Clay Integration Patterns

Overview

Production-ready patterns for Clay integrations. Clay does not have an official SDK -- you interact via webhooks (inbound), HTTP API enrichment columns (outbound from Clay), and the Enterprise API (programmatic lookups). These patterns wrap those interfaces into reliable, reusable code.

Prerequisites

• Completed clay-install-auth setup
• Familiarity with async/await patterns
• Understanding of Clay's webhook and HTTP API model

Instructions

Step 1: Create a Clay Webhook Client (TypeScript)

// src/clay/client.ts — typed wrapper for Clay webhook and Enterprise API
interface ClayConfig {
  webhookUrl: string;         // Table's webhook URL for inbound data
  enterpriseApiKey?: string;  // Enterprise API key (optional)
  baseUrl?: string;           // Default: https://api.clay.com
  maxRetries?: number;
  timeoutMs?: number;
}

class ClayClient {
  private config: Required<ClayConfig>;

  constructor(config: ClayConfig) {
    this.config = {
      baseUrl: 'https://api.clay.com',
      maxRetries: 3,
      timeoutMs: 30_000,
      enterpriseApiKey: '',
      ...config,
    };
  }

  /** Send a record to a Clay table via webhook */
  async sendToTable(data: Record<string, unknown>): Promise<void> {
    const res = await this.fetchWithRetry(this.config.webhookUrl, {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
      body: JSON.stringify(data),
    });
    if (!res.ok) {
      throw new ClayWebhookError(`Webhook failed: ${res.status}`, res.status);
    }
  }

  /** Send multiple records in sequence with rate limiting */
  async sendBatch(rows: Record<string, unknown>[], delayMs = 200): Promise<BatchResult> {
    const results: BatchResult = { sent: 0, failed: 0, errors: [] };
    for (const row of rows) {
      try {
        await this.sendToTable(row);
        results.sent++;
      } catch (err) {
        results.failed++;
        results.errors.push({ row, error: (err as Error).message });
      }
      if (delayMs > 0) await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, delayMs));
    }
    return results;
  }

  /** Enterprise API: Enrich a person by email (Enterprise plan only) */
  async enrichPerson(email: string): Promise<PersonEnrichment> {
    if (!this.config.enterpriseApiKey) {
      throw new Error('Enterprise API key required for person enrichment');
    }
    const res = await this.fetchWithRetry(`${this.config.baseUrl}/v1/people/enrich`, {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Authorization': `Bearer ${this.config.enterpriseApiKey}`,
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({ email }),
    });
    return res.json();
  }

  /** Enterprise API: Enrich a company by domain (Enterprise plan only) */
  async enrichCompany(domain: string): Promise<CompanyEnrichment> {
    if (!this.config.enterpriseApiKey) {
      throw new Error('Enterprise API key required for company enrichment');
    }
    const res = await this.fetchWithRetry(`${this.config.baseUrl}/v1/companies/enrich`, {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Authorization': `Bearer ${this.config.enterpriseApiKey}`,
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({ domain }),
    });
    return res.json();
  }

  private async fetchWithRetry(url: string, init: RequestInit): Promise<Response> {
    for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= this.config.maxRetries; attempt++) {
      try {
        const controller = new AbortController();
        const timeout = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), this.config.timeoutMs);
        const res = await fetch(url, { ...init, signal: controller.signal });
        clearTimeout(timeout);

        if (res.status === 429) {
          const retryAfter = parseInt(res.headers.get('Retry-After') || '5');
          await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, retryAfter * 1000));
          continue;
        }
        return res;
      } catch (err) {
        if (attempt === this.config.maxRetries) throw err;
        await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1000 * Math.pow(2, attempt)));
      }
    }
    throw new Error('Max retries exceeded');
  }
}

Step 2: Type Definitions for Clay Data

// src/clay/types.ts
interface PersonEnrichment {
  name?: string;
  email?: string;
  title?: string;
  company?: string;
  linkedin_url?: string;
  location?: string;
}

interface CompanyEnrichment {
  name?: string;
  domain?: string;
  industry?: string;
  employee_count?: number;
  linkedin_url?: string;
  location?: string;
  description?: string;
}

interface BatchResult {
  sent: number;
  failed: number;
  errors: Array<{ row: Record<string, unknown>; error: string }>;
}

class ClayWebhookError extends Error {
  constructor(message: string, public statusCode: number) {
    super(message);
    this.name = 'ClayWebhookError';
  }
}

Step 3: Python Client

# clay_client.py — Python wrapper for Clay webhook and Enterprise API
import httpx
import asyncio
from dataclasses import dataclass, field
from typing import Any

@dataclass
class ClayClient:
    webhook_url: str
    enterprise_api_key: str = ""
    base_url: str = "https://api.clay.com"
    max_retries: int = 3
    timeout: float = 30.0

    async def send_to_table(self, data: dict[str, Any]) -> None:
        """Send a single record to a Clay table via webhook."""
        async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=self.timeout) as client:
            for attempt in range(self.max_retries + 1):
                response = await client.post(
                    self.webhook_url,
                    json=data,
                    headers={"Content-Type": "application/json"},
                )
                if response.status_code == 429:
                    retry_after = int(response.headers.get("Retry-After", "5"))
                    await asyncio.sleep(retry_after)
                    continue
                response.raise_for_status()
                return
        raise Exception("Max retries exceeded")

    async def send_batch(self, rows: list[dict], delay: float = 0.2) -> dict:
        """Send multiple records with rate limiting."""
        results = {"sent": 0, "failed": 0, "errors": []}
        for row in rows:
            try:
                await self.send_to_table(row)
                results["sent"] += 1
            except Exception as e:
                results["failed"] += 1
                results["errors"].append({"row": row, "error": str(e)})
            await asyncio.sleep(delay)
        return results

    async def enrich_person(self, email: str) -> dict:
        """Enterprise API: Look up person data by email."""
        async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=self.timeout) as client:
            response = await client.post(
                f"{self.base_url}/v1/people/enrich",
                json={"email": email},
                headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {self.enterprise_api_key}"},
            )
            response.raise_for_status()
            return response.json()

Step 4: Singleton Pattern for Multi-Use

// src/clay/instance.ts — reuse a single client across your app
let instance: ClayClient | null = null;

export function getClayClient(): ClayClient {
  if (!instance) {
    instance = new ClayClient({
      webhookUrl: process.env.CLAY_WEBHOOK_URL!,
      enterpriseApiKey: process.env.CLAY_API_KEY,
    });
  }
  return instance;
}

Error Handling

Examples

Webhook Handler for Clay Callbacks

// Express handler for Clay HTTP API column callbacks
app.post('/api/clay/callback', (req, res) => {
  // Respond 200 immediately (Clay expects fast response)
  res.json({ ok: true });

  // Process async
  processEnrichedData(req.body).catch(console.error);
});

Resources

• Clay University -- HTTP API Integration
• Clay University -- Webhook Guide
• Clay University -- Using Clay as an API

Next Steps

Apply patterns in clay-core-workflow-a for real-world lead enrichment.