In various places in the Attio API, you will see the concept of an “actor”. An actor is something that performs actions inside Attio. A workspace member is the prime example of an actor, but you will also encounter apps and automations as actors.

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Types of Actors

An Actor is made up of two things: a type and an ID. The current list of actors types and their corresponding ID format is as follows:
  • workspace-member - A human user who is signed into a workspace. Comes with a unique UUID. You can get further information about the workspace member, e.g. name, avatar and email address, using the list workspace members endpoints.
  • api-token - An integration using the developer API. Comes with a unique UUID for the token.
  • system - An internal part of the Attio system. For example, communications intelligence updates are registered with system actors. Always comes with a null ID.
Actors are recorded in various parts of the system. Every attribute value write, for example, includes the actor who wrote it, e.g:
The actor who wrote a particular value
"created_by_actor": {
  "type": "workspace-member",
  "id": "175bec0c-f06a-4c45-9962-7a7a6be28b8a"
}
Actors are often encountered via the “actor reference” attribute type. Every standard object includes a created_by attribute of this type. For more information, please see the actor reference documentation.