clay-advanced-troubleshooting

Clay Advanced Troubleshooting

Overview

Deep debugging techniques for complex Clay issues that resist standard troubleshooting. Covers provider-level isolation, waterfall diagnosis, HTTP API column debugging, Claygent failure analysis, and Clay support escalation with proper evidence.

Prerequisites

• Access to Clay table with the failing enrichments
• curl and jq for API testing
• Understanding of Clay's enrichment architecture (providers, waterfall, columns)
• Browser developer tools for network inspection

Instructions

Step 1: Isolate the Failure Layer

#!/bin/bash
# clay-layer-test.sh — test each integration layer independently
set -euo pipefail

echo "=== Layer Isolation Test ==="

# Layer 1: Webhook delivery
echo "Layer 1: Webhook"
WEBHOOK_CODE=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  -X POST "$CLAY_WEBHOOK_URL" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"_debug": true, "domain": "google.com"}')
echo "  Webhook: $WEBHOOK_CODE"

# Layer 2: Enterprise API (if applicable)
if [ -n "${CLAY_API_KEY:-}" ]; then
  echo "Layer 2: Enterprise API"
  API_RESULT=$(curl -s -X POST "https://api.clay.com/v1/companies/enrich" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLAY_API_KEY" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"domain": "google.com"}')
  echo "  API response keys: $(echo "$API_RESULT" | jq 'keys')"
fi

# Layer 3: HTTP API callback endpoint
echo "Layer 3: Callback endpoint"
CALLBACK_CODE=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  -X POST "${CLAY_CALLBACK_URL:-http://localhost:3000/api/clay/enriched}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"_debug_test": true}')
echo "  Callback: $CALLBACK_CODE"

echo ""
echo "First failing layer = root cause location"

Step 2: Diagnose Enrichment Column Failures

In the Clay UI, click on red/error cells to see detailed error messages:

# Common enrichment column error patterns and root causes:
errors:
  "No data found":
    meaning: "Provider has no data for this input"
    check:
      - Is the input domain valid? (not personal email domain)
      - Is the input name spelled correctly?
      - Is the provider connected? (Settings > Connections)
    fix: "Add more waterfall providers for broader coverage"

  "Rate limit exceeded":
    meaning: "Provider API rate limit hit"
    check:
      - How many rows are processing simultaneously?
      - Is the provider's rate limit known? (see provider docs)
    fix: "Reduce table row count, add delay between batches"

  "Invalid API key":
    meaning: "Provider connection lost or key expired"
    check:
      - Go to Settings > Connections
      - Click on the failing provider
      - Test the connection
    fix: "Reconnect with a valid API key"

  "Timeout":
    meaning: "Provider took too long to respond"
    check:
      - Is the provider's status page showing issues?
      - Is the input data unusually complex?
    fix: "Retry the column on failed rows (click cell > retry)"

  "Column dependency not met":
    meaning: "A column this enrichment depends on hasn't completed yet"
    check:
      - Check column order (left to right execution)
      - Is the prerequisite column populated?
    fix: "Reorder columns so dependencies run first"

Step 3: Debug HTTP API Column Issues

// debug/http-api-column.ts — replicate Clay's HTTP API column call locally
async function debugHTTPAPIColumn(
  url: string,
  method: string,
  headers: Record<string, string>,
  body: Record<string, string>,
  sampleRow: Record<string, string>,
): Promise<void> {
  // Replace {{column_name}} placeholders with sample data
  let resolvedUrl = url;
  let resolvedBody = JSON.stringify(body);

  for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(sampleRow)) {
    const placeholder = `{{${key}}}`;
    resolvedUrl = resolvedUrl.replace(placeholder, value);
    resolvedBody = resolvedBody.replace(new RegExp(placeholder.replace(/[{}]/g, '\\$&'), 'g'), value);
  }

  console.log('Resolved URL:', resolvedUrl);
  console.log('Resolved body:', JSON.parse(resolvedBody));

  const res = await fetch(resolvedUrl, {
    method,
    headers: { ...headers, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    body: method !== 'GET' ? resolvedBody : undefined,
  });

  console.log('Status:', res.status);
  console.log('Response:', await res.text());
}

// Test with your actual column config and sample row data
await debugHTTPAPIColumn(
  'https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/objects/contacts',
  'POST',
  { 'Authorization': 'Bearer your-hubspot-key' },
  { email: '{{Work Email}}', firstname: '{{first_name}}' },
  { 'Work Email': '[email protected]', 'first_name': 'Jane' },
);

Step 4: Debug Claygent Failures

Common Claygent issues and diagnosis:

claygent_debugging:
  empty_results:
    symptom: "Claygent returns empty or 'Could not find information'"
    diagnosis:
      - Test the prompt manually in Clay's Claygent builder (click cell > edit)
      - Try the URL in a browser — is the website accessible?
      - Check if the website blocks bots (CloudFlare challenge page)
    fixes:
      - Use Navigator mode for JavaScript-heavy sites
      - Simplify the prompt to a single question
      - Add fallback sources: "If not on the website, check LinkedIn/Crunchbase"

  inconsistent_results:
    symptom: "Same prompt returns different data each time"
    diagnosis:
      - Claygent uses web search which can vary
      - Dynamic website content changes between requests
    fixes:
      - Make prompts more specific (exact page URL vs general domain)
      - Add structured output format: "Return as JSON with keys: funding_amount, date, investors"

  high_credit_cost:
    symptom: "Claygent consuming too many credits"
    diagnosis:
      - Each Claygent call costs credits + 1 action
      - Running on all rows including low-value ones
    fixes:
      - Add conditional run: "Only run if ICP Score >= 60"
      - Cache results: don't re-run on already-researched companies

Step 5: Build a Support Escalation Package

## Clay Support Escalation

**Account:** [your email]
**Plan:** [Starter/Explorer/Pro/Enterprise]
**Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]

### Issue Description
[One paragraph describing what's broken]

### Impact
- Rows affected: [count]
- Duration: [how long has this been happening]
- Credits impacted: [estimated wasted credits]

### Steps to Reproduce
1. [Step 1]
2. [Step 2]
3. [Expected result vs actual result]

### Evidence
- Table URL: [link to affected Clay table]
- Screenshot of error cells: [attached]
- Column configuration: [which enrichment, which provider]
- Sample input data that fails: [3-5 rows]
- Sample input data that works: [3-5 rows for comparison]

### What I've Already Tried
1. [Reconnected provider API key]
2. [Tested with different input data]
3. [Checked Clay status page — no incidents reported]
4. [Tested provider API independently — works fine]

### Environment
- Browser: [Chrome/Firefox/Safari + version]
- Plan tier: [with credit balance]
- Provider connections: [list connected providers]

Submit at: https://community.clay.com or [email protected]

Error Handling

Resources

• Clay Community Support
• Clay University

Next Steps

For high-volume scaling, see clay-load-scale.