--- title: "Update a WhatsApp keyword rule" method: PATCH path: "/v1/whatsapp/keyword-rules/{id}" tags: ["whatsapp-keyword-rules"] --- # Update a WhatsApp keyword rule `PATCH /v1/whatsapp/keyword-rules/{id}` ## Request - Base URL: `https://us1.platform.bird.com` - URL: `https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/whatsapp/keyword-rules/{id}` - Auth: one of: - HTTP bearer - API key in cookie `bird_session` Changes the reply or the added keywords of a rule you created. Bird's own rules cannot be changed. To replace one, create a rule with the same operation and country and yours takes precedence. What the rule applies to is fixed once created, so this changes the reply and the keywords only. ## Headers - `Idempotency-Key` string - `X-Workspace-Id` string - `X-Organization-Id` string ## Request body - WhatsAppKeywordRuleUpdate: Changes the reply and the added keywords. What a rule applies to (its operation, country and WhatsApp Business Account) is fixed once created: those decide which inbound messages reach it, so changing one would make it a different rule. Delete it and create the one you want. - `keywords` string[]: Replaces the extra keywords this rule matches, on top of the ones Bird ships. Send an empty array to keep Bird's keywords only. Omit to leave the current ones unchanged. - `reply` string, nullable: Replaces the message sent back when a keyword matches. Set it to null to send nothing. Omit to leave it unchanged. ## Response `200` The updated rule. - WhatsAppKeywordRule - `id` string, required - `scope` 'system' | 'workspace', required: Whether the rule is one Bird ships (`system`) or one your workspace created (`workspace`). Both kinds carry a `wkr_` ID and can be read; only a `workspace` rule can be changed or deleted. A `workspace` rule takes precedence over Bird's at the same grain, so it is how you replace a reply without losing the keywords Bird ships. - `operation` string, required: What Bird does when an inbound message matches the rule. - `opt_out` records that the sender no longer consents to receive any messages from your WhatsApp Business Account, including transactional ones. Typing the word is the person's own statement, so it covers everything, unlike WhatsApp's built-in marketing opt-out control, which stops marketing alone. - `opt_in` records that they consent again. A rule's operation is fixed once created, and a keyword belongs to exactly one operation, so a keyword Bird ships for `opt_out` cannot be reused for `opt_in`. This is an open enum. Accept unrecognized values: SMS already answers `help`, `info`, `confirm` and `custom`, and WhatsApp gains an operation without a new API version. Sending one Bird does not answer yet is refused with `E15082`. - `country` string, nullable: The country the rule applies in, as an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code. It is the country of the person who messaged you, worked out from their phone number, not the country of the account they messaged. Null means the rule applies worldwide, which is what Bird's own rules do. A rule for a country outranks a worldwide rule for the people it covers. - `waba` string, nullable: The WhatsApp Business Account the rule is limited to, identified by its WhatsApp-issued account ID, or null when it covers every account in your workspace. Bird's own rules are always null. - `keywords` string[], required: The keywords this rule adds. For one of Bird's own rules this is the full set Bird ships. For a rule you created it is only what you added on top: it never restates or removes Bird's keywords, so `effective_keywords` is what actually matches. - `effective_keywords` string[], required: Every keyword that matches this rule: Bird's keywords for the same operation and country, plus the ones you added. This is what an inbound message is compared against, and the whole message has to equal one of them. Keywords Bird adds later join it without you changing anything. For a rule of **yours** with no `country`, this list is not the whole set it matches: such a rule compares against Bird's keywords for the sender's country, which the list cannot show because it does not know who is writing, so it shows Bird's worldwide keywords instead. Which rule answers decides whether that matters. Yours with no `country` and no `waba` sits below Bird's own country rule, so a sender in a country Bird ships a rule for is answered by that rule and your reply is not used. Yours with a `waba` and no `country` sits above it, so those senders match that country's keywords and get your reply, which is more keywords than this list names. Set a `country` on your own rule to see and extend exactly the set those senders match. A `system` rule is unaffected: each matches only its own keywords, and the ladder checks Bird's country rules separately from its worldwide one. - `reply` string, nullable: The message sent back when one of the keywords matches, or null when no reply is sent. The reply goes out on the conversation the inbound message opened. - `created_at` string, date-time, required: When the rule was created. On one of Bird's own rules this is when Bird last shipped a change to it. - `updated_at` string, date-time, required: When the rule was last changed. On one of Bird's own rules this is when Bird last shipped a change to it. ## Other responses - `400`: Bad request - `401`: Authentication required - `403`: Insufficient permissions - `404`: Resource not found - `409`: Resource conflict - `422`: The request has invalid field values, violates a business rule, or carries a query parameter the endpoint does not declare. Field validation errors use `type: validation_error` and include the affected fields in `details`. Business-rule errors identify the failed rule in `type`. - `429`: Rate limit exceeded - `500`: Internal server error - `503`: The service is temporarily unavailable. If `Retry-After` is present, wait for that delay before retrying; otherwise, retry with exponential backoff. Reuse the same idempotency key and request when retrying a mutation. --- [API](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api/revisions/6dfce1179799?raw)