Inconsistent People Column Behavior: create_item vs change_column_values

Platform discussions
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Inconsistent behavior: People column assignment works in create_item but fails in change_column_values for non-subscribers

Issue Description

I’ve encountered an inconsistency in the Monday.com API regarding people column assignments:

Working: When using create_item, I can assign users to people columns even if they are NOT subscribers of the board. The API accepts the mutation and the user appears to be automatically added as a board subscriber.

Failing: When using change_column_values or change_multiple_column_values to update an existing item, I receive the following error if the user is not a board subscriber:

{
  "error_message": "invalid value - unable to assign person with id: 21027390. Please check our API documentation for the correct data structure for this column."
}

Expected Behavior

Both mutations should behave consistently:

  • Either both should automatically add non-subscriber users to the board when assigning them to people columns
  • Or both should require users to be board subscribers first

Questions

  1. Is this behavior intentional or a bug?
  2. Why does create_item allow non-subscribers while change_column_values doesn’t?
  3. Should this limitation be documented in the API reference for people columns?

This inconsistency makes bulk updates challenging, especially when working with large datasets where users might not all be board subscribers yet.

Has anyone else encountered this issue?