Kombo unified API profile
Unified APIs focused on HRIS, payroll, ATS, LMS, and assessment integrations.
Research note: This neutral profile summarizes first-party material published by Kombo. It was last checked . Capabilities can differ by connector, so verify the exact model, field, action, and refresh behavior required by your product.
Kombo at a glance
- Focus
- Future-of-work integrations with separate unified interfaces for HRIS, ATS, LMS, payroll, and assessment workflows.
- Good fit for
- HR, recruiting, learning, staffing, assessment, and workforce products that need normalized reads and connector-aware writes.
- Categories
- HRIS, Payroll, ATS, LMS, Assessment
- Data delivery
- A synchronized database model using full, delta, and upstream-webhook-triggered updates, with downstream change notifications.
- Extension path
- Integration fields expose selected provider-specific data alongside the normalized models.
What is Kombo?
Kombo is a unified API platform specialized in future-of-work systems. It publishes separate normalized interfaces for HRIS, ATS, LMS, payroll, and assessment or background-check workflows.
- HRIS models cover employees, employments, groups, legal entities, locations, absences, timesheets, performance data, skills, payslips, pay runs, and pay groups.
- ATS models cover jobs, applications, candidates, notes, scorecards, tags, users, offers, rejection reasons, and interviews, with several documented write actions.
- The LMS interface covers users, courses, progress, enrollment, and completion, while the assessment interface handles orders, packages, and results.
How do customers connect?
Kombo provides hosted and embedded connection flows. The product backend creates an integration link, the end user authorizes the selected HRIS or ATS category, and the resulting integration ID is associated with the product’s customer.
- Server requests use a Kombo API key created in the dashboard.
- An integration-created webhook can deliver the integration record after the connection flow completes.
- Connection guides document provider-specific credentials, permissions, and setup steps that may still be required from the end customer.
How does Kombo synchronize data?
Kombo mirrors source-system records into its database, then serves API reads from that normalized store. It uses full and delta syncs and can consume upstream webhooks from supported systems to reduce change latency.
- The documented scheduler chooses the next sync based on the last completed run and the configured frequency.
- Records are streamed into the database during a sync rather than committed atomically at the end, so updated records can become visible while the run is still processing.
- The data-changed webhook tells an application which models changed; Kombo recommends incremental fetches plus periodic full reconciliation.
How are connector-specific fields handled?
Kombo Integration Fields expose selected properties that are not part of the standard model. Teams can inspect available fields for an integration and enable the ones that should pass through in the integration_fields array.
- Integration Fields are documented separately for HRIS, ATS, LMS, and assessment categories.
- Because these values remain provider-specific, applications should namespace and validate them rather than treating them as universally portable.
- Scope configuration determines which data is synchronized, helping avoid storing models or fields a product does not use.
What developer tooling is available?
Kombo publishes official SDKs, an OpenAPI schema, detailed category documentation, test webhooks, connection guides, dashboard logs, and implementation best practices.
- Write surfaces include schema-driven employee creation, absence operations, candidate and application actions, course operations, and assessment result workflows.
- Webhook events distinguish changed data, completed syncs, and integration state so applications can use the correct event for ingestion or customer-facing status.
- The dashboard exposes sync and webhook logs for investigating provider, mapping, or delivery failures.
What should buyers verify?
- Upstream webhook availability varies by connector; systems without it depend on scheduled synchronization for change detection.
- Reads come from Kombo’s synchronized database, so products should account for sync frequency, in-progress runs, and partial failures.
- Write operations and required fields vary by connected system even when the endpoint is normalized.
For a cross-vendor evaluation framework, read the verified unified API buyer’s guide.
Frequently asked questions about Kombo
Which categories does Kombo support?
Kombo focuses on HRIS, payroll, ATS, LMS, and assessment or background-check integrations.
Does Kombo read directly from the provider on every API call?
No. Kombo documents a synchronization model that mirrors provider data into its own database and serves normalized reads from that store.
How does Kombo notify applications about changes?
Kombo sends a data-changed webhook when relevant models change and separate events for completed syncs and integration state changes.
Can Kombo expose custom provider fields?
Yes. Integration Fields can pass selected provider-specific properties alongside Kombo’s normalized model.
Sources checked
- Kombo official website — official website, checked
- Kombo documentation introduction — documentation, checked
- Kombo documentation index for agents — documentation, checked
- Kombo embedded connection flow — documentation, checked
- Kombo implementation setup — documentation, checked
- How Kombo syncs data — documentation, checked
- Fetching data from Kombo — documentation, checked
- Kombo webhooks — documentation, checked
- Kombo HRIS Integration Fields — documentation, checked