Clay Production Checklist

Overview

Complete checklist for launching Clay enrichment pipelines in production. Covers table configuration, credit budgeting, webhook reliability, CRM sync validation, and monitoring setup.

Prerequisites

Clay table tested with sample data (100+ rows enriched successfully)
CRM integration tested in staging
Credit budget approved for monthly volume
Team trained on Clay table management

Instructions

Phase 1: Table Configuration

Table schema finalized -- all columns named, typed, and ordered
Enrichment columns configured -- each column has correct provider and input mapping
Waterfall configured -- providers ordered cheapest-first with "stop on first result"
Auto-run settings verified -- table-level auto-update ON, column-level auto-run ON for needed columns
Conditional run rules set -- enrichments only trigger when input data exists
Formula columns tested -- ICP scoring and lead grading formulas validated
AI/Claygent columns reviewed -- prompts produce consistent, quality output

Phase 2: Data Quality Gates

Input validation in place -- scripts validate data before webhook submission
Personal email filter -- gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc. blocked from enrichment
Deduplication active -- duplicate records detected before sending to Clay
Sample enrichment run completed -- 500+ row test with >60% email find rate
Credit cost per row calculated -- know your average credits per enriched lead

// Pre-submission validation (run before pushing to Clay)
function validateForProduction(rows: any[]): { valid: any[]; rejected: any[] } {
  const personalDomains = ['gmail.com', 'yahoo.com', 'hotmail.com', 'outlook.com', 'icloud.com'];
  const seen = new Set<string>();
  const valid: any[] = [];
  const rejected: any[] = [];

  for (const row of rows) {
    const key = `${row.domain}:${row.first_name}:${row.last_name}`.toLowerCase();

    if (!row.domain?.includes('.'))
      rejected.push({ row, reason: 'invalid domain' });
    else if (personalDomains.some(d => row.domain.endsWith(d)))
      rejected.push({ row, reason: 'personal email domain' });
    else if (seen.has(key))
      rejected.push({ row, reason: 'duplicate' });
    else {
      seen.add(key);
      valid.push(row);
    }
  }

  console.log(`Validation: ${valid.length} valid, ${rejected.length} rejected (${(rejected.length / rows.length * 100).toFixed(1)}% filtered)`);
  return { valid, rejected };
}

Phase 3: Credit & Cost Controls

Monthly credit budget set -- know your plan's monthly credits
Table row limits configured -- max rows set to prevent runaway enrichment
Provider API keys connected -- own keys for high-volume providers (saves 70-80%)
Credit burn monitoring -- alerts when daily usage exceeds threshold
Webhook submission counter -- tracking against 50K lifetime limit

Plan	Monthly Credits	Actions	HTTP API	Webhook Limit
Launch	2,500	15,000	No	50K/webhook
Growth	6,000	40,000	Yes	50K/webhook
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Yes	50K/webhook

Phase 4: Integration Reliability

Webhook endpoint health check -- Clay can reach your callback URL
Retry logic implemented -- 429 and 5xx responses handled with backoff
CRM sync tested -- enriched records correctly map to CRM objects
HTTP API columns tested -- outbound API calls return expected data
Error handling for empty enrichments -- graceful handling when providers return no data

# Pre-flight connectivity checks
echo "=== Clay Production Pre-flight ==="

# 1. Webhook reachable
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "Webhook: HTTP %{http_code}\n" \
  -X POST "$CLAY_WEBHOOK_URL" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"_preflight": true}'

# 2. Enterprise API (if applicable)
if [ -n "${CLAY_API_KEY:-}" ]; then
  curl -s -o /dev/null -w "Enterprise API: HTTP %{http_code}\n" \
    -X POST "https://api.clay.com/v1/people/enrich" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLAY_API_KEY" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"email": "test@example.com"}'
fi

# 3. Callback endpoint reachable
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "Callback endpoint: HTTP %{http_code}\n" \
  "https://your-app.com/api/health"

Phase 5: Monitoring & Alerting

Credit consumption tracked -- daily/weekly credit usage logged
Enrichment hit rate monitored -- alert if email find rate drops below 40%
Webhook delivery failures alerted -- notification on 4xx/5xx from webhooks
CRM sync errors tracked -- alert on failed CRM pushes
Table row count monitored -- alert when approaching plan limits

Phase 6: Documentation & Runbooks

Table schema documented -- column purposes, providers, and dependencies
Credit cost model documented -- expected cost per lead at current volume
Webhook rotation procedure -- steps to replace exhausted webhook (50K limit)
Provider failover plan -- what to do when a provider is down
On-call escalation path -- who to contact for Clay issues

Error Handling

Alert	Condition	Action
Credit balance low	< 500 credits remaining	Pause enrichments, add credits or connect own keys
Email find rate drop	< 40% for 2+ hours	Check input data quality, review provider status
Webhook 429s	> 5 per hour	Reduce submission rate, check plan limits
CRM sync failures	> 10 per batch	Check CRM field mapping, verify API key

Resources

Next Steps

For version upgrades, see clay-upgrade-migration.

clay-prod-checklist