Creating Calendar events via API — owner_id simultaneously required and forbidden (422)

[IceTheDev]

Related Product: Calendar

Describe the question:

I'm trying to create Calendar events via the API from an external system (a venue booking platform). When I POST to /calendar/v2/events, I get two validation errors:

1. owner_id can't be blank
2. You must select a tag from the required tag group(s).

I can resolve the tag error by including tags as a relationship in the POST body. However, I cannot resolve the owner error. No matter what I try, PCO rejects any attempt to set the owner.

Endpoint: POST https://api.planningcenteronline.com/calendar/v2/events

What have you tried that worked?

• Including tags as a relationship in the POST body — this resolves the tag validation error
• Auth via Personal Access Token (PAT)
• Auth via OAuth 2.0 (authorizing as a site administrator with Event Administrator permissions)

What have you tried that didn't work?

• Sending owner_id as a plain integer attribute → 422: owner_id cannot be assigned
• Sending owner as a JSON:API relationship with { type: "Person", id: "..." } → 422: owner_id cannot be assigned
• Omitting owner entirely and relying on the API token to auto-set it → 422: owner_id can't be blank
• Tried with multiple person IDs including my own and the org's site administrator
• Tried with both PAT and OAuth tokens — same result either way
• The authenticated user is confirmed as site_administrator: true and event_permissions_type: "Event Administrator"

Additional context:

It appears owner_id is simultaneously required (validation error when blank) and forbidden (error when assigned). Is there a specific way integrations are expected to set the event owner? Is there a service account pattern or org-level setting that allows API-created events to have an owner assigned automatically? Other integrations (like Registrations feed) appear to set a default owner...is there an equivalent mechanism for custom API integrations?

I have..

• Reviewed the documentation found at https://developer.planning.center/docs
• Searched for previous issues answering this question
• Removed all private information from this issue (credentials, tokens, emails, phone numbers, etc.)
• Reviewed my issue for completeness

[github-actions]

Potentially Related Issues

I found some existing issues that may be related to this one. Please check if any of them address your question before waiting for a response:

🟣 #1433 — Calendar API Event Creation — ownerid Required But Cannot Be Assigned (Closed)

Summary: This issue describes the exact same problem: attempting to create Calendar events via API results in owner_id being simultaneously required and forbidden. The user encountered identical 422 validation errors when trying to set owner_id through any mechanism.

Key discussion points:

• User tried setting owner_id as an attribute, relationship, and query parameter - all returned '422: owner_id cannot be assigned'
• When omitted, API returned '422: owner_id can't be blank'
• User had proper Event Administrator permissions and verified their PAT credentials
• Existing events queried via API showed 'owner': {'data': null}, indicating events can exist with null owners but API won't allow creating new ones without an owner
• Bot referenced issue Create and Update operations for Events, Event Instances #1278 which indicated Calendar event creation via API was not yet fully supported

Resolution: Planning Center staff member confirmed that the Calendar API does not support event creation at all - only GET requests are available. The documentation for the /calendar/v2/events endpoint only lists GET as a supported method. The issue was logged as a feature request for future consideration.

🟣 #1442 — Feature Request: Allow createdbyid or displayauthorid to be set on Notes (Closed)

Summary: This issue describes a parallel problem with People API notes where created_by_id is automatically fixed to the API token owner and cannot be overridden, preventing proper attribution when migrating historical data from other systems.

Key discussion points:

• Attempting to set created_by_id on POST returns '422 Forbidden Attribute'
• User wanted to migrate historical notes with original author attribution but all notes were attributed to API token owner instead
• Proposed allowing created_by_id or a new display_author_id field to be settable by Manager-level users
• Current workaround is embedding author name in note body text, which degrades data quality

Resolution: Planning Center staff acknowledged the feature request and added it to their board for future consideration. The underlying architectural pattern of auto-assigning authorship/ownership fields from API credentials appears to be consistent across multiple PCO products.

🟣 #1278 — Create and Update operations for Events, Event Instances (Closed)

Summary: This feature request from early 2025 asked for Create and Update operations for Calendar Events and Event Instances, confirming that Calendar event creation via API was not supported and had been requested multiple times previously.

Key discussion points:

• User wanted to create events programmatically with approval_status fields for a request/approval workflow
• Referenced two earlier issues (Create Calendar event using API #1006 and Can we POST new Events? #1143) asking for the same functionality, showing this was a long-standing limitation
• User investigated browser-based event creation but found it difficult to replicate due to authenticity checking
• Planning Center explained their approach: significant API additions typically require an internal integration as the primary consumer to ensure proper functionality

Resolution: Planning Center confirmed that Calendar event creation API functionality is planned for the future but was not on the immediate roadmap as of February 2025. They explained that major API additions need to be accompanied by internal integrations that consume the API, and Calendar event creation changes were not yet scheduled.

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[JohnnyPane]

Hey @IceTheDev, thanks for reaching out!

As it currently stands our API doesn't support event creation. Our API documentation lists what request types are available for each endpoint, the events endpoint only allows for GET requests at the moment.

This is not the first time this functionality has been requested, a feature request has been logged and is certainly on our radar. Thank you for sharing your use case with us. Please don't hesitate to reach out if there's anything else we can help you with.