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#Define an HTTP action

An HTTP action is one endpoint — a method and a path — with the parameters, request body and response body that make its fields selectable in a service task, plus its retries and streaming.

The action "Fetch customer" of the adapter "Northwind REST API" on its Schema tab: (1) the method and path GET /customers/{id}, (2) the Parameter card for path, query and header parameters — none declared yet, not even {id} — (3) the Request Body card, (4) the Response Body card that later steps pick from, and (5) the Settings tab for metadata, retries, streaming and status.

#What an action decides

flowchart LR
  A["Action<br/>GET /customers/{id}"] --> P["Parameter schema<br/>→ the task's Path / Query / Headers"]
  A --> B["Request body schema<br/>→ the task's Request body"]
  A --> R["Response body schema<br/>→ what later steps can pick"]

Everything a service task offers to fill in, and everything later steps can read from its answer, comes from the action's schemas.

#Create an action

  1. Open the adapter, tab Actions, and click Create action.
  2. Enter a Name, optionally a Description, the Method — GET, POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE — and the Path, for example /customers/{id}.
  3. Click Create & open. The action's page opens; add its schemas there.

Actions imported from an OpenAPI file already have their schemas — see Connect a REST API.

#Describe what it sends and returns

The Schema tab has three cards, each with a Visual and a Code view:

  • Parameter — the path, query and header parameters, each with a name, type and whether it is required. A path parameter is always required.
  • Request Body — the fields the call sends.
  • Response Body — the fields it returns. This is what the variable list offers after the task.

⚠️ A {name} in the path is not a parameter by itself: add a Path parameter with the same name, or the value is not filled in.

⚠️ The content type — JSON, a form upload, a file — cannot be chosen here. It comes from the OpenAPI import; a hand-made action sends JSON.

See Schemas and transformations for editing the fields.

#Settings

On the Settings tab, after Edit:

Card Setting What it does
Request Method, Path As above
Metadaten Summary, Description, Tags Shown in lists and the action picker
Behaviour Streaming aktivieren For AI APIs that stream their answer: Chester collects the stream into one answer
Wiederholungsversuche, Delay (ms) Retries on failure — 3 and 5000 unless set, at most 10
Status Action aktivieren, Als veraltet markieren See below

⚠️ With streaming on, the answer no longer has the shape of the Response Body schema.

⚠️ A retry count of 0 is treated as 3. See Call a system with a service task.

#Inactive and deprecated

  • ⚠️ Inactive has no effect. The page says the action "will not be executed", but it is still offered in the picker, deployed and run.
  • Deprecated keeps the action usable, but warns in its details and hides it from agents.

#What you cannot do

  • ❌ Delete or duplicate a single action.
  • ❌ Declare cookie parameters.
  • ❌ Import more actions from a file after the adapter was created.

⚠️ Many labels on the action's page are German whatever the language of the screen: Aktiv, Metadaten, Wiederholungsversuche, Streaming aktivieren, Action aktivieren, Transformationen.