease + ack/delete (at-least-once). A poll leases a batch under a visibility timeout, hiding it from concurrent polls. Items you do not acknowledge in time reappear on a later poll โ€” a consumer crash never loses data, but you must handle occasional redelivery (deduplicate on use_case_id + event_id โ€” see A typical polling loop).
  • One polling loop per integration. A single poll returns the merged feed across all of the integration's poll-mode use cases. Each message carries use_case_id and event_name for routing on your side.
  • FIFO ordering, promised per entity. Updates to the same entity are never delivered out of order โ€” even across lease timeouts and retries. The one exception is an event that reaches the queue late, which goes to the tail and is flagged in monitoring (see Late arrivals). See Ordering Guarantees.
  • Raw or mapped payloads. By default poll messages carry the Core Event payload as-is. An optional JSONata transform reshapes it at enqueue time, so a consumer can receive one consistent shape (see Payload Mapping).
  • Long, configurable retention. Undelivered items are kept for retention_days (default 30, max 90) โ€” designed for consumers that are legitimately offline for days.

Configurationโ€‹

A poll mapping is configured on a regular outbound use case โ€” same endpoint, same envelope as webhook mappings, only the delivery object differs. See Outbound Use Case Configuration for the full use-case contract.

curl -X POST 'https://integration-toolkit.sls.epilot.io/v1/integrations/{integrationId}/use-cases' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"name": "Contract Sync (poll)",
"type": "outbound",
"enabled": true,
"configuration": {
"event_catalog_event": "contract.updated",
"mappings": [
{
"id": "b8f1c9a0-58dd-4f7a-9a3e-000000000001",
"name": "ERP Contract Sync",
"enabled": true,
"delivery": {
"type": "poll",
"retention_days": 30,
"poison_policy": "dead_letter",
"max_delivery_attempts": 5
}
}
]
}
}'
PropertyTypeRequiredDefaultBoundsDescription
retention_daysintegerNo30min 1, max 90How long undelivered queue items are retained before expiry
poison_policystringNo"dead_letter"dead_letter | blockWhat happens when an item exhausts max_delivery_attempts โ€” see Poison Messages
max_delivery_attemptsintegerNo5min 1, max 100Delivery (lease) attempts before the poison_policy is applied

Validation rules:

  • At most one poll mapping per use case (regardless of enabled). Webhook mappings may coexist alongside it โ€” push and poll for the same event is allowed.
  • A poll delivery must not carry webhook fields (webhook_id, webhook_name), and a webhook delivery must not carry poll fields (retention_days, poison_policy, max_delivery_attempts).
  • jsonata_expression is required for webhook mappings only. For poll mappings it is optional: when set, it transforms each payload at enqueue time (see Payload Mapping). It is validated on save โ€” JSONata syntax, the 10,000-character limit, and only the bindings $env, $mapValue and $mapKey.

When a poll use case is enabled, the event-catalog event is enabled as usual, but no webhook configuration is created โ€” events route to the queue instead.

Permissionsโ€‹

EndpointsRequired grant
poll, ackintegration:consume, resource-scoped to the integration
dlq, dlq/redrive, unblock (operator)integration:manage
outbound/mapping-simulation (preview)integration:view, resource-scoped to the integration

The integration:consume grant enables least-privilege middleware tokens: a role granting only integration:consume on one integration can poll and acknowledge that feed and nothing else โ€” no configuration reads, no other integrations, no entity access. Consumer tokens with only integration:consume receive 403 on the operator endpoints.

Data egress is authorized at configuration time: enabling a poll use case (which requires integration:manage) is the act that authorizes that event data to leave epilot โ€” exactly as configuring a webhook authorizes push delivery. There is no per-entity permission masking on the feed; it contains exactly what the organization configured to flow out.

Consuming the Queueโ€‹

Poll โ€” lease a batchโ€‹

POST /v1/integrations/{integrationId}/outbound/messages/poll
{
"limit": 10
}
FieldTypeRequiredDefaultBoundsDescription
limitintegerNo10min 1, max 100Maximum messages to lease in this batch. The ~5.5ย MB response cap may truncate the batch earlier when payloads are large
Why POST?

Taking a lease mutates server state. A GET that consumes leases is an accident magnet โ€” client libraries, proxies, and retry middleware re-issue GETs freely, silently burning leases. This matches SQS, where ReceiveMessage is an RPC action.

Response โ€” a leased batch spanning every enabled poll use case of the integration, in strict stream order:

{
"messages": [
{
"id": "msg_9f3c8a1bโ€ฆ",
"lease_token": "lt_a1b2โ€ฆ",
"org_id": "123456",
"use_case_id": "uc_contract_sync",
"event_name": "contract.updated",
"event_id": "evt_77โ€ฆ",
"group": "0",
"payload": { "...": "the mapped output, or the standardized event as-is" },
"mapping_version": "3f9a1c0b7d2e4a65",
"enqueued_at": "2026-06-09T08:00:00Z"
}
],
"visibility_timeout_seconds": 300,
"has_more": true
}
FieldDescription
idOpaque message id (msg_โ€ฆ) โ€” stable per message across leases; use it for deduplication
lease_tokenOpaque lease token (lt_โ€ฆ) โ€” must be echoed back on ack; changes when a lapsed message is re-leased
org_idThe epilot organization the message belongs to โ€” always populated. Useful for middleware that polls several organizations into one pipeline
use_case_idThe poll-mode use case that produced this message โ€” route on this when consuming multiple use cases
event_nameStandardized event name (e.g. contract.updated)
event_idUnique id of the originating event
groupOrdering group โ€” messages sharing a group are strictly ordered, distinct groups are independent. Constant "0" in v1
payloadThe mapped output when the use case has a jsonata_expression, otherwise the raw standardized event โ€” always inlined, regardless of size
mapping_versionVersion of the transform that produced payload (see Mapping version). Absent for raw payloads
visibility_timeout_secondsEffective visibility timeout for this lease (per-integration server-side setting, default 300)
has_moreWhether more messages are waiting beyond this batch

An empty batch (messages: []) is a normal response, not an error. It means the queue is drained โ€” or another lease is currently in flight (see Ordering Guarantees).

Ack โ€” confirm consumed messagesโ€‹

Acknowledge messages after you have durably persisted them:

POST /v1/integrations/{integrationId}/outbound/messages/ack
{
"acks": [
{ "id": "msg_9f3c8a1bโ€ฆ", "lease_token": "lt_a1b2โ€ฆ" }
]
}

acks takes 1โ€“100 entries. The response reports a per-id outcome:

{
"results": [
{ "id": "msg_9f3c8a1bโ€ฆ", "status": "accepted" },
{ "id": "msg_5d2eโ€ฆ", "status": "rejected", "reason": "out_of_order" }
]
}
Rejection reasonMeaning
stale_leaseThe lease expired and the message was (or can be) re-leased โ€” a slow consumer cannot delete a message another lease now owns. Re-poll and process the message again
out_of_orderAcks must be prefix-contiguous in stream order: acknowledging message n requires all messages before it in the leased batch to be acknowledged too. Everything past the first gap is rejected
not_foundUnknown message id (already acknowledged, expired, or never existed)

Accepted acks are committed as a cursor advance โ€” acknowledged messages are never delivered again.

A typical polling loopโ€‹

loop (every N seconds / on schedule):
batch = POST โ€ฆ/outbound/messages/poll { limit: 100 }
if batch.messages is empty: sleep / wait for next run
for message in batch.messages (in order):
persist message durably (dedupe on use_case_id + event_id)
POST โ€ฆ/outbound/messages/ack { acks: all (id, lease_token) pairs }
if batch.has_more: poll again immediately

Practical guidance:

  • Finish well inside the visibility timeout. If processing a batch can exceed visibility_timeout_seconds, lower your limit โ€” a lapsed lease means the whole batch is re-delivered and your acks come back stale_lease.
  • Ack in stream order, ideally the whole batch at once. Partial acks are fine as long as they are contiguous from the head of the batch.
  • Deduplicate on use_case_id + event_id. At-least-once delivery means an event can arrive twice. A lease redelivery keeps the same id (with a fresh lease_token), but in a rare race the same event can also be delivered twice under different message ids โ€” so id alone is not a sufficient deduplication key. The same event_id legitimately appears once per poll use case it matches, which is why the key includes use_case_id.
  • Do not parallelize polls of one integration. Only one batch can be in flight per stream; concurrent polls receive empty batches (this is by design, to preserve ordering).

Ordering Guaranteesโ€‹

The ordering contract is per entity: messages affecting the same entity are delivered in order, and consumers must not rely on order across entities. Each message carries a group field โ€” messages sharing a group are strictly ordered, distinct groups are independent.

In v1 the implementation delivers a stronger property in practice โ€” a single ordered stream (one group, "0") per integration โ€” but only per-entity order is promised. This keeps a future server-side sharding lever non-breaking: if throughput ever requires it, the stream can be split into groups by entity hash without any contract change, and the group field is how a scaled-out consumer would route and serialize work.

Consequences of FIFO with a single stream:

  • Head-of-line leasing. A poll returns the oldest available run of messages, and the stream is blocked beyond the leased run until those messages are acked or the lease lapses. A crashed or slow consumer cannot reorder the stream.
  • One in-flight batch per stream. While a batch is leased, concurrent polls return an empty batch. Consumer-side parallelism does not increase throughput within a stream.
  • The stream spans all of an integration's poll use cases. A blocking message from one use case also holds back the others' messages (relevant for poison_policy: "block", below).

Late arrivalsโ€‹

The stream is ordered by event time. Occasionally an event reaches the queue after the stream has already moved past the position where it would sort โ€” for example, when the event itself was delayed on the way in. "Moved past" covers everything already acknowledged and everything ever handed out in a lease โ€” including leases that expired without an acknowledgement. Such an event is never inserted behind that position, where it would be skipped. Instead it is re-keyed to the tail of the stream and delivered after everything already enqueued, and the MSG_LATE_ARRIVAL monitoring warning is emitted with message_id, event_name, original_sequence_time and rekeyed_sequence_time in its detail.

Only the queue position changes. The payload is untouched โ€” its _event_time still carries the original event time โ€” and the poll message envelope has no late-arrival marker: MSG_LATE_ARRIVAL in monitoring is the only signal.

Order is promised per entity only. Because a late arrival goes to the tail, it is delivered after messages that were already in the stream โ€” including, in the rare case, a newer event for the same entity. If your consumer applies state changes, compare the event's _event_time with the last one you applied for that entity rather than relying on delivery order alone.

Payload Contractโ€‹

Without a transform, poll messages carry the raw standardized event-catalog payload, exactly as the event catalog emitted it. With a jsonata_expression on the poll mapping, they carry the mapped output instead โ€” see Payload Mapping. The mapping_version envelope field tells the two apart: it is present on mapped payloads and absent on raw ones.

The internal keys _downgrades and _automation_chain are removed from poll payloads before the item is stored, and again on delivery. They are bookkeeping for epilot's own event pipeline and carry no business data. A payload mapping is evaluated against the stripped event, so expressions never see these keys either.

Webhook condition filtering (filterConditions) is not available for poll mode. To limit which events a poll use case enqueues, use the use case's event_filter โ€” a JSONata predicate evaluated against the same standardized event before anything is enqueued. Events the filter rejects never reach the queue.

Switching delivery types changes the payload shape

A mapping switched from webhook to poll (or vice versa) changes what the consumer receives, even with the same jsonata_expression. See Webhook and poll mode are not interchangeable.

Payloads are copied onto the queue item at enqueue time, so an item stays consumable for its full retention window even after the source event has aged out of the event catalog. Payloads are always inlined in the poll response regardless of size โ€” the batch simply includes as many messages as fit within limit and the ~5.5ย MB response cap.

Payload Mappingโ€‹

A poll mapping can carry an optional jsonata_expression that reshapes each event before it is enqueued. The typical reason is a middleware that consumes many epilot organizations: each organization's configuration differs a little (status codes, reason labels, which attributes are filled), and a per-organization mapping evens those differences out so the middleware receives one consistent shape.

{
"id": "b8f1c9a0-58dd-4f7a-9a3e-000000000001",
"name": "Meter readings to middleware",
"enabled": true,
"jsonata_expression": "{ \"meter_number\": meter_number, \"reason\": $mapValue($env.reading_reason, reason, \"OTHER\") }",
"delivery": {
"type": "poll",
"poison_policy": "dead_letter"
}
}

How the transform is evaluatedโ€‹

  • When: once, at enqueue time, right after the use case's event_filter has accepted the event. The mapped output is stored on the queue item, so every poll of that item returns the same payload โ€” a lease lapse or a redelivery never re-evaluates the expression.
  • Input: the standardized event-catalog event, hydrated in full โ€” the same root that event_filter sees, minus the internal _downgrades and _automation_chain keys. Field paths start at the top level of the Core Event (_event_id, _event_time, meter_number, โ€ฆ).
  • Bindings: $env (the organization's non-secret environment variables, including Key/Value Maps), $mapValue and $mapKey. No other bindings are available โ€” in particular there is no $now, because the output must depend only on the event and the configuration. An expression that references any other $-binding is rejected on save.
  • Output: must be a JSON object. An array, a scalar, null, or an undefined result is a mapping failure (invalid_output). The mapped output is also capped at 5ย MiB; a larger result is a mapping failure with the same code (The mapped output exceeds 5 MiB). An output that cannot be serialized as JSON โ€” for example one containing a function โ€” is an invalid_output failure too.
  • Empty means raw. An absent, empty, or whitespace-only jsonata_expression applies no transform, and the raw standardized event is delivered โ€” the behavior of every poll use case that has no expression.

The expression is validated on save: JSONata syntax, a maximum of 10,000 characters, and no bindings outside $env, $mapValue and $mapKey. The same checks run again at enqueue time, so an expression stored before these checks existed that does not pass them produces failed items rather than being silently skipped.

Each evaluation is guarded by a 500ย ms time limit and an evaluation depth limit of 500. Exceeding either is a mapping failure with the code timeout.

Only failures the expression itself causes are mapping failures. If the organization's environment variables cannot be loaded, nothing is recorded on an item: the event is retried and mapped once the environment is reachable.

Mapping versionโ€‹

Every mapped message carries a mapping_version: the first 16 hexadecimal characters of the SHA-256 hash of the trimmed jsonata_expression. Two messages with the same mapping_version were produced by the same expression. The field is absent on raw payloads.

Because the transform runs at enqueue time, changing the expression affects new items only. Items already on the queue keep the payload their original expression produced. While the queue drains after a change, a consumer can therefore see old and new shapes side by side (or raw and mapped ones, when an expression was added or removed). Use mapping_version to tell them apart, and roll out shape changes that your consumer can read in both versions until the old items are gone.

Mapping failuresโ€‹

A failure to evaluate โ€” a runtime error, a timeout, or an output that is not an object โ€” does not drop the event. The item is still enqueued at its normal position in the stream, marked as failed, with the raw payload kept alongside it. At enqueue time epilot emits the MAPPING_EXPRESSION_FAILED monitoring error once, with use_case_id, event_id, event_name, message_id, mapping_version, error_code and the error message in its detail.

The error is recorded as mapping_error in the form <code>: <message> โ€” for example evaluation_error: $mapValue: first argument must be an object โ€” using the same codes as the preview endpoint, truncated to 1,024 characters.

A failed item is never delivered to the consumer. When it reaches the head of the stream it is handled immediately โ€” without waiting for max_delivery_attempts, because evaluating the same expression against the same event would fail the same way every time. A poll batch never reaches past a failed item: when one sits behind deliverable messages, the batch ends before it (with has_more: true), and it is handled once it is the head. What happens next follows the use case's poison_policy:

PolicyWhat happens to a failed item at the head
dead_letter (default)It moves straight to the dead-letter queue with reason: "mapping_failed" and delivery_attempts: 0 (it was never leased), and the stream moves on. MSG_DEAD_LETTERED is emitted with reason, mapping_error and mapping_version in its detail
blockThe stream halts on it. MSG_HEAD_BLOCKED is emitted with reason: "mapping_failed" in its detail. Release it with unblock, which dead-letters it (with reason: "mapping_failed" unless you give your own). A consumer acknowledgement cannot release it, because it is never delivered

To recover:

  1. Fix the expression, or create the missing environment variable. Check the fix with the preview endpoint against the failed event_id.
  2. Under block, unblock the stream. The failed head moves to the DLQ.
  3. Redrive the affected DLQ entries. A redrive always re-applies the current mapping to entries that failed mapping, so reapply_mapping is not needed for them.
A missing map is a mapping failure

$mapValue and $mapKey fail when their first argument is not an object โ€” for example when $env.reading_reason has not been created yet in an organization. Create the environment variables before enabling the use case, and use the preview endpoint with a real event_id to confirm.

Preview a transformโ€‹

POST /v1/integrations/{integrationId}/outbound/mapping-simulation

Evaluates an expression exactly as enqueue would, without enqueuing anything. Requires the integration:view grant, scoped to the integration. An unknown integration, or one belonging to another organization, returns 404.

{
"jsonata_expression": "{ \"meter_number\": meter_number, \"reason\": $mapValue($env.reading_reason, reason, \"OTHER\") }",
"event_id": "01J9Zโ€ฆ",
"event_catalog_event": "MeterReadingAdded"
}
FieldTypeRequiredDescription
jsonata_expressionstringYesThe expression to evaluate. A blank expression returns 400
payloadobjectOne of payload / event_idAn event to evaluate against, supplied inline
event_idstringOne of payload / event_idA historical event. epilot loads it from the event catalog and hydrates it exactly as enqueue does, so the preview matches what the queue would store
event_catalog_eventstringWith event_idThe event-catalog event type used to load and hydrate the historical event, for example MeterReadingAdded. Required when event_id is given

Supply exactly one of payload or event_id. $env, $mapValue and $mapKey resolve on the server from the organization's non-secret environment variables and key/value maps, the same way as at enqueue.

{
"valid": true,
"output": { "meter_number": "A-1002", "reason": "PERIODIC" },
"mapping_version": "3f9a1c0b7d2e4a65",
"input": { "_event_id": "01J9Zโ€ฆ", "_event_name": "MeterReadingAdded", "...": "the hydrated event" }
}
FieldDescription
validWhether the expression evaluated to a JSON object
outputThe mapped output โ€” present when valid is true
errorPresent when valid is false: a code, a message, and for syntax errors the position in the expression
mapping_versionThe version this expression would stamp on messages
inputThe hydrated event the expression ran against, without the internal _downgrades and _automation_chain keys โ€” returned when the request used event_id, on failures as well as successes
Error codeMeaning
syntax_errorThe expression is not valid JSONata
unknown_bindingThe expression uses a $-binding other than $env, $mapValue or $mapKey
evaluation_errorThe expression failed while running (for example, a missing key/value map)
timeoutThe evaluation exceeded the 500ย ms time limit or the evaluation depth limit
invalid_outputThe result is not a JSON object, or the mapped output exceeds 5ย MiB
expression_too_longThe expression exceeds 10,000 characters

A mapping error is a normal 200 response with valid: false. A 4xx status means the request itself could not be served:

StatusWhen
400The expression is blank, both or neither of payload and event_id are given, or event_id is given without event_catalog_event
403The token lacks integration:view on the integration
404The integration is unknown or belongs to another organization, or the event catalog does not know the requested event

Webhook and poll mode are not interchangeableโ€‹

The same jsonata_expression is not guaranteed to produce the same output in webhook and poll mode. The webhook service builds its own input for the expression and enriches the event differently; in poll mode the input is the standardized event-catalog event described above. Write and test a poll expression against poll input โ€” the preview endpoint with a real event_id is the reliable check โ€” rather than copying a webhook expression across unchanged.

Example: one shape for a multi-organization middlewareโ€‹

A middleware collects meter readings from several utilities, each its own epilot organization. The organizations label reading reasons differently โ€” one uses English labels, another German ones โ€” but the middleware wants a single set of reason codes.

Each organization declares the same Key/Value Map under the same environment key, reading_reason, with its own entries:

Organization A โ€” reading_reason
{ "Periodic reading": "PERIODIC", "Move-out": "MOVE_OUT", "Meter change": "METER_CHANGE" }
Organization B โ€” reading_reason
{ "Turnusablesung": "PERIODIC", "Auszug": "MOVE_OUT", "Zรคhlerwechsel": "METER_CHANGE" }

Both organizations then use the same expression on their MeterReadingAdded poll use case. Because it references only $env, it contains nothing organization-specific and can ship unchanged in a blueprint:

Poll mapping โ€” MeterReadingAdded
{
"event_id": _event_id,
"occurred_at": _event_time,
"meter_number": meter_number,
"contract_number": contract_number,
"reason": $mapValue($env.reading_reason, reason, "OTHER"),
"readings": [meter_readings.{
"obis_number": obis_number,
"value": value,
"direction": direction,
"read_at": reading_timestamp
}]
}

Whichever organization a message comes from, the middleware receives the same object:

{
"event_id": "01J9Zโ€ฆ",
"occurred_at": "2026-06-09T07:58:12.000Z",
"meter_number": "A-1002",
"contract_number": "C-20931",
"reason": "PERIODIC",
"readings": [
{ "obis_number": "1-0:1.8.0", "value": 18234, "direction": "feed-out", "read_at": "2026-06-09T07:55:00.000Z" }
]
}

A few details make this robust:

  • The [ โ€ฆ ] around meter_readings.{ โ€ฆ } keeps readings an array even when an event carries a single reading.
  • The "OTHER" default keeps an unmapped label from producing a missing field; the middleware sees an explicit code it can route for review.
  • The message envelope's org_id tells the middleware which organization a message came from, so the payload does not need to repeat it.
  • occurred_at carries the business event time, which stays correct even for late arrivals.

Retention and Expiryโ€‹

  • Undelivered items expire after the mapping's retention_days (default 30, max 90), counted from enqueue time.
  • Changing retention_days affects new items only โ€” already-enqueued items keep the TTL computed at enqueue time.
  • An expired item is never delivered: the poll API filters expired items even before the storage layer reaps them. Each expiry of an item that was never consumed emits an MSG_EXPIRED_UNPOLLED monitoring error, so silent data loss is always visible.
  • Dead-lettered items get a re-armed retention window at dead-letter time โ€” a full retention_days from that moment when the poison policy dead-letters them, and 30 days when an operator unblock does โ€” giving operators the whole window to redrive instead of whatever sliver remained.

Poison Messages: dead_letter vs blockโ€‹

Head-of-line FIFO means a message that repeatedly fails consumption would stall everything behind it. What happens when a message exhausts max_delivery_attempts is decided per use case by poison_policy:

PolicyBehaviorChoose when
dead_letter (default)The message moves to the dead-letter queue and the next message becomes the head โ€” one bad record degrades only itselfSkipping a single update is acceptable; the DLQ keeps it redrivable
blockThe stream halts intentionally and resumes only when the consumer eventually acks the message, or an operator explicitly skips it via unblockSkipping an update is worse than stopping โ€” e.g. strict state replication

Notes:

  • Delivery attempts only increment when a message is actually leased โ€” an offline consumer never triggers poison handling by mere absence.
  • With block, remember the blast radius: the stream spans all of the integration's poll use cases, so a blocking message from one use case also holds back the others. That is the deliberate trade-off of block.
  • A blocked stream raises the MSG_HEAD_BLOCKED monitoring error and a stream_blocked conflict in outbound-status.
  • An item whose payload mapping failed is poisoned from the start: the policy applies as soon as it reaches the head, without waiting for max_delivery_attempts. Because it is never delivered, a consumer acknowledgement cannot release it โ€” under block, use unblock.

Dead-Letter Queue and Operator Actionsโ€‹

Three operator endpoints manage poisoned messages. All require the integration:manage grant.

List the DLQโ€‹

GET /v1/integrations/{integrationId}/outbound/messages/dlq?limit=25&next_token=โ€ฆ

Returns dead-lettered messages oldest first, paginated via an opaque next_token (limit 1โ€“100, default 25). Entries carry delivery metadata only โ€” payloads are not included in listings:

{
"items": [
{
"id": "msg_5d2eโ€ฆ",
"use_case_id": "uc_contract_sync",
"event_name": "contract.updated",
"event_id": "evt_81โ€ฆ",
"enqueued_at": "2026-06-08T22:10:00Z",
"dead_lettered_at": "2026-06-09T03:00:00Z",
"delivery_attempts": 5,
"reason": "max_delivery_attempts_exhausted",
"expires_at": "2026-07-09T03:00:00Z"
},
{
"id": "msg_7a41โ€ฆ",
"use_case_id": "uc_meter_readings",
"event_name": "MeterReadingAdded",
"event_id": "evt_93โ€ฆ",
"enqueued_at": "2026-06-09T02:40:00Z",
"dead_lettered_at": "2026-06-09T02:41:00Z",
"delivery_attempts": 0,
"reason": "mapping_failed",
"mapping_error": "evaluation_error: $mapValue: first argument must be an object",
"mapping_version": "3f9a1c0b7d2e4a65",
"expires_at": "2026-07-09T02:41:00Z"
}
],
"next_token": "โ€ฆ"
}
FieldDescription
reasonWhy the message was dead-lettered: max_delivery_attempts_exhausted, mapping_failed for a payload mapping failure, or for an unblock the operator's reason โ€” operator_skip (or mapping_failed for a failed-mapping head) when none was given
mapping_errorThe mapping error as <code>: <message> (truncated to 1,024 characters) โ€” present when the payload mapping failed
mapping_versionVersion of the expression that produced the stored payload, or that failed on it. Absent for raw payloads

Redrive โ€” re-enqueue dead-lettered messagesโ€‹

POST /v1/integrations/{integrationId}/outbound/messages/dlq/redrive
{
"ids": ["msg_5d2eโ€ฆ", "msg_7a41โ€ฆ"],
"reapply_mapping": true
}
FieldTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
idsstring[]Yesโ€”1โ€“100 message ids to redrive
reapply_mappingbooleanNofalseRe-apply the use case's current jsonata_expression to the raw payload instead of re-sending the stored payload

The response reports a per-id outcome:

{
"results": [
{ "id": "msg_5d2eโ€ฆ", "status": "redriven" },
{ "id": "msg_7a41โ€ฆ", "status": "mapping_failed", "mapping_error": "evaluation_error: $mapValue: first argument must be an object" }
]
}
statusMeaning
redrivenRe-enqueued at the tail
not_foundUnknown id, or the entry was concurrently redriven or expired
mapping_failedRe-applying the mapping failed again. The entry stays in the DLQ, now with reason: "mapping_failed", the new mapping_error and mapping_version, a new dead_lettered_at, and a fresh 30-day retention window; mapping_error is also returned in the result

The redriven copy is re-enqueued with zero delivery attempts and a fresh 30-day retention window (the default, whatever the use case's retention_days); the original DLQ entry is removed.

How the payload of the redriven copy is chosen:

  • By default (reapply_mapping: false) the stored payload is re-sent unchanged โ€” the behavior before payload mapping existed.
  • With reapply_mapping: true the current expression is evaluated again against the kept raw payload. Use it after fixing an expression, so already dead-lettered messages go out in the corrected shape.
  • An entry whose mapping failed (it carries a mapping_error) is always re-mapped with the current configuration, whatever reapply_mapping says โ€” it has no usable mapped payload to re-send.
  • "Current configuration" means the enabled poll mapping of the use case, and only while the use case itself is enabled. When re-mapping and there is no such mapping, or it has no expression, the raw payload is delivered.
Redrive ordering

A redriven message is re-enqueued at the tail with a new id and sequence โ€” it is delivered out of its original per-entity order, because the stream has moved on. This is inherent to redrive and matches SQS DLQ semantics. If your consumer is order-sensitive, reconcile redriven messages explicitly (e.g. compare against current entity state).

Unblock โ€” skip a blocked headโ€‹

POST /v1/integrations/{integrationId}/outbound/messages/unblock
{
"reason": "Malformed reference data โ€” skipping after manual fix"
}

For streams halted under poison_policy: "block". Skip equals dead-letter: unblocking dead-letters the blocked head (recording the optional reason, max 500 characters) and emits MSG_DEAD_LETTERED โ€” the message then becomes redrivable from the DLQ like any other dead-lettered item. The next message becomes the head and the stream resumes.

Without a reason, the entry records operator_skip, or mapping_failed when the blocked head is a failed-mapping item. Either way a failed-mapping entry is re-mapped by a later redrive. The DLQ entry from an unblock gets a 30-day retention window.

The response reports unblocked: true with the dead_lettered_id of the skipped head, or unblocked: false as a safe no-op when the stream is not currently blocked. A late acknowledgement from the consumer also unblocks the stream naturally โ€” no operator action needed.

Monitoringโ€‹

Lifecycle monitoring codesโ€‹

Poll-queue message lifecycle events flow through the standard monitoring pipeline (Integration Hub dashboards, stats endpoint), mirroring the push-side ACK_* family:

CodeLevelEmitted when
MSG_ENQUEUEDinfoA new queue item is enqueued for a poll-mode use case (duplicates emit nothing). For a mapped message the detail also carries the delivered payload โ€” see What a mapped message looks like in monitoring
MSG_ACKEDsuccessA polled message is acknowledged (one event per accepted message id)
MSG_EXPIRED_UNPOLLEDerrorAn item's retention window elapsed without it ever being consumed โ€” the offline-consumer loss signal
MSG_DEAD_LETTEREDerrorA message exhausted max_delivery_attempts under the dead_letter policy, or an operator skipped a blocked head (includes delivery_attempts in the event detail)
MSG_HEAD_BLOCKEDerrorThe stream halted on a poisoned head under the block policy โ€” emitted once per blocked episode, not on every poll (includes delivery_attempts in the event detail)
MSG_LATE_ARRIVALwarningAn event arrived after the consumer had moved past its position and was re-keyed to the tail of the stream (includes original_sequence_time and rekeyed_sequence_time in the event detail) โ€” see Late arrivals
MAPPING_EXPRESSION_FAILEDerrorThe poll mapping's jsonata_expression failed at enqueue time (includes use_case_id, event_id, event_name, message_id, mapping_version, error_code and the error message) โ€” see Mapping failures

When a failed mapping reaches the head, MSG_DEAD_LETTERED or MSG_HEAD_BLOCKED carries reason: "mapping_failed" in its detail, so the mapping failure and its consequence for the stream can be told apart from ordinary poison messages.

Lease lapses (a message reappearing after a visibility timeout) are deliberately not a per-occurrence signal โ€” they are normal at-least-once behavior and would be noisy. The attempt count is reported on MSG_DEAD_LETTERED / MSG_HEAD_BLOCKED, which are the actionable events.

What a mapped message looks like in monitoringโ€‹

When a payload mapping transforms a message, its MSG_ENQUEUED event shows what the consumer will receive, so you can inspect a transform's result next to its trigger event in the monitoring trace. The payload is exactly what the poll API delivers:

{
"message_id": "msg_9f3c8a1bโ€ฆ",
"event_name": "MeterReadingAdded",
"mapping_version": "3f9a1c0b7d2e4a65",
"payload": { "meter_number": "A-1002", "reason": "PERIODIC" }
}

Monitoring keeps a payload of up to 48ย KiB (serialized JSON). A larger one is left out and described instead, still with its mapping_version:

{
"message_id": "msg_9f3c8a1bโ€ฆ",
"event_name": "MeterReadingAdded",
"mapping_version": "3f9a1c0b7d2e4a65",
"payload_omitted": { "reason": "too_large", "size_bytes": 81234, "limit_bytes": 49152 }
}

The limit exists because a page of monitoring events returns up to 100 events with their details inline, and every page has to fit in one API response. limit_bytes carries the limit, so you never need to hard-code it.

Raw and failed messages keep the plain detail, { "message_id": "โ€ฆ", "event_name": "โ€ฆ" }. A raw message's payload is the trigger event, which the trace already shows, so monitoring stores no second copy. A failed message has its own MAPPING_EXPRESSION_FAILED event.

Mapped payloads are copied into monitoring

A transformed payload usually contains customer data, and this copy is kept as long as the integration's other monitoring events. Anyone who can read the integration's monitoring events can see it. The monitoring events list and the trace both require the integration:view grant on the integration.

Queue health in outbound-statusโ€‹

For poll-mode use cases, GET /v1/integrations/{integrationId}/outbound-status reports a poll health object per use case (webhook-only use cases keep their existing status shape unchanged):

{
"useCaseId": "โ€ฆ",
"name": "Contract Sync (poll)",
"status": "ok",
"poll": {
"queue_depth": 12,
"oldest_unconsumed_age_seconds": 4210,
"last_poll_at": "2026-06-11T06:30:00Z",
"last_ack_at": "2026-06-11T06:30:05Z",
"blocked": false,
"dlq_count": 0
}
}
FieldDescription
queue_depthUnconsumed messages attributable to this use case (first-page approximation)
oldest_unconsumed_age_secondsAge of the oldest unconsumed message โ€” null when the queue is empty
last_poll_at / last_ack_atTimestamps of the last successful poll lease / committed ack โ€” null before the first
blockedWhether the integration's outbound stream is halted by a blocked head. Stream-level flag โ€” the same value appears on every poll use case of the integration, because the stream spans them
dlq_countDead-lettered messages of this use case awaiting redrive or expiry (first-page approximation)

Two poll-specific conflict types can surface alongside: stream_blocked (the stream is halted awaiting operator action or consumer ack) and dlq_items_present (dead-lettered messages await redrive or expiry).

SDKโ€‹

The poll and ack endpoints are part of the ERP Integration API's OpenAPI spec and surface in the @epilot/erp-integration-client SDK as typed pollOutboundMessages / ackOutboundMessages operations โ€” same client and auth you already use for the other ERP Integration API endpoints. The operations are included in SDK releases newer than 0.32.0; until your SDK version includes them, call the endpoints directly as shown above.

Current Limitationsโ€‹

  • No webhook condition filtering (filterConditions) for poll mappings โ€” use the use case's event_filter instead (see Payload Contract).
  • Payload mapping bindings are limited to $env, $mapValue and $mapKey, and the output must be a JSON object (see Payload Mapping).
  • At most one poll mapping per use case.
  • One in-flight batch per integration stream โ€” consumer-side parallelism does not increase throughput. The contract is shard-ready (per-entity ordering promise, per-message group field), but sharding is a server-side setting that is not yet enabled.