Activating a Messaging Channel

What this skill does

Given a {CHANNEL_ID}, reads the channel's MessagingChannelUsage.Id, then fires PATCH /services/data/v{V}/sobjects/MessagingChannelUsage/{MCU_ID} with body {"DeploymentStatus":"Provisioning"}. The server-side chain:

1. MessagingChannelUsageFunctions.validateBeforeSave runs validateDeploymentStatus → validateChannelReadinessOnProvisioning. For WhatsApp this confirms consent is configured. Rejected writes return HTTP 400 FIELD_INTEGRITY_EXCEPTION.
2. MessagingChannelUsageFunctions.saveHook_PostStmtExecuteOnce fires unconditionally after the UPDATE statement. It calls MessagingChannelUsageFunctionsHelper.handlePostSave which registers a post-commit TransactionObserver.
3. At commit, the observer calls ConversationChannelUsageDeploymentStatusService.handleProvisioning (inherited from AbstractChannelUsageDeploymentStatusService), which:
   • Calls runProvisioning — switch-dispatches by MessageType for the external callout:
     • WHATS_APP → registerCsotWhatsAppNumber → LiveMessageSetupApi.registerWhatsAppNumber → Meta /register + status verification. 15-21s wall-clock.
     • FACEBOOK → metaGraphApiService.subscribeFacebookPage.
     • TEXT → registerCsotSms.
     • AppleBusinessChat, Line, everything else → default branch, no external callout, no network wait.
   • On success: writes DeploymentStatus = 'Active' via PLSQL.
   • On failure: writes DeploymentStatus = 'Error' plus ErrorReason / ErrorDetails.
4. Inside the same observer, a second pass syncs MessagingChannel.IsActive = true once MCU reaches Active (the isTransitioningStatus flag skips the flip while status is still Provisioning).

All synchronous within the PATCH request — the 204 response only comes back after the full chain completes. WhatsApp: ~15-21s (Meta /register round-trip). Apple / Line: ~1s (no external call; just the local save-hook + observer + PLSQL write). Verified on wadtesting 2026-04-30.

Reference File Index

Reference file	Load when
references/phone-verification.md	Stage 3 comes back with ErrorReason === "VERIFICATION_REQUIRED" (WhatsApp only) — the phone-number OTP verification sub-flow.
references/worked-examples.md	You want a reference run of the WhatsApp happy-path, Apple activation, a readiness failure, or the already-active no-op.
references/gotchas.md	Troubleshooting an unexpected result, or before modifying this skill — the eleven known gotchas.

Why REST PATCH instead of Apex?

A direct REST PATCH produces the identical save-hook chain as the old activateChannelUsage Apex method, with substantially less machinery — no CSRF cookie acquisition, no bootstrap fetch, no Aura response parsing, no double-wrapped returnValue. REST semantics are honest: 204 means the transition succeeded; 4xx means it didn't.

Code proof: MessagingChannelUsageFunctions.saveHook_PostStmtExecuteOnce fires on any DML path (REST, SOAP, Apex, Metadata API) — there is no Apex-specific gate. The entity XML (MessagingChannelUsage.entity.xml) marks DeploymentStatus as editAccess="always" with no <readonly> attribute. The transition validator (getValidAPIStatusTransitions) allows Disabled → Provisioning (and New → Provisioning, and Error → Provisioning | Deprovisioning, and Active → Deprovisioning). The DB-only transitions Provisioning → Active | Error are reserved for the observer's PLSQL call — that's why we write Provisioning and let the server pick the terminal state.

When NOT to use this skill

• The channel is already IsActive=true. Re-firing is blocked by the API transition validator (Active → Provisioning is not in getValidAPIStatusTransitions()) — the PATCH would return 400. The Stage 1 precondition check catches this and emits noop:true.
• Routing isn't configured. activateChannelUsage used to fail with LiveMessageSetupException / nullQueueId at the Apex entry point. With the REST path the same guard lives in validateChannelReadinessOnProvisioning — write with SessionHandlerId=null && FallbackQueueId=null → 400 FIELD_INTEGRITY_EXCEPTION. Run service-de-channel-routing-configure first. The Stage 1 check still runs defensively.
• The MCU doesn't exist. Can't PATCH a row that's missing. Run the insertion skill first — it always creates the MCU as a side-effect of addChannel.

Inputs (from caller)

• {CHANNEL_ID} — a 15- or 18-char MessagingChannel.Id (prefix 0Mj). The channel must already exist with a non-null SessionHandlerId or FallbackQueueId.
• {ORG_ALIAS} — optional; the sf CLI target-org alias. Default: whatever sf config get target-org returns. Used for OAuth and SOQL reads.
• {API_VERSION} — optional; REST API version. Default: 68.0. Any version where MessagingChannelUsage is addressable as a standard sobject is fine (v50+ should work; not exhaustively tested).

Unlike the old Aura-based version of this skill, there are no {POLL_TIMEOUT_S} / {POLL_INTERVAL_S} inputs — the PATCH is synchronous end-to-end.

Output (to caller)

Success — channel is live:

{"ok": true, "channelId": "0Mj...", "mcuId": "0gL...", "deploymentStatus": "Active", "isActive": true, "messageType": "WhatsApp", "durationMs": 20934}

Success — no-op (already active):

{"ok": true, "noop": true, "channelId": "0Mj...", "message": "Channel already active"}

Failure — precondition not met:

{"ok": false, "kind": "no-routing",     "hint": "run service-de-channel-routing-configure first"}
{"ok": false, "kind": "no-mcu",         "hint": "no MessagingChannelUsage row for this channel — run the insertion skill first"}
{"ok": false, "kind": "channel-missing","hint": "MessagingChannel id not found"}

Failure — validator or server-side provisioning error:

{"ok": false, "kind": "readiness-failed", "errorCode": "FIELD_INTEGRITY_EXCEPTION",
 "message": "...", "hint": "validateChannelReadinessOnProvisioning rejected the write — most commonly missing consent; run service-de-channel-consent-configure first"}
{"ok": false, "kind": "provisioning-error", "mcuId": "0gL...", "errorReason": "MetaRegistrationFailed", "errorDetails": "..."}
{"ok": false, "kind": "verification-failed", "hint": "WhatsApp phone number verification failed or was declined by user"}
{"ok": false, "kind": "verification-request-failed", "errorCode": "...", "message": "...", "hint": "Could not request verification code from Meta"}

Failure — auth / transport:

{"ok": false, "kind": "auth",      "hint": "OAuth token invalid / expired — run 'sf org login web'"}
{"ok": false, "kind": "transport", "status": 500, "message": "..."}

---

Stage 1: Precondition checks

Read the channel, then its MCU, as two separate SOQL calls. A combined subquery would be cheaper but fails on orgs where the child relationship is unnameable (see gotcha #4).

sf data query --target-org '{ORG_ALIAS}' \
  --query "SELECT Id, DeveloperName, MessageType, IsActive, SessionHandlerId, FallbackQueueId, MessagingPlatformKey FROM MessagingChannel WHERE Id = '{CHANNEL_ID}'" \
  --json > /tmp/amc-precheck-channel.json

sf data query --target-org '{ORG_ALIAS}' \
  --query "SELECT Id, DeploymentStatus, DeploymentType, ErrorReason, ErrorDetails FROM MessagingChannelUsage WHERE MessagingChannelId = '{CHANNEL_ID}'" \
  --json > /tmp/amc-precheck-mcu.json

Let channel = /tmp/amc-precheck-channel.json records[0] and mcu = /tmp/amc-precheck-mcu.json records[0]:

Condition	Envelope
Channel query returned 0 records	{ok:false, kind:"channel-missing", hint:"MessagingChannel id not found"}
channel.IsActive === true	{ok:true, noop:true, channelId, message:"Channel already active"} — return
channel.SessionHandlerId == null && channel.FallbackQueueId == null	{ok:false, kind:"no-routing", hint:"run service-de-channel-routing-configure first"}
MCU query returned 0 records	{ok:false, kind:"no-mcu", hint:"no MessagingChannelUsage row for this channel — run the insertion skill first"}
Otherwise	Record {MCU_ID} = mcu.Id, {MESSAGE_TYPE} = channel.MessageType, {MESSAGING_PLATFORM_KEY} = channel.MessagingPlatformKey, {INITIAL_MCU_STATUS} = mcu.DeploymentStatus and continue to Stage 2.

Also record {T0} (epoch ms at start of Stage 2) so the final envelope can report durationMs.

Stage 1.1: Fast path for already-provisioning MCU

If {INITIAL_MCU_STATUS} === "Provisioning" — the MCU is already mid-flight from a prior call in this transaction window. Skip Stage 2 (firing the PATCH) entirely and jump to Stage 3 (verification). This is a rare race guard: the observer is synchronous with the PATCH, so by the time the caller sees the 204 the status is already terminal (Active or Error) — Provisioning should be invisible from outside. If we do see it in the precheck, something wrote Provisioning in a separate DML and the observer is still mid-flight — don't fire a second PATCH.

---

Stage 2: PATCH MessagingChannelUsage.DeploymentStatus = "Provisioning"

Use sf api request rest so authentication stays inside the CLI's transport — no OAuth token is ever extracted into shell state.

Fire the PATCH. This call can take 15-30 seconds for WhatsApp — the observer runs synchronously, including Meta's /register round trip. sf api request rest has no separate client-side timeout to raise; it waits on the underlying HTTP call.

sf api request rest \
  "/services/data/v{API_VERSION}/sobjects/MessagingChannelUsage/{MCU_ID}" \
  --method PATCH \
  --target-org '{ORG_ALIAS}' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --body '{"DeploymentStatus":"Provisioning"}' \
  --include \
  > /tmp/amc-patch-response.txt 2>&1
HTTP_CODE=$(head -1 /tmp/amc-patch-response.txt | grep -oE '[0-9]{3}')

--include prints the HTTP status/headers block ahead of the (typically empty, on 204) body — read the status line from that block rather than a -w-style trailing marker.

Classify by HTTP status:

Status	Body	Handling
204	empty	Success. The observer ran to completion; MCU is Active or Error. Continue to Stage 3 to read the terminal state.
400	[{errorCode:"FIELD_INTEGRITY_EXCEPTION", message:"..."}]	Validator rejection. See table below.
400	[{errorCode:"INVALID_FIELD_FOR_INSERT_UPDATE" or "MALFORMED_ID", ...}]	Skill bug — the MCU_ID from Stage 1 was wrong, or the body shape is off. Emit {ok:false, kind:"transport", status:400, message}.
401	(usually empty)	Bearer token invalid. Emit {ok:false, kind:"auth", hint:"OAuth token invalid / expired — run 'sf org login web'"}.
403	[{errorCode:"INSUFFICIENT_ACCESS"}]	User lacks perm to write DeploymentStatus. Emit {ok:false, kind:"business", errorCode:"INSUFFICIENT_ACCESS", message}.
5xx	varies	Transport. The observer may have partially committed — Stage 3's SOQL is the source of truth. Read MCU state; if it's Active, report success with a warning; if Error or still Disabled, classify as {ok:false, kind:"transport", status, message}.

Known 400 FIELD_INTEGRITY_EXCEPTION messages:

Message fragment	Meaning	Envelope
"invalid deployment status transition"	The current status doesn't allow → Provisioning (e.g. MCU is already Active — Stage 1 should have caught this, but there's a race window).	Re-read MCU; if now Active, emit success-noop. If Provisioning, Stage 3 poll. Otherwise emit {ok:false, kind:"readiness-failed", ...}.
"consent" / "keyword" / mentions of STOP/HELP	validateChannelReadinessOnProvisioning rejected — channel doesn't have required consent configured.	{ok:false, kind:"readiness-failed", errorCode:"FIELD_INTEGRITY_EXCEPTION", message, hint:"channel requires a ConsentType and a matching MsgChannelLanguageKeyword record (opt-out keyword + confirmation) before activation — run service-de-channel-consent-configure"}.
"routing" / "queue" / "SessionHandler"	Routing precondition (Stage 1 should have caught, but the validator re-checks).	{ok:false, kind:"no-routing", message, hint:"run service-de-channel-routing-configure first"}.
other	Unrecognized validator error.	{ok:false, kind:"readiness-failed", errorCode, message}.

---

Stage 3: Read the terminal MCU state

The PATCH is synchronous, so by the time we're here the MCU is Active or Error — no polling. Read once:

sf data query --target-org '{ORG_ALIAS}' \
  --query "SELECT Id, DeploymentStatus, ErrorReason, ErrorDetails FROM MessagingChannelUsage WHERE Id = '{MCU_ID}'" \
  --json > /tmp/amc-poststate-mcu.json

Status	Handling
Active	Continue to Stage 4.
Error with ErrorReason === "VERIFICATION_REQUIRED"	For WhatsApp channels only: phone number needs OTP verification. Continue to Stage 3.2 (WhatsApp verification flow).
Error (other)	Emit {ok:false, kind:"provisioning-error", mcuId, errorReason, errorDetails}.
Provisioning	Unexpected — the observer was supposed to terminate before the PATCH returned 204. Fall through to a defensive poll (see Stage 3.1).
Disabled	The PATCH returned 204 but the write didn't take? Emit {ok:false, kind:"transport", message:"PATCH returned 204 but MCU is still Disabled — observer didn't commit"}.

Stage 3.2: WhatsApp phone number verification (only if ErrorReason === "VERIFICATION_REQUIRED")

This sub-flow only runs for WhatsApp channels when activation fails with ErrorReason === "VERIFICATION_REQUIRED" — the phone number needs OTP verification with Meta before it can be registered. If the MCU comes back with ErrorReason === "VERIFICATION_REQUIRED" (WhatsApp only), load references/phone-verification.md and follow it to drive the phone-number verification sub-flow (request code → prompt user → validate code → retry activation once).

Stage 3.1: Defensive poll (only if Stage 3 saw Provisioning)

The observer's external-callout block (WhatsApp/Facebook/SMS) runs synchronously inside the PATCH request — there's no async queue indirection in runProvisioning for any message type (verified against the switch/case in ConversationChannelUsageDeploymentStatusService). So a Provisioning status at Stage 3 should not happen in steady state. Possible causes if it does: an exception thrown after the external call succeeded but before the PLSQL terminal-write ran; unusual instance config with async observer execution; or a future MessageType whose dispatch behavior we haven't accounted for. If Stage 3 returned Provisioning, loop:

for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10; do
  sleep 3
  STATUS=$(sf data query --target-org '{ORG_ALIAS}' \
    --query "SELECT DeploymentStatus FROM MessagingChannelUsage WHERE Id='{MCU_ID}'" --json \
    | node -e 'console.log(JSON.parse(require("fs").readFileSync(0,"utf8")).result.records[0].DeploymentStatus)')
  case "$STATUS" in
    Provisioning) continue ;;
    Active|Error) break ;;
  esac
done

Max wait: 30s. If still Provisioning after the loop: emit {ok:false, kind:"timeout", mcuId, lastStatus:"Provisioning", elapsedS:30}. Verified on WhatsApp/wadtesting 2026-04-30: this loop should never actually iterate.

---

Stage 4: Verify MessagingChannel.IsActive

The observer flips IsActive inside the same callback as the status terminal write. In principle this is set by the time the PATCH returns. Confirm:

sf data query --target-org '{ORG_ALIAS}' \
  --query "SELECT Id, IsActive FROM MessagingChannel WHERE Id = '{CHANNEL_ID}'" --json > /tmp/amc-verify-channel.json

If IsActive === true: compute durationMs = Date.now() - T0 and emit success. If IsActive !== true despite MCU Active: the IsActive sync pass skipped (e.g. isTransitioningStatus was true when the observer ran, which shouldn't happen post-terminal). Emit:

{"ok": false, "kind": "provisioning-error", "mcuId": "...", "errorReason": "mcu-active-but-channel-inactive",
 "errorDetails": "MCU DeploymentStatus=Active but MessagingChannel.IsActive=false — observer's IsActive sync pass didn't run. Inspect MessagingChannelUsageFunctionsHelper.handlePostSave."}

---

Stage 5: Report to caller

Build the success envelope:

{"ok": true, "channelId": "{CHANNEL_ID}", "mcuId": "{MCU_ID}", "deploymentStatus": "Active",
 "isActive": true, "messageType": "{MESSAGE_TYPE}", "durationMs": 20934}

If this skill is the leaf (user invoked it directly), render:

• Success — Activated — MessagingChannel {CHANNEL_ID} ({messageType}) is now live. MCU DeploymentStatus=Active, IsActive=true. (~{durationMs/1000}s)
• Info: Already active — MessagingChannel {CHANNEL_ID} is IsActive=true. No changes. (no-op path)
• Error: Routing not configured — run 'service-de-channel-routing-configure' skill first. (no-routing)
• Error: No MessagingChannelUsage row — run the insertion skill first. (no-mcu)
• Error: Readiness check failed: {message} — if it mentions consent/keywords, run 'service-de-channel-consent-configure' first. (readiness-failed)
• Error: Activation failed: {errorReason} — {errorDetails} (provisioning-error)
• Error: WhatsApp phone number verification failed: {hint} (verification-failed)
• Error: Could not request verification code: {message} (verification-request-failed)
• Timeout: Activation timed out after {elapsedS}s with MCU.DeploymentStatus={lastStatus}. Defensive-poll limit hit; this is unusual. Check MCU {mcuId} in Setup. (timeout)

---

Worked examples

For end-to-end activation traces (WhatsApp happy-path, Apple activation, a readiness-validator failure, and the already-active no-op), see references/worked-examples.md.

---

Gotchas

Eleven known gotchas — synchronous PATCH timing for WhatsApp, valid API status transitions, the IsActive sync pass, relationship-name variance across orgs, consent preconditions, DeploymentStatus picklist casing, the REST-vs-Apex equivalence, ErrorReason values, VERIFICATION_REQUIRED handling, OAuth token extraction, and the Status-code-409 Admin API conflict. Before troubleshooting an unexpected result or modifying this skill, load references/gotchas.md and follow it.