Authentication

Supported Authentication Methods

Drop in supports:

• Client Credentials (API Key) — uses your Personio API client ID and client secret

Using Client Credentials

To connect Personio with Drop in, you'll need API credentials from your Personio account:

1. Log in to your Personio account as an administrator
2. Navigate to Settings > Integrations > API credentials
3. Click Generate new credentials
4. Give your credentials a descriptive name (e.g., "Drop in Integration")
5. Select the required permissions:
   • Employees — read and write access
   • Absences — read and write access
   • Attendances — read and write access
   • Documents — read and write access
6. Click Generate
7. Copy both the Client ID and Client Secret
8. In Drop in, select Personio when creating a drop and enter your credentials in the format client_id:client_secret (separated by a colon)

Important: Enter both values as a single string separated by a colon — for example, papi-abc123:xyz789secret. Drop in will use these to authenticate with the Personio API automatically.

Resources:

• Personio API Documentation
• Generate API Credentials
• API Authentication Guide

Providing Context

Many Personio actions require an employee ID, absence ID, attendance ID, or document ID so the AI knows which record to work with. You don't need to memorize these — the AI can look them up for you.

How IDs Work in Personio

Personio uses numeric IDs to identify most resources:

• Employee ID — a number like 123. Found by asking the AI to list employees, or visible in the Personio URL when viewing an employee profile.
• Absence ID — a number like 456. Found by asking the AI to list absence periods.
• Attendance ID — a number like 789. Found by asking the AI to list attendance periods.
• Document ID — a string identifier. Found by asking the AI to list documents.

Letting the AI Find IDs for You

When you describe what you want in plain language (e.g., "show me Jane Smith's absences" or "log attendance for today"), the AI will automatically list employees, find the right person, and then perform the action. You only need to provide IDs yourself if you want to target a specific record directly.

Available Actions

List Employees

List all employees in your Personio account with pagination support.

Get Employee

Retrieve a single employee's full profile by their ID.

Create Employee

Create a new employee record with details like name, email, and employment information.

Update Employee

Update an existing employee's information by their ID.

Delete Employee

Delete an employee record by their ID.

List Absences

List all absence periods across your organization with pagination support.

Get Absence

Retrieve a single absence period by its ID, including type, dates, and associated employee.

Create Absence

Create a new absence period for an employee, specifying the type (e.g., vacation, sick leave), start date, and end date.

Update Absence

Update an existing absence period by its ID, such as changing the end date.

Delete Absence

Delete an absence period by its ID.

List Attendances

List all attendance periods across your organization with pagination support.

Get Attendance

Retrieve a single attendance period by its ID, including date, start time, end time, and break duration.

Create Attendance

Create a new attendance period for an employee, specifying the date, start time, end time, and break duration.

Update Attendance

Update an existing attendance period by its ID, such as adjusting the end time.

Delete Attendance

Delete an attendance period by its ID.

List Documents

List document metadata across your Personio account with pagination support.

Get Document

Retrieve metadata for a single document by its ID.

Delete Document

Delete a document by its ID.

Common Issues

Authentication Failed

If you receive an authentication or 401 error:

• Verify your credentials are in the correct client_id:client_secret format with a colon separator
• Check that neither the client ID nor the client secret contains extra spaces
• Ensure the API credentials have not been revoked or regenerated in Personio

Insufficient Permissions

If operations fail with a 403 or permission error:

• Verify your API credentials have the required permissions for the resource type (Employees, Absences, Attendances, or Documents)
• Check that the permissions include both read and write access if you are creating or updating records

Employee Not Found

If you receive a "not found" error when accessing an employee:

• Verify the employee ID is correct
• Check that the employee has not been deleted or archived in Personio
• Ensure your API credentials have access to the employee's data

Rate Limits

If you encounter rate limit errors:

• Space out requests when performing bulk operations
• Use list operations with pagination instead of fetching all records at once

Need help? Contact support