BambooHR SDK Patterns

Overview

Production-ready patterns for the BambooHR REST API. BambooHR has no official Node.js SDK — you call the API directly via fetch or axios. These patterns wrap the raw HTTP calls into type-safe, retry-aware, multi-tenant-ready code.

Prerequisites

• Completed bamboohr-install-auth setup
• Familiarity with async/await and TypeScript generics

Instructions

Step 1: Type-Safe Client with Error Handling

// src/bamboohr/client.ts
import 'dotenv/config';

export interface BambooHRConfig {
  companyDomain: string;
  apiKey: string;
  timeoutMs?: number;
}

export interface BambooEmployee {
  id: string;
  firstName: string;
  lastName: string;
  displayName: string;
  jobTitle: string;
  department: string;
  division: string;
  workEmail: string;
  location: string;
  status: string;
  hireDate: string;
  supervisor: string;
  employeeNumber: string;
  photoUrl?: string;
}

export class BambooHRClient {
  private base: string;
  private auth: string;
  private timeout: number;

  constructor(config: BambooHRConfig) {
    this.base = `https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/${config.companyDomain}/v1`;
    this.auth = `Basic ${Buffer.from(`${config.apiKey}:x`).toString('base64')}`;
    this.timeout = config.timeoutMs ?? 30_000;
  }

  async request<T>(method: string, path: string, body?: unknown): Promise<T> {
    const controller = new AbortController();
    const timer = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), this.timeout);

    try {
      const res = await fetch(`${this.base}${path}`, {
        method,
        headers: {
          Authorization: this.auth,
          Accept: 'application/json',
          ...(body ? { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' } : {}),
        },
        body: body ? JSON.stringify(body) : undefined,
        signal: controller.signal,
      });

      if (!res.ok) {
        const errMsg = res.headers.get('X-BambooHR-Error-Message') || res.statusText;
        throw new BambooHRApiError(res.status, errMsg, path, {
          retryAfter: res.headers.get('Retry-After'),
        });
      }

      // Some endpoints return 200 with no body (e.g., PUT updates)
      const text = await res.text();
      return text ? JSON.parse(text) : ({} as T);
    } finally {
      clearTimeout(timer);
    }
  }

  // ── Employee endpoints ────────────────────────────────
  async getEmployee(id: number | string, fields: string[]) {
    return this.request<Record<string, string>>('GET', `/employees/${id}/?fields=${fields.join(',')}`);
  }

  async getDirectory() {
    return this.request<{ fields: any[]; employees: BambooEmployee[] }>('GET', '/employees/directory');
  }

  async addEmployee(data: { firstName: string; lastName: string; [k: string]: string }) {
    return this.request<{ headers: { location: string } }>('POST', '/employees/', data);
  }

  async updateEmployee(id: number | string, data: Record<string, string>) {
    return this.request<void>('POST', `/employees/${id}/`, data);
  }

  // ── Reports ───────────────────────────────────────────
  async customReport(fields: string[], filters?: Record<string, any>) {
    return this.request<{ title: string; employees: Record<string, string>[] }>(
      'POST', '/reports/custom?format=JSON',
      { title: 'Custom Report', fields, filters },
    );
  }

  // ── Time Off ──────────────────────────────────────────
  async getTimeOffRequests(start: string, end: string, status?: string) {
    const params = new URLSearchParams({ start, end, ...(status && { status }) });
    return this.request<any[]>('GET', `/time_off/requests/?${params}`);
  }

  // ── Tables (job history, compensation, etc.) ──────────
  async getTableRows(employeeId: number | string, table: string) {
    return this.request<any[]>('GET', `/employees/${employeeId}/tables/${table}`);
  }

  async addTableRow(employeeId: number | string, table: string, data: Record<string, string>) {
    return this.request<void>('POST', `/employees/${employeeId}/tables/${table}`, data);
  }
}

export class BambooHRApiError extends Error {
  constructor(
    public status: number,
    message: string,
    public path: string,
    public meta: { retryAfter?: string | null } = {},
  ) {
    super(`BambooHR ${status}: ${message} [${path}]`);
    this.name = 'BambooHRApiError';
  }

  get retryable(): boolean {
    return this.status === 429 || this.status === 503 || this.status >= 500;
  }
}

Step 2: Retry Wrapper with Exponential Backoff

// src/bamboohr/retry.ts
import { BambooHRApiError } from './client';

export async function withRetry<T>(
  operation: () => Promise<T>,
  maxRetries = 3,
  baseMs = 1000,
): Promise<T> {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await operation();
    } catch (err) {
      if (attempt === maxRetries) throw err;

      // Only retry on retryable errors
      if (err instanceof BambooHRApiError && !err.retryable) throw err;

      // Honor Retry-After header if present (BambooHR sends this on 503)
      const retryAfter = err instanceof BambooHRApiError ? err.meta.retryAfter : null;
      const delay = retryAfter
        ? parseInt(retryAfter, 10) * 1000
        : baseMs * Math.pow(2, attempt) + Math.random() * 500;

      console.warn(`Retry ${attempt + 1}/${maxRetries} in ${delay.toFixed(0)}ms`);
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delay));
    }
  }
  throw new Error('unreachable');
}

Step 3: Multi-Tenant Factory

// src/bamboohr/factory.ts
import { BambooHRClient, BambooHRConfig } from './client';

const tenantClients = new Map<string, BambooHRClient>();

export function getClientForTenant(tenantDomain: string, apiKey: string): BambooHRClient {
  if (!tenantClients.has(tenantDomain)) {
    tenantClients.set(tenantDomain, new BambooHRClient({ companyDomain: tenantDomain, apiKey }));
  }
  return tenantClients.get(tenantDomain)!;
}

// Cleanup on hot reload
export function clearTenantClients() {
  tenantClients.clear();
}

Step 4: Zod Response Validation

import { z } from 'zod';

const EmployeeSchema = z.object({
  id: z.string(),
  firstName: z.string(),
  lastName: z.string(),
  displayName: z.string(),
  jobTitle: z.string().default(''),
  department: z.string().default(''),
  workEmail: z.string().email().optional(),
  status: z.enum(['Active', 'Inactive']).default('Active'),
  hireDate: z.string().regex(/^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/).optional(),
});

const DirectorySchema = z.object({
  employees: z.array(EmployeeSchema),
});

// Usage: validate API responses at runtime
const raw = await client.getDirectory();
const validated = DirectorySchema.parse(raw);  // throws ZodError on mismatch

Python Equivalent

import os, requests
from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import Optional

@dataclass
class BambooHRClient:
    company_domain: str = ""
    api_key: str = ""

    def __post_init__(self):
        self.company_domain = self.company_domain or os.environ["BAMBOOHR_COMPANY_DOMAIN"]
        self.api_key = self.api_key or os.environ["BAMBOOHR_API_KEY"]
        self.base = f"https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/{self.company_domain}/v1"
        self.session = requests.Session()
        self.session.auth = (self.api_key, "x")
        self.session.headers.update({"Accept": "application/json"})

    def get_employee(self, emp_id: int, fields: list[str]) -> dict:
        r = self.session.get(f"{self.base}/employees/{emp_id}/",
                             params={"fields": ",".join(fields)})
        r.raise_for_status()
        return r.json()

    def get_directory(self) -> dict:
        r = self.session.get(f"{self.base}/employees/directory")
        r.raise_for_status()
        return r.json()

    def custom_report(self, fields: list[str]) -> dict:
        r = self.session.post(f"{self.base}/reports/custom",
                              params={"format": "JSON"},
                              json={"title": "Report", "fields": fields})
        r.raise_for_status()
        return r.json()

Output

• Type-safe client with all major BambooHR endpoints
• Custom error class with retryable flag and Retry-After support
• Exponential backoff retry wrapper
• Multi-tenant factory pattern
• Zod runtime validation for API responses

Error Handling

Pattern	Use Case	Benefit
BambooHRApiError	All API calls	Structured errors with HTTP status
withRetry()	429/5xx transient failures	Automatic recovery
Zod schemas	Response validation	Catch API changes early
Multi-tenant factory	SaaS/multi-company	Isolated credentials per tenant

Resources

• BambooHR API Technical Overview
• BambooHR Field Names
• Zod Documentation

Next Steps

Apply these patterns in bamboohr-core-workflow-a for employee management workflows.