Three fields to read first in a lien deadline API response

The first time you call a deadline API, the response can look like more than you need. When teams start out, they mostly act on a handful of fields and ignore the rest until later.

Start with status

If status isn't success, nothing else in the response matters yet. Log it, check the payload, and retry with the same input once it validates. Don't let a half-finished result go out as a reminder.

Then the two day counts

prelim_deadline_days tells you how many days are left to send a notice, and lien_deadline_days tells you how many are left before lien rights run out. Those two numbers are what people actually route on:

• Notice deadline within 7 days: open a "notice pending" alert for operations.
• Lien deadline within 10 days: tell the project lead and finance.
• Lien days at zero or below: send it to an incident review, because the deadline has already passed.

And whether notice is required at all

If preliminary_notice.required is true, treat the notice as a hard dependency. The job shouldn't move to "lien ready" until someone has confirmed the notice went out.

That's enough to get through a first evaluation. The full field list and examples are in our help article on how to read a lien deadline API response.

From the LienDeadline team. General information, not legal advice; have a qualified reviewer check the facts on any live job.