Sympa (via Apideck)

Access Sympa through Apideck's HRIS unified API — one of 58 HRIS connectors that share the same method surface. Code you write here ports to BambooHR, Workday, Deel and 54 other HRIS connectors by changing a single serviceId string. Apideck handles auth, pagination, rate limiting, and retries so you don't write per-tenant Sympa plumbing.

Quick facts

• Apideck serviceId: sympa
• Unified API: HRIS
• Auth type: basic
• Gotchas: page
• Sympa docs: https://www.sympa.com
• Homepage: https://www.sympa.com/

At a glance

• Implementation difficulty: involved — Sympa Technology Partner Programme + Key and Secret Assigned by Sympa
• Vendor partnership required: yes (Sympa Partner Programme) — Apply to the Technology Partner programme and accept Sympa's partnership terms; membership gives access to a Marketplace listing.
• Apideck-managed credentials: not available — Sympa issues the API key and secret itself, so there are no shared credentials.
• Account type required: A Sympa HRIS customer account with the Generic API interface enabled.
• Consumer access level: A Sympa administrator able to obtain the interface's API key and secret.
• Sandbox: available — Test credentials issued by Sympa's partner team on request (partners@sympa.com); no self-serve sandbox.
• Costs: Sympa publishes no fee for API access.
• Rate limits: 100 requests per hour per interface, shared across all request types.
• Authentication: Not OAuth: the API key is sent as the username and the secret as the password.
• Webhooks: No webhooks - data is fetched by polling.

Important to know:

• Plan on a scheduled sync rather than near-real-time updates: Sympa sends no change events and caps each interface at a low hourly request volume.

Facts synced from Apideck's connector metadata API — GET /connector/connectors/sympa (overview field) is the live, authoritative version.

When to use this skill

Activate this skill when the user explicitly wants to work with Sympa — for example, "sync employees in Sympa" or "list time-off requests in Sympa". This skill teaches the agent:

1. Which Apideck unified API covers Sympa (HRIS)
2. The correct serviceId to pass on every call (sympa)
3. Sympa-specific auth and coverage caveats

For the full method surface (parameters, pagination, filtering), use your language SDK skill:

• apideck-node, apideck-python, apideck-dotnet, apideck-java, apideck-go, apideck-php, or apideck-rest

For the raw OpenAPI spec:

• HRIS: https://specs.apideck.com/hris.yml · API Explorer

Minimal example (TypeScript)

import { Apideck } from "@apideck/unify";

const apideck = new Apideck({
  apiKey: process.env.APIDECK_API_KEY,
  appId: process.env.APIDECK_APP_ID,
  consumerId: "your-consumer-id",
});

// List employees in Sympa
const { data } = await apideck.hris.employees.list({
  serviceId: "sympa",
});

Portable across 58 HRIS connectors

The Apideck HRIS unified API exposes the same methods for every connector in its catalog. Switching from Sympa to another HRIS connector is a one-string change — no rewrite, no new SDK.

// Today — Sympa
await apideck.hris.employees.list({ serviceId: "sympa" });

// Tomorrow — same code, different connector
await apideck.hris.employees.list({ serviceId: "bamboohr" });
await apideck.hris.employees.list({ serviceId: "workday" });

This is the compounding advantage of using Apideck over integrating Sympa directly: code against the unified HRIS API once, gain access to every connector in it. New connectors Apideck adds become available to your app without code changes.

Authentication

• Type: Basic auth (username/password)
• Managed by: Apideck Vault — credentials are collected through the Vault modal and stored encrypted server-side.
• Note: basic auth connectors often require manual rotation by the end user. If auth fails persistently, prompt them to re-enter credentials in Vault.

See apideck-best-practices for Vault setup, connection lifecycle, and handling re-auth flows.

Verifying coverage

Not every HRIS operation is supported by every connector. Always verify before assuming a method works:

curl 'https://unify.apideck.com/connector/connectors/sympa' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${APIDECK_API_KEY}" \
  -H "x-apideck-app-id: ${APIDECK_APP_ID}"

See apideck-connector-coverage for patterns around UnsupportedOperationError and connector-specific fallbacks.

Escape hatch: Proxy API

When an endpoint isn't covered by the HRIS unified API, use Apideck's Proxy to call Sympa directly — Apideck injects auth headers and handles token refresh. Set x-apideck-downstream-url to the target endpoint on Sympa's own API:

curl 'https://unify.apideck.com/proxy' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${APIDECK_API_KEY}" \
  -H "x-apideck-app-id: ${APIDECK_APP_ID}" \
  -H "x-apideck-consumer-id: ${CONSUMER_ID}" \
  -H "x-apideck-service-id: sympa" \
  -H "x-apideck-downstream-url: <target endpoint on Sympa>" \
  -H "x-apideck-downstream-method: GET"

See Sympa's API docs for available endpoints.

Sibling connectors

Other HRIS connectors that share this unified API surface (same method signatures, just change serviceId):

bamboohr, workday, deel (beta), hibob, personio, adp-ihcm (beta), adp-workforce-now (beta), paychex (beta), and 49 more.

See also

• HRIS OpenAPI spec · API Explorer
• apideck-connector-coverage — programmatic coverage checks
• apideck-best-practices — architecture, Vault, pagination, error handling
• apideck-node — TypeScript / Node SDK patterns
• Sympa official docs