navan-upgrade-migration

Navan Upgrade Migration

Overview

Defensive patterns for maintaining Navan API integrations over time. Navan does not publicly version their API, publish a changelog, or guarantee backward compatibility. Every API response should be treated as potentially different from the last.

Prerequisites

• Existing Navan API integration in production
• OAuth credentials (client_id, client_secret) stored in a secret manager
• Baseline API response snapshots for comparison (see Step 1)
• curl, jq, and diff for schema comparison

Instructions

Step 1 — Capture Response Baselines

Store known-good API responses as reference schemas. Compare against these regularly to detect drift.

TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST "https://api.navan.com/ta-auth/oauth/token" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  -d "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=$NAVAN_CLIENT_ID&client_secret=$NAVAN_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  | jq -r '.access_token')

BASELINE_DIR="navan-api-baselines/$(date +%Y%m%d)"
mkdir -p "$BASELINE_DIR"

# Capture response structure (keys only, no values)
for ENDPOINT in users bookings; do
  curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    "https://api.navan.com/v1/${ENDPOINT}?page=0&size=1" \
    | jq '[.data[] | keys] | .[0]' > "$BASELINE_DIR/${ENDPOINT}-schema.json" 2>/dev/null
  echo "Captured: $ENDPOINT → $(cat "$BASELINE_DIR/${ENDPOINT}-schema.json" | jq length) fields"
done

Step 2 — Schema Drift Detection

Run this periodically (daily cron or CI pipeline) to detect API changes:

LATEST_BASELINE=$(ls -d navan-api-baselines/*/ | sort | tail -1)

for ENDPOINT in users bookings; do
  CURRENT=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    "https://api.navan.com/v1/${ENDPOINT}?page=0&size=1" \
    | jq '[.data[] | keys] | .[0]' 2>/dev/null)

  BASELINE=$(cat "${LATEST_BASELINE}${ENDPOINT}-schema.json" 2>/dev/null)

  # Compare field sets
  ADDED=$(comm -13 <(echo "$BASELINE" | jq -r '.[]' | sort) <(echo "$CURRENT" | jq -r '.[]' | sort))
  REMOVED=$(comm -23 <(echo "$BASELINE" | jq -r '.[]' | sort) <(echo "$CURRENT" | jq -r '.[]' | sort))

  [ -n "$ADDED" ] && echo "WARNING: $ENDPOINT has NEW fields: $ADDED"
  [ -n "$REMOVED" ] && echo "CRITICAL: $ENDPOINT has REMOVED fields: $REMOVED"
  [ -z "$ADDED" ] && [ -z "$REMOVED" ] && echo "OK: $ENDPOINT schema unchanged"
done

Step 3 — Defensive Response Parsing

Never assume a fixed schema. Use defensive patterns that tolerate changes:

# BAD: Assumes exact structure — breaks if fields are renamed or removed
# jq '.trips[0].flight_number'

# GOOD: Defensive parsing with fallbacks
jq '
  if type == "array" then
    .[0] // {} |
    {
      id: (.id // .uuid // .booking_id // "unknown"),
      flight: (.flight_number // .flight_no // .flightNumber // "N/A"),
      status: (.status // .booking_status // "unknown"),
      _extra_fields: (keys - ["id","uuid","booking_id","flight_number","flight_no",
                               "flightNumber","status","booking_status"])
    }
  else
    {error: "unexpected response type", type: type}
  end
' /tmp/navan-trips.json

Key defensive principles:

• Always provide fallback field names (Navan may rename without notice)
• Log unknown fields rather than ignoring them — they signal upcoming changes
• Never hard-code array lengths or object depth assumptions
• Parse dates permissively (ISO 8601, Unix timestamp, and custom formats)

Step 4 — Deprecation Signal Monitoring

Check HTTP response headers for deprecation or sunset signals:

# Capture and inspect response headers for deprecation notices
curl -s -D - -o /dev/null \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://api.navan.com/v1/users" \
  | grep -iE "deprecat|sunset|warning|x-api-version|x-deprecated"

# Check response body for deprecation warnings
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://api.navan.com/v1/users" \
  | jq '{
    has_deprecation_warning: (._deprecated // .deprecated // .warning // null),
    has_version_header: (.api_version // ._api_version // null)
  }'

Step 5 — Gradual Rollout Strategy

When you detect or anticipate an API change, use feature flags to roll out handling changes gradually:

# Feature flag pattern for API response handling
# Store flag in environment or config service
export NAVAN_USE_NEW_TRIP_SCHEMA="${NAVAN_USE_NEW_TRIP_SCHEMA:-false}"

# In your integration code, branch on the flag
if [ "$NAVAN_USE_NEW_TRIP_SCHEMA" = "true" ]; then
  # New parsing logic for updated schema
  jq '.[] | {id: .booking_uuid, flight: .flight_number}' /tmp/trips.json
else
  # Legacy parsing logic (current production)
  jq '.[] | {id: .id, flight: .flight_no}' /tmp/trips.json
fi

Rollout procedure:

1. Deploy new parsing logic behind a feature flag (flag = off)
2. Enable for 5% of traffic — compare outputs between old and new parsers
3. If outputs match or new parser handles additional fields, increase to 25%
4. Monitor error rates at each stage for 24 hours
5. Full rollout at 100% when confidence is high
6. Remove old parsing logic and feature flag after 2 weeks at 100%

Step 6 — Automated Regression Testing

Run regression tests against live API responses on a schedule:

# Regression test: verify critical fields still exist
FAILURES=0

USERS_RESPONSE=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://api.navan.com/v1/users")

# Check required fields exist
for FIELD in id email; do
  HAS_FIELD=$(echo "$USERS_RESPONSE" | jq ".data[0] | has(\"$FIELD\")")
  if [ "$HAS_FIELD" != "true" ]; then
    echo "REGRESSION: /v1/users missing required field: $FIELD"
    FAILURES=$((FAILURES + 1))
  fi
done

BOOKINGS_RESPONSE=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://api.navan.com/v1/bookings?page=0&size=1")

for FIELD in uuid; do
  HAS_FIELD=$(echo "$BOOKINGS_RESPONSE" | jq ".data[0] | has(\"$FIELD\")")
  if [ "$HAS_FIELD" != "true" ]; then
    echo "REGRESSION: /v1/bookings missing required field: $FIELD"
    FAILURES=$((FAILURES + 1))
  fi
done

echo "Regression result: $FAILURES failures"
[ "$FAILURES" -gt 0 ] && exit 1

Step 7 — Change Response Playbook

When a schema change is detected:

Change Type	Severity	Response
New field added	Low	Log it, update baseline, no code change needed
Field renamed	High	Add new name as fallback, deploy behind flag
Field removed	Critical	Identify impact, implement fallback, alert team
Type changed (string to int)	High	Update parser, add type coercion
Endpoint URL changed	Critical	Update client config, monitor old URL for redirect
Auth flow changed	Critical	Immediate attention — test /ta-auth/oauth/token

Output

• Baseline schema snapshots stored in version control
• Drift detection script running on a schedule (cron or CI)
• Defensive parsing patterns applied to all API response handlers
• Feature flag configuration for gradual rollout of schema changes
• Regression test suite covering critical field presence

Error Handling

Issue	Detection	Response
New unknown fields in response	Drift detection script	Log, update baseline, no action unless field replaces existing
Required field missing	Regression test failure	Roll back to cached data, alert team, open support ticket
Response type changed	jq parse error	Add type checking, coerce if possible, alert if not
Endpoint returns 404	Health check failure	Check for URL changes, contact Navan support
Auth endpoint behavior change	Token acquisition failure	Test /ta-auth/oauth/token manually, check Admin > Integrations

Examples

Quick schema health check:

# One-liner: check if API response structure matches expectations
TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST "https://api.navan.com/ta-auth/oauth/token" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  -d "grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=$NAVAN_CLIENT_ID&client_secret=$NAVAN_CLIENT_SECRET" \
  | jq -r '.access_token')

echo "Users fields: $(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://api.navan.com/v1/users" | jq '.data[0] | keys | length') keys"
echo "Bookings fields: $(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://api.navan.com/v1/bookings?page=0&size=1" | jq '.data[0] | keys | length') keys"

Resources

• Navan Help Center — API documentation and change notices
• Navan Security — Infrastructure and TLS/encryption details
• Navan Integrations — Connector ecosystem and partner updates

Next Steps

• Use navan-debug-bundle to capture current API state as a baseline
• Use navan-prod-checklist to verify production hardening after changes
• Use navan-ci-integration to add regression tests to your CI pipeline