> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.eat-now.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Create a customer > Creates a customer without any reservation. The restaurant's existing customers are matched first, on `external_id`, then phone number (national and international spellings of a number match), then email (case-insensitive). Replaying a call that succeeded finds the customer it created, as long as it carries an `external_id`, a phone or an email; two identical calls sent at the same time can still both create one. `external_id` is stored on creation and with `on_match: update`, not by a plain `return_existing` match. `on_match` decides what a match does: `return_existing` (default) returns the existing customer untouched, `update` writes the provided fields onto it, `create_new` skips matching and always creates. The response says which happened in `result`: HTTP 201 for `created`, 200 for `matched` and `updated`. A blacklisted customer is returned like any other, with `blacklisted: true`. Requires `CUSTOMERS_WRITE` and `CUSTOMERS_READ` (the response is the full customer). ## OpenAPI ````yaml https://app.eat-now.io/api/partner/v1/openapi.json post /api/partner/v1/customers openapi: 3.0.3 info: title: EatNow Partner API version: v1 description: >- Version 1 of the EatNow partner API. This API is designed for trusted partner integrations that need restaurant-scoped access to availability, reservation management, and operational reference data. Authentication - Use `Authorization: Bearer ` with a partner API token created from the EatNow dashboard. - Access is controlled by credential scopes and each request is resolved to a single restaurant. Base URL - The server URL in this document is the canonical base URL for the current environment. Errors - Endpoint errors use `error.code`, `error.message`, and `error.request_id`. Errors raised before the endpoint, including rate limiting, may use another format. - Validation, authentication, authorization, conflicts, and not-found cases all use the same top-level error shape. Rate limits - The partner route rule allows 600 requests per minute per client IP. Back off on 429. When present, x-ratelimit-reset is an epoch timestamp in milliseconds. Public endpoints - `GET /api/partner/v1` and `GET /api/partner/v1/openapi.json` are public. - All business endpoints require Bearer authentication. servers: - url: https://app.eat-now.io security: [] tags: - name: Meta description: Platform metadata and schema endpoints - name: Authentication description: Credential validation and auth context endpoints - name: Availability description: Bookable slot search and exact slot validation - name: Catalog description: Reference data for restaurant tables, rooms, prescribers, and discounts - name: Reservations description: Reservation lookup, search, update, and cancellation - name: Customers description: >- Customer (CRM) records, independent of reservations: list, sync, create, update - name: Webhooks description: Webhook endpoints a key subscribes to V1 events (reservations, customers) - name: Missed Calls description: Report missed calls and trigger WhatsApp follow-up templates externalDocs: description: Integration guides, authentication, errors, and webhook reference url: https://docs.eat-now.io/api-reference/introduction paths: /api/partner/v1/customers: post: tags: - Customers summary: Create a customer description: >- Creates a customer without any reservation. The restaurant's existing customers are matched first, on `external_id`, then phone number (national and international spellings of a number match), then email (case-insensitive). Replaying a call that succeeded finds the customer it created, as long as it carries an `external_id`, a phone or an email; two identical calls sent at the same time can still both create one. `external_id` is stored on creation and with `on_match: update`, not by a plain `return_existing` match. `on_match` decides what a match does: `return_existing` (default) returns the existing customer untouched, `update` writes the provided fields onto it, `create_new` skips matching and always creates. The response says which happened in `result`: HTTP 201 for `created`, 200 for `matched` and `updated`. A blacklisted customer is returned like any other, with `blacklisted: true`. Requires `CUSTOMERS_WRITE` and `CUSTOMERS_READ` (the response is the full customer). operationId: createPartnerCustomer requestBody: required: true content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiCustomerCreateRequest' examples: upsert: summary: Create or update from a CRM value: name: Jane Doe email: jane@example.com phone_number: '+33612345678' external_id: crm-4821 tags: - VIP newsletter_consent: true on_match: update responses: '200': description: >- Existing customer returned (`result: matched`) or updated (`result: updated`) content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiCustomerCreateResponse' examples: matched: summary: Matched on phone number value: data: id: cus_123 external_id: crm-4821 name: Jane Doe email: jane@example.com phone_number: '+33612345678' country_code: FR lang: FR tags: - VIP note: Prefers the terrace custom_fields: field_birthday: name: Birthday value: '1990-04-12' newsletter_consent: true marketing_opt_outs: [] blacklisted: false stats: reservation_count: 7 confirmed_count: 6 no_show_count: 1 feedback_count: 2 average_feedback_score: 4.5 total_amount_paid: 42000 average_basket: 2800 last_reservation_date: '2026-09-12' created_at: '2025-11-03T18:22:10.000Z' updated_at: '2026-09-12T21:04:55.000Z' result: matched '201': description: 'Customer created (`result: created`)' content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiCustomerCreateResponse' '400': description: Request validation failed (see `error.details.issues`). content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiError' '401': description: Authentication failed content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiError' '403': description: >- Scope is insufficient. Required: `CUSTOMERS_READ` and `CUSTOMERS_WRITE`. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiError' '422': description: >- A custom field is unknown for this restaurant or its value does not fit the field type. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiError' '429': description: >- Rate limit exceeded. Configured limit: 600 requests per minute per client IP for the partner route rule. This middleware response may not use the PartnerApiError envelope or include request_id. Back off before retrying. '500': description: >- Unexpected server error. Preserve error.request_id for support. Before retrying a write, check whether it already succeeded. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiError' security: - PartnerBearerToken: [] components: schemas: PartnerApiCustomerCreateRequest: type: object properties: name: type: string minLength: 1 maxLength: 200 email: type: string nullable: true format: email phone_number: type: string nullable: true minLength: 3 maxLength: 40 description: >- E.164 (`+33612345678`) recommended. A national number is read with the restaurant's country. lang: type: string enum: - FR - EN - IT - ES - DE - PT description: Defaults to the restaurant's language. external_id: type: string nullable: true minLength: 1 maxLength: 255 description: Partner-side identifier of the customer. tags: type: array items: type: string minLength: 1 maxLength: 100 maxItems: 100 description: Replaces all the customer's tags. note: type: string nullable: true maxLength: 10000 description: Internal staff note. custom_fields: type: object additionalProperties: anyOf: - type: string - type: number - type: boolean - nullable: true - type: array items: type: string description: >- Custom field values keyed by field id (see `GET /api/partner/v1/customer-fields`). Only the given fields change; `null` clears one. The value must fit the field type: TEXT → string, NUMBER → number within `min`/`max`, DATE → `YYYY-MM-DD`, BOOLEAN → boolean, SELECT → one option value, MULTI_SELECT → an array of distinct option values (at most `max_items`). newsletter_consent: type: boolean description: >- Newsletter consent. `false` withdraws it; channel opt-outs (`marketing_opt_outs`) are managed by EatNow. on_match: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiCustomerOnMatch' required: - name additionalProperties: false description: >- Customer creation payload. Existing customers are matched first (see `on_match`), so a call replayed after it succeeded finds the customer it created. PartnerApiCustomerCreateResponse: type: object properties: data: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiCustomerDetail' result: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiCustomerWriteResult' required: - data - result PartnerApiError: type: object properties: error: type: object properties: code: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiErrorCode' message: type: string request_id: type: string details: type: object additionalProperties: nullable: true required: - code - message - request_id required: - error PartnerApiCustomerOnMatch: type: string enum: - return_existing - update - create_new default: return_existing description: >- What to do when the provided details match an existing customer of the restaurant (same `external_id`, then same phone number, then same email): `return_existing` keeps the existing customer untouched and uses it; `update` writes the provided fields onto the existing customer; `create_new` skips matching and creates another customer anyway. PartnerApiCustomerDetail: type: object properties: id: type: string external_id: type: string nullable: true description: >- Partner-side identifier of the customer. Matched first when creating a customer. name: type: string email: type: string nullable: true format: email phone_number: type: string nullable: true description: >- Phone number as stored, spaces removed. E.164 when it was provided that way. country_code: type: string nullable: true lang: type: string enum: - FR - EN - IT - ES - DE - PT tags: type: array items: type: string note: type: string nullable: true description: Internal staff note. custom_fields: type: object additionalProperties: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiMetadataField' description: >- Values of the restaurant's customer custom fields, keyed by field id (see `GET /api/partner/v1/customer-fields`). newsletter_consent: type: boolean marketing_opt_outs: type: array items: type: string enum: - EMAIL - WHATSAPP description: >- Channels on which the customer must not receive marketing (unsubscribed, bounced, blocked). blacklisted: type: boolean description: >- Blacklisted by the restaurant: new reservations for this customer are rejected. stats: $ref: '#/components/schemas/PartnerApiCustomerStats' created_at: type: string format: date-time updated_at: type: string format: date-time required: - id - external_id - name - email - phone_number - country_code - lang - tags - note - custom_fields - newsletter_consent - marketing_opt_outs - blacklisted - stats - created_at - updated_at PartnerApiCustomerWriteResult: type: string enum: - created - matched - updated description: >- `created`: a new customer (HTTP 201). `matched`: an existing customer, left untouched (HTTP 200). `updated`: an existing customer, updated with the provided fields (HTTP 200). PartnerApiErrorCode: type: string enum: - AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED - INVALID_AUTHENTICATION - INSUFFICIENT_SCOPE - RESTAURANT_SUSPENDED - VALIDATION_ERROR - RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND - RESOURCE_CONFLICT - RATE_LIMITED - INTERNAL_ERROR PartnerApiMetadataField: type: object properties: name: type: string value: anyOf: - type: string - type: number - type: boolean - nullable: true - type: array items: type: string required: - name - value PartnerApiCustomerStats: type: object properties: reservation_count: type: integer description: >- Reservations that are neither canceled nor rejected, upcoming ones and no-shows included. confirmed_count: type: integer description: '`reservation_count` minus the no-shows.' no_show_count: type: integer feedback_count: type: integer average_feedback_score: type: number nullable: true total_amount_paid: type: integer description: >- Total paid over the customer's reservations, in the smallest currency unit (for example cents). average_basket: type: number description: >- `total_amount_paid` divided by the covers of those reservations, in the smallest currency unit. last_reservation_date: type: string nullable: true description: >- Day (`YYYY-MM-DD`, restaurant calendar) of the latest reservation that is neither canceled nor rejected. Can be in the future. required: - reservation_count - confirmed_count - no_show_count - feedback_count - average_feedback_score - total_amount_paid - average_basket - last_reservation_date description: >- Figures computed by EatNow from the customer's reservations. Read-only. Their changes do not move `updated_at`. securitySchemes: PartnerBearerToken: type: http scheme: bearer bearerFormat: API Token description: >- Restaurant-scoped partner API token passed as `Authorization: Bearer `. x-default: your_token_here ````