# Delete a contact by external id

`DELETE /v1/contacts/by-external-id/{external_id}`

- Authentication: required (Bearer token)
- Required scope: `api.contacts.manage`

Archives the contact carrying this `external_id`, whatever address it
currently holds — the delete counterpart to the upsert above, so a
contact can be retired on the same key it was created with.

**Prefer this over `DELETE /v1/contacts/{email}` if you sync on external
id.** A contact's email can change (the `PUT` above changes it), and once
it has, a delete keyed on the address you remember either misses the
contact you meant to retire or archives a *different* contact that has
since taken that address over. Neither is visible to you, because the
by-email delete is idempotent and answers `204` in both cases.

Archives rather than hard-deletes, and emits exit transitions for every
static List the contact belonged to, exactly as the by-email delete does.

Idempotent: `204` whether the contact was archived by this call, was
already archived, or was never there. Supports the `Idempotency-Key`
header.

## Path parameters

- `external_id` (string, required) — The caller's stable identifier for this contact. Opaque, unique per org.

## Example request

```bash
curl -X DELETE 'https://api.sendops.dev/v1/contacts/by-external-id/string' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDOPS_API_KEY"
```

## Responses

### 204 — Contact deleted (or was already absent)

### 401 — Missing, malformed, or unknown API key

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 403 — Either the credential lacks the required scope (`code: invalid_scope`), or it is bound to the `test` environment and this operation is irreversible (`code: test_environment_forbidden`). Branch on `code`: the first is fixed by granting the scope, the second only by using a live credential. See the "Live and test credentials" section of the API description.

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 422 — Query parameter or path value failed validation

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 429 — Per-org rate limit exceeded

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 500 — Unexpected server-side failure. The `code` is `internal_error`. The
`request_id` field can be quoted to SendOps support to investigate.

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 503 — An upstream dependency — the AWS SES account connected to this org —
refused, throttled, or did not answer in time. The `code` is
`upstream_unavailable`; the status is `503` when the call failed and
`504` when it exceeded our deadline.

**Retryable.** Always accompanied by `Retry-After`. On a `504` the
outcome is genuinely unknown (the write may have reached SES), so
retries of a non-idempotent call should carry an `Idempotency-Key`.

The detail string is deliberately generic: the underlying AWS error
describes the customer's own account and is recorded in SendOps logs
against the `request_id`, not returned here.

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```

### 504 — An upstream dependency — the AWS SES account connected to this org —
refused, throttled, or did not answer in time. The `code` is
`upstream_unavailable`; the status is `503` when the call failed and
`504` when it exceeded our deadline.

**Retryable.** Always accompanied by `Retry-After`. On a `504` the
outcome is genuinely unknown (the write may have reached SES), so
retries of a non-idempotent call should carry an `Idempotency-Key`.

The detail string is deliberately generic: the underlying AWS error
describes the customer's own account and is recorded in SendOps logs
against the `request_id`, not returned here.

Content type: `application/problem+json`

```json
{
  "type": "https://example.com",
  "title": "string",
  "status": 0,
  "detail": "string",
  "code": "invalid_key",
  "request_id": "string",
  "retry_after": 0,
  "retention_days": 0,
  "scope": "string",
  "resource": "string",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "string",
      "reason": "string"
    }
  ],
  "attribute_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "content_hash": "string",
  "differs": [
    "string"
  ]
}
```