Lever 400 "candidate must have at least one opportunity" when the agent creates a candidate without linking a posting

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR: Include at least one posting ID in the candidate create call. Lever models every candidate as having one or more opportunities, and the API refuses to create a candidate floating free of any posting. Pass the posting in the same create request rather than creating the candidate first and linking later.

400 "candidate must have at least one opportunity"

1. Look at the create payload the agent sent and confirm it has no posting linked (no postings array, no posting ID field). Expected: the payload shows a candidate with zero opportunities.
2. Resolve which posting the candidate belongs to (the req they applied to or were sourced for). Expected: you can name the posting ID.
3. Add the posting to the create call: include the posting ID in the postings list of the candidate create request. Expected: the payload now carries the candidate plus one posting.
4. Re-send the create. Expected: a 201 and the candidate appears with an opportunity on that posting.
5. If the agent genuinely does not know the posting yet, park the candidate in a staging list and create them in Lever only once a posting is known. Expected: no more posting-less creates attempted.

Use this when

• Lever returns 400 candidate must have at least one opportunity on candidate create
• The agent creates candidates from scraped profiles or referrals with no req attached yet
• A refactor split candidate creation and opportunity linking into separate steps and the first step now fails

Not for this skill when

• The error is 422 email is invalid (the email is malformed - different fix)
• The posting ID you would link is archived (that is a 404 posting not found problem)
• You are updating an existing candidate (updates do not need opportunities re-supplied)

Variant phrasings

• Lever API requires opportunity on candidate create
• Lever 400 no opportunity on candidate
• Lever candidate create missing posting

Why it happens

In Lever's data model an opportunity is the candidate-in-a-pipeline; a candidate record without one has no stage, no owner workflow, and nowhere to appear in pipeline views. The API enforces the model at create time instead of letting orphan candidates pile up.

Edge cases

• Linking the wrong posting just to satisfy the validator misroutes the candidate; if the posting is unknown, stage the candidate outside Lever.
• Some integrations create the candidate then the opportunity in two calls; the two-call flow works only if the first call already includes a posting, so keep it to a single create with the posting attached.
• Archived postings cannot take new opportunities; resolve to a live posting first.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstK_Akw0blqV6fEexS4FIWQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstK_Akw0blqV6fEexS4FIWQ

Thread query: Lever 400 "candidate must have at least one opportunity" when the agent creates a candidate without linking a posting

TL;DR: