Match Two Customer Records

Problem

Before inserting a new customer, you want to know whether they already exist — so you update instead of creating a duplicate.

Request

curl -X POST https://zapinner.com/api/v1/match \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ZAPINNER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "record":  { "name": "Jon Smith", "email": "j.smith@acme.io" },
    "against": [ { "id": "con_1a2b", "name": "John Smith", "email": "j.smith@acme.io" } ],
    "fields":  ["name", "email"]
  }'

Output

{ "match": true, "confidence": 0.94, "id": "con_1a2b" }

Explanation

Match is the one-to-many version of dedupe: it scores your record against a candidate set and returns the best match with a confidence value. Above your threshold, update the existing record; below it, insert.

Error handling

Handle the structured error for malformed payloads. A no-match is a normal result (match: false), not an error.

Production considerations

• Run match on the write path — it only fires on creates, not reads.
• Normalize identity fields first for accurate scoring.

Related APIs

Dedupe (whole-set pass), Normalize (prepare identity fields).