Create a user

This walkthrough creates a member of your organization, proves the idempotent retry behavior, and tours the rest of the membership lifecycle. You need your org_ API key (Quickstart).

export API_BASE_URL="https://api.develop.fourdos.dev"
export API_KEY="org_…"

1. Create (or attach)

POST /v1/users is a create-or-attach: if the email has no 4D account, a user and a membership in your org are created; if the person already exists on the platform, they’re attached to your org as a member instead - never duplicated. Only email is required.

curl -X POST "$API_BASE_URL/v1/users" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: create-ada-001" \
  -d '{
    "email": "ada.lovelace@example.com",
    "external_id": "cust-001",
    "first_name": "Ada",
    "last_name": "Lovelace",
    "display_name": "Ada L.",
    "country": "GB",
    "dob": "1990-12-10"
  }'

201 Created when a user or a membership was created, or 200 OK when the person was already a member of your organization and is returned unchanged:

{
  "id": "0198f2b1-…",
  "email": "ada.lovelace@example.com",
  "display_name": "Ada L.",
  "first_name": "Ada",
  "last_name": "Lovelace",
  "country": "GB",
  "age_band": "adult",
  "dob_verification_status": "self_declared",
  "last_active_at": null,
  "status": "active",
  "wallet": { "status": "provisioning", "address": null },
  "membership": {
    "id": "…",
    "external_id": "cust-001",
    "role": "member",
    "status": "active",
    "joined_at": "2026-07-17T00:00:00.000Z",
    "locked_at": null,
    "locked_reason": null
  }
}

Notes on the shape:

age_band is derived from dob + country; the raw dob you submitted is not echoed back - partner reads get the redacted profile (see Members).
wallet starts provisioning and becomes active with an address once the background provisioning completes - no action needed from you.
dob_verification_status is self_declared when a dob is sent, and unverified when none is.
country must be an assigned ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (any case in, stored uppercase); dob must be a real calendar date, in the past, year ≥ 1900.

2. Retry it - nothing duplicates

Run the exact same command again. Same Idempotency-Key, same body: the original response is replayed exactly as it was first sent, status included, so the retry of a call that created Ada answers 201 again with the same body. A different body under the same key is rejected with 409 IDEMPOTENCY_CONFLICT. Reusing an external_id already claimed by another member of your org is also a 409.

3. The rest of the lifecycle

# Fetch (within your org)
curl "$API_BASE_URL/v1/users/$USER_ID" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"

# Update profile fields
curl -X PATCH "$API_BASE_URL/v1/users/$USER_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "display_name": "Countess of Lovelace" }'

# Lock the membership (reason required) / unlock it
curl -X POST "$API_BASE_URL/v1/users/$USER_ID/lock" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "reason": "payment dispute" }'
curl -X POST "$API_BASE_URL/v1/users/$USER_ID/unlock" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"

# Remove (soft-delete) the membership - the person's 4D account survives
curl -X DELETE "$API_BASE_URL/v1/users/$USER_ID/membership" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"

Locking and removal act on your membership, not the person’s global account: a removed member keeps their 4D identity (and any other organizations’ memberships) intact.

Get user details - reads, updates, and typed attributes.
Trigger an event - start tracking what this member does.
Bringing thousands of existing members? Migrate an existing member base runs this same create-or-attach path in bulk.

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Concepts

Walkthroughs

Content API

SDK

1. Create (or attach)

2. Retry it - nothing duplicates

3. The rest of the lifecycle

Next

​1. Create (or attach)

​2. Retry it - nothing duplicates

​3. The rest of the lifecycle

​Next

1. Create (or attach)

2. Retry it - nothing duplicates

3. The rest of the lifecycle

Next