Understanding Tulip Ids

All entity records in Tulip are assigned 2 ID fields for identification, retrieval and tracing: uuid and externalId. Each type of ID servers different purposes which are highlighted in the table below:

Record ID Field	Data Type	Description	User-defined
`externalId`	`string`	A record’s identifier that is external to the Tulip platform. For example, the externalId of a Product record might correspond to a SKU code for that product in a client’s system, while the externalId for a Country record would correspond to that country’s ISO 3166-1 code.	Yes, required to be unique for almost all data entities (exception of a few) that are hosted in Tulip. Please ensure to send records with unique externalID’s
`uuid`	`string`	A universally unique identifier for a record, generated upon the record’s creation.	No, this is set by the Tulip backend for every record entity. This identifier is read only and will always be unique.

Note: Depending on the endpoint, either uuid or externalId can be used to retrieve, create or update records. When you are creating records, externalId can be set to allow for record syncing with external data systems.