Upsert a work item

POST/api/v2/workspaces/{slug}/projects/{project_id}/work-items/upsert/

Work items are the issues, tasks and epics in a project. Create a work item, or update the existing one that carries the same (external_source, external_id) pair.

• Both external_source and external_id are required — without them there is nothing to match on and the request is a 400.
• A created record answers 201 with X-Plane-Upsert: created; an updated one answers 200 with X-Plane-Upsert: updated. Branch on the header rather than guessing from the status.
• Upsert is safe for sequential importers. Two simultaneous upserts of the same key can each miss and each create, so serialize your writes per key.

Path Parameters

slug:requiredstring

The workspace slug. It appears in your Plane URLs. In https://app.plane.so/my-team/projects/, the slug is my-team.

project_id:requiredstring

The project the resource belongs to. Accepts the project UUID or its bare identifier, for example ENG.

Body Parameters

name:requiredstring

Display name.

Maximum 255 characters.

assignee_ids:optionalarray of string (uuid)

Ids of the assignees to associate. Replaces the current set.

assignees:optionalarray of string (email)

The assignees.

cycle_id:optionalstring (uuid)

Id of the related cycle.

Nullable.

description_html:optionalstring

Rich-text body as HTML. This is the field the Plane editor round-trips.

Nullable.

estimate:optionalstring

The estimate.

Nullable.

estimate_point_id:optionalstring (uuid)

Id of the related estimate point.

Nullable.

external_id:optionalstring

Your system's identifier for this record, for sync and import correlation.

Maximum 255 characters. Nullable.

external_source:optionalstring

The system external_id came from, for example github or jira.

Maximum 255 characters. Nullable.

label_ids:optionalarray of string (uuid)

Ids of the labels to associate. Replaces the current set.

labels:optionalarray of string

The labels.

module_ids:optionalarray of string (uuid)

Ids of the modules to associate. Replaces the current set.

parent:optionalstring

The parent.

Nullable.

parent_id:optionalstring (uuid)

Id of the related parent.

Nullable.

priority:optionalstring

• none - None
• low - Low
• medium - Medium
• high - High
• urgent - Urgent

One of none, low, medium, high, urgent.

start_date:optionalstring (date)

Planned start date, as YYYY-MM-DD.

Nullable.

state:optionalstring

The state.

Nullable.

state_id:optionalstring (uuid)

Id of the related state.

Nullable.

target_date:optionalstring (date)

Planned due date, as YYYY-MM-DD.

Nullable.

type:optionalstring

The type.

Nullable.

type_id:optionalstring (uuid)

Id of the related type.

Nullable.

Response shaping

fields:optionalstring

Comma-separated list of fields to return. Unrequested keys are omitted, not returned as null. id always comes back. Pass all for every requestable field. An unknown name is a 400. See Sparse fields.

Requestable here: archived_at, assignee_ids, completed_at, created_at, created_by_id, custom_fields, cycle_id, description_html, estimate_point_id, external_id, external_source, id, identifier, is_draft, label_ids, module_ids, name, parent_id, priority, project_id, sequence_id, sort_order, start_date, state_id, target_date, type_id, updated_at, updated_by_id.

expand:optionalstring

Comma-separated relations to embed: assignees, cycle, estimate_point, labels, modules, parent, state, type.

Expansion is separate-key — ?expand=state keeps state_id and adds a state object next to it. ?fields= and ?expand= are independent: naming a relation in ?fields= is a 400, and expanded objects survive field filtering. See Expanding relations.

Scopes

projects.work_items:write

Errors

Status	Code	Cause
400	invalid_request	The request body or a query parameter failed validation.
401	unauthorized	Missing or invalid credentials.
402	payment_required	The feature this endpoint belongs to isn't enabled on your plan or is switched off.
403	forbidden	Your role or token scope doesn't allow this.
404	not_found	No such resource, or it's outside your tenant.
406	not_acceptable	The Accept header asks for a representation the API can't produce.
409	conflict	A business rule blocks the write — see the notes above.
413	payload_too_large	The request body is over the size limit.
415	unsupported_media_type	The Content-Type isn't one this endpoint accepts.
429	rate_limited	Throttled. Honor the Retry-After header before retrying.

Upsert a work item

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.plane.so/api/v2/workspaces/my-team/projects/4af68566-94a4-4eb3-94aa-50dc9427067b/work-items/upsert/" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $PLANE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "external_source": "jira",
  "external_id": "PAY-2041",
  "name": "Checkout fails for saved cards",
  "description_html": "<p>Imported from Jira. Payment step returns a 500 for cards saved before the migration.</p>",
  "priority": "urgent",
  "state": "In Progress"
}'

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.plane.so/api/v2/workspaces/my-team/projects/4af68566-94a4-4eb3-94aa-50dc9427067b/work-items/upsert/",
    headers={"X-Api-Key": "your-api-key"},
    json={
        "external_source": "jira",
        "external_id": "PAY-2041",
        "name": "Checkout fails for saved cards",
        "description_html": "<p>Imported from Jira. Payment step returns a 500 for cards saved before the migration.</p>",
        "priority": "urgent",
        "state": "In Progress",
    },
)
print(response.headers["X-Plane-Upsert"], response.json())

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.plane.so/api/v2/workspaces/my-team/projects/4af68566-94a4-4eb3-94aa-50dc9427067b/work-items/upsert/",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "X-Api-Key": "your-api-key",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      external_source: "jira",
      external_id: "PAY-2041",
      name: "Checkout fails for saved cards",
      description_html:
        "<p>Imported from Jira. Payment step returns a 500 for cards saved before the migration.</p>",
      priority: "urgent",
      state: "In Progress",
    }),
  },
);
const data = await response.json();

Response200

{
  "id": "b7e42a19-3c5d-4f80-9a26-8d1c0f4e7b53",
  "name": "Checkout fails for saved cards",
  "description_html": "<p>Imported from Jira. Payment step returns a 500 for cards saved before the migration.</p>",
  "identifier": "PROJ-157",
  "sequence_id": 157,
  "priority": "urgent",
  "project_id": "4af68566-94a4-4eb3-94aa-50dc9427067b",
  "state_id": "f960d3c2-8524-4a41-b8eb-055ce4be2a7f",
  "type_id": null,
  "assignee_ids": [],
  "label_ids": [],
  "cycle_id": null,
  "module_ids": [],
  "parent_id": null,
  "estimate_point_id": null,
  "start_date": null,
  "target_date": null,
  "is_draft": false,
  "sort_order": 95535.0,
  "completed_at": null,
  "archived_at": null,
  "external_id": "PAY-2041",
  "external_source": "jira",
  "created_at": "2026-01-16T08:12:55.301742Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-01-21T14:37:09.884120Z",
  "created_by_id": "16c61a3a-512a-48ac-b0be-b6b46fe6f430",
  "updated_by_id": "16c61a3a-512a-48ac-b0be-b6b46fe6f430",
  "custom_fields": {}
}