canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/personio.de

# Personio APIs

Personio is a European HR platform for small and mid-market companies. Its APIs cover the full employee lifecycle, including person records, employments, absence and attendance tracking, compensations, recruiting pipelines, documents, and webhooks, plus a token endpoint that authenticates every call. Together they let agents automate people operations against a single HR system of record.

## For AI agents

An agent can obtain a Bearer token from the Personio Authentication API, then read and write HR data across the Personio API, creating employees, tracking absences and attendance, managing compensations, and querying recruiting pipelines. This covers onboarding, leave management, timesheet reconciliation, and hiring funnel reporting from one set of credentials.

## Scope

Use for: Automating European HR operations against Personio: authenticating, managing employee and employment records, tracking absences and attendance, handling compensations, and querying recruiting pipelines.

Not supported:
- payroll processing
- tax calculations
- benefits administration
- single sign-on
- identity federation

## APIs

| API | Category | Endpoints | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Personio API | hr-recruiting | 46 | Manage the full employee lifecycle including person records, absences, attendance, compensations, recruiting applications, and organizational units. |
| Personio Authentication API | identity-auth | 1 | Obtain Bearer access tokens for the Personio HR platform by submitting client credentials. |

## Which API to use

| Need | API | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Obtain an access token before any HR call | authentication | Exposes only POST /auth to exchange client_id and client_secret for a Bearer token; it holds no HR data operations. |
| Read or write employee, absence, attendance, compensation, or recruiting data | personio-api | Covers the full HR data surface across 46 endpoints and requires a Bearer token from the Authentication API first. |

## Cross-API use cases

### Authenticated employee onboarding

Exchange client credentials for a Bearer token, then create a person record and its employment and compensation entries when a new hire is confirmed. The token from the Authentication API authorizes every write on the Personio API, so an agent can run a complete onboarding flow from an accepted offer.

Example prompt: Call POST /auth with stored credentials to get a Bearer token, then create the employee via POST /persons and set salary via POST /compensations

### Scheduled absence and attendance sync

Acquire a token, then pull and update absence and attendance periods on a schedule for timesheet and leave-balance reconciliation. The same token covers the read and write operations across the Personio API, so a recurring job re-authenticates once and processes many records.

Example prompt: Get a Bearer token via POST /auth, then create an absence period via POST /absence-periods and verify it via GET `/absence-periods/{id}/breakdowns`

### Recruiting pipeline reporting

Authenticate once, then read open positions, candidates, and applications to build a hiring funnel report. The Authentication API supplies the token that the Personio API recruiting endpoints require.

Example prompt: Obtain a token via POST /auth, list positions via GET `/recruiting/jobs`, then retrieve applications via GET `/recruiting/applications` filtered by job ID

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring Personio by hand means posting to the Authentication endpoint for a token, then threading that token through every request to the HR data API and formatting each operation yourself. Through Jentic you install once, add the Personio Authentication API and the Personio API from the Jentic directory, store the credential once, and your agent calls them.
- **Permission scoping:** Your own rules decide which operations the agent may run. You can pin it to token acquisition plus read-only HR calls such as listing persons or absences, and leave out writes like creating persons or registering webhooks unless you add them. For report reads the id sits in the URL path, so a rule can restrict the agent to a single report.
- **Credential handling:** Your Personio client_id and client_secret are stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. They never enter the agent's prompt, logs, or context, and the token exchange happens outside the agent.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search the Jentic directory by intent such as 'get a Personio access token' or 'record an absence period', and Jentic returns the matching operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related vendors

- **BambooHR** — HR management platform with a US market focus and strong time-off and benefits features, an alternative to Personio for people operations.
- **HiBob** — Modern HR platform emphasizing culture, engagement, and core people management, an alternative for HR data automation.
- **Gusto** — US payroll and tax filing that complements Personio's European employee record and absence management.

## FAQ

### What can an agent do across the Personio APIs?

An agent can authenticate with client credentials, then manage the full employee lifecycle: create and read person and employment records, track absences and attendance, manage compensations, query recruiting jobs, candidates, and applications, handle documents, and configure webhooks. The two APIs together cover authentication and the HR data surface.

### Do I need both APIs, or just one?

You need both. The Authentication API returns the Bearer token, and the Personio API holds the actual HR operations. Every Personio API request requires a token, so an agent always calls the Authentication API first and then reuses the token across HR calls.

### Does one set of credentials work for both APIs?

Yes. A single client_id and client_secret sent to the Authentication API produce a Bearer token that authorizes all Personio API endpoints, including persons, absences, attendance, compensations, and recruiting. One credential covers the whole portfolio.

### Why is the Personio API jentic-generated?

Personio does not publish an OpenAPI specification for its v2 API, so Jentic generates and maintains the spec, validates it against the live API, and keeps it current. The Authentication API spec is vendor-official. This gives agents structured tooling for both.

### Which regions and company types is Personio built for?

Personio is a European HR platform used mainly by small and mid-market companies, with support for EU employment practices. If you need US payroll processing or tax filing, pair Personio with a payroll provider rather than expecting it from these APIs.

### Can agents run scheduled or automated HR workflows?

Yes. Because the token from the Authentication API covers all HR operations, agents can run recurring jobs such as absence syncs, timesheet reconciliation, onboarding flows, and recruiting reports, re-authenticating as needed and iterating over records.