FastAPI Customer Support Tech Enablement Skill

Overview

This skill provides comprehensive guidance for building production-ready customer support APIs using FastAPI, the modern, fast (high-performance) web framework for building APIs with Python 3.8+ based on standard Python type hints.

FastAPI is ideal for customer support systems due to its:

• Async capabilities for handling concurrent requests (multiple support agents, real-time updates)
• Automatic data validation with Pydantic (ensuring data integrity for tickets, users, responses)
• Built-in API documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger for support team training)
• WebSocket support for real-time chat and notifications
• Easy database integration with SQLAlchemy for PostgreSQL operations
• Type safety reducing bugs in critical support workflows

Core Competencies

1. Async API Development

FastAPI is built on top of Starlette for web routing and Pydantic for data validation, providing excellent async support for I/O-bound operations common in customer support systems.

Key Concepts:

• Use async def for path operations when making database queries, external API calls, or file operations
• Use regular def for CPU-bound operations or when using synchronous libraries
• FastAPI automatically handles the async/await pattern under the hood
• Background tasks for non-blocking operations (email notifications, log processing)

Best Practices for Support APIs:

# Async for database operations (most support APIs)
@app.get("/tickets/{ticket_id}")
async def get_ticket(ticket_id: int, db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db)):
    result = await db.execute(select(Ticket).where(Ticket.id == ticket_id))
    ticket = result.scalar_one_or_none()
    if not ticket:
        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Ticket not found")
    return ticket

# Sync for simple operations without I/O
@app.get("/health")
def health_check():
    return {"status": "healthy"}

2. Dependency Injection System

FastAPI's dependency injection is powerful for managing shared resources like database sessions, authentication, and configuration.

Database Session Management:

from typing import AsyncGenerator
from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import AsyncSession, create_async_engine, async_sessionmaker

DATABASE_URL = "postgresql+asyncpg://user:password@localhost/support_db"

engine = create_async_engine(DATABASE_URL, echo=True)
AsyncSessionLocal = async_sessionmaker(engine, class_=AsyncSession, expire_on_commit=False)

async def get_db() -> AsyncGenerator[AsyncSession, None]:
    async with AsyncSessionLocal() as session:
        try:
            yield session
            await session.commit()
        except Exception:
            await session.rollback()
            raise
        finally:
            await session.close()

# Use in endpoints
@app.post("/tickets/")
async def create_ticket(
    ticket: TicketCreate,
    db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db)
):
    db_ticket = Ticket(**ticket.dict())
    db.add(db_ticket)
    await db.commit()
    await db.refresh(db_ticket)
    return db_ticket

Authentication Dependencies:

from fastapi.security import OAuth2PasswordBearer
from jose import jwt, JWTError

oauth2_scheme = OAuth2PasswordBearer(tokenUrl="token")

async def get_current_user(
    token: str = Depends(oauth2_scheme),
    db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db)
) -> User:
    credentials_exception = HTTPException(
        status_code=status.HTTP_401_UNAUTHORIZED,
        detail="Could not validate credentials",
        headers={"WWW-Authenticate": "Bearer"},
    )
    try:
        payload = jwt.decode(token, SECRET_KEY, algorithms=[ALGORITHM])
        username: str = payload.get("sub")
        if username is None:
            raise credentials_exception
    except JWTError:
        raise credentials_exception

    result = await db.execute(select(User).where(User.username == username))
    user = result.scalar_one_or_none()
    if user is None:
        raise credentials_exception
    return user

async def get_current_active_agent(
    current_user: User = Depends(get_current_user)
) -> User:
    if not current_user.is_active or current_user.role != "agent":
        raise HTTPException(status_code=403, detail="Not authorized as support agent")
    return current_user

3. Request Validation with Pydantic

Pydantic models ensure data integrity throughout your support system.

Base Models for Customer Support:

from pydantic import BaseModel, EmailStr, Field, validator
from datetime import datetime
from typing import Optional, List
from enum import Enum

class TicketPriority(str, Enum):
    LOW = "low"
    MEDIUM = "medium"
    HIGH = "high"
    URGENT = "urgent"

class TicketStatus(str, Enum):
    OPEN = "open"
    IN_PROGRESS = "in_progress"
    WAITING_CUSTOMER = "waiting_customer"
    RESOLVED = "resolved"
    CLOSED = "closed"

class TicketBase(BaseModel):
    title: str = Field(..., min_length=3, max_length=200)
    description: str = Field(..., min_length=10)
    priority: TicketPriority = TicketPriority.MEDIUM
    category: str = Field(..., max_length=50)

    @validator('title')
    def title_must_not_be_empty(cls, v):
        if not v.strip():
            raise ValueError('Title cannot be empty or whitespace')
        return v.strip()

class TicketCreate(TicketBase):
    customer_email: EmailStr
    attachments: Optional[List[str]] = []

class TicketUpdate(BaseModel):
    title: Optional[str] = Field(None, min_length=3, max_length=200)
    description: Optional[str] = None
    status: Optional[TicketStatus] = None
    priority: Optional[TicketPriority] = None
    assigned_to: Optional[int] = None

class TicketResponse(TicketBase):
    id: int
    status: TicketStatus
    customer_email: str
    assigned_to: Optional[int]
    created_at: datetime
    updated_at: datetime

    class Config:
        from_attributes = True  # For SQLAlchemy models

4. Database Integration with SQLAlchemy

Modern async SQLAlchemy integration for PostgreSQL operations.

Model Definitions:

from sqlalchemy import Column, Integer, String, DateTime, ForeignKey, Enum, Text
from sqlalchemy.orm import declarative_base, relationship
from sqlalchemy.sql import func
import enum

Base = declarative_base()

class TicketStatusEnum(enum.Enum):
    OPEN = "open"
    IN_PROGRESS = "in_progress"
    WAITING_CUSTOMER = "waiting_customer"
    RESOLVED = "resolved"
    CLOSED = "closed"

class TicketPriorityEnum(enum.Enum):
    LOW = "low"
    MEDIUM = "medium"
    HIGH = "high"
    URGENT = "urgent"

class User(Base):
    __tablename__ = "users"

    id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, index=True)
    username = Column(String(50), unique=True, index=True, nullable=False)
    email = Column(String(100), unique=True, index=True, nullable=False)
    hashed_password = Column(String(255), nullable=False)
    full_name = Column(String(100))
    role = Column(String(20), default="customer")  # customer, agent, admin
    is_active = Column(Boolean, default=True)
    created_at = Column(DateTime(timezone=True), server_default=func.now())

    assigned_tickets = relationship("Ticket", back_populates="assigned_agent")
    comments = relationship("Comment", back_populates="author")

class Ticket(Base):
    __tablename__ = "tickets"

    id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, index=True)
    title = Column(String(200), nullable=False)
    description = Column(Text, nullable=False)
    status = Column(Enum(TicketStatusEnum), default=TicketStatusEnum.OPEN, index=True)
    priority = Column(Enum(TicketPriorityEnum), default=TicketPriorityEnum.MEDIUM, index=True)
    category = Column(String(50), index=True)
    customer_email = Column(String(100), index=True, nullable=False)
    assigned_to = Column(Integer, ForeignKey("users.id"), nullable=True)
    created_at = Column(DateTime(timezone=True), server_default=func.now())
    updated_at = Column(DateTime(timezone=True), onupdate=func.now())
    resolved_at = Column(DateTime(timezone=True), nullable=True)

    assigned_agent = relationship("User", back_populates="assigned_tickets")
    comments = relationship("Comment", back_populates="ticket", cascade="all, delete-orphan")

class Comment(Base):
    __tablename__ = "comments"

    id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True, index=True)
    ticket_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey("tickets.id"), nullable=False)
    author_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey("users.id"), nullable=False)
    content = Column(Text, nullable=False)
    is_internal = Column(Boolean, default=False)  # Internal agent notes
    created_at = Column(DateTime(timezone=True), server_default=func.now())

    ticket = relationship("Ticket", back_populates="comments")
    author = relationship("User", back_populates="comments")

Database Initialization:

async def init_db():
    async with engine.begin() as conn:
        await conn.run_sync(Base.metadata.create_all)

@app.on_event("startup")
async def startup():
    await init_db()

5. Authentication & Authorization

JWT-based authentication for support portal access.

Password Hashing:

from passlib.context import CryptContext

pwd_context = CryptContext(schemes=["bcrypt"], deprecated="auto")

def verify_password(plain_password: str, hashed_password: str) -> bool:
    return pwd_context.verify(plain_password, hashed_password)

def get_password_hash(password: str) -> str:
    return pwd_context.hash(password)

Token Generation:

from datetime import datetime, timedelta
from jose import jwt

SECRET_KEY = "your-secret-key-here"  # Use environment variable in production
ALGORITHM = "HS256"
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES = 30

def create_access_token(data: dict, expires_delta: Optional[timedelta] = None):
    to_encode = data.copy()
    if expires_delta:
        expire = datetime.utcnow() + expires_delta
    else:
        expire = datetime.utcnow() + timedelta(minutes=15)
    to_encode.update({"exp": expire})
    encoded_jwt = jwt.encode(to_encode, SECRET_KEY, algorithm=ALGORITHM)
    return encoded_jwt

Login Endpoint:

from fastapi.security import OAuth2PasswordRequestForm

@app.post("/token")
async def login(
    form_data: OAuth2PasswordRequestForm = Depends(),
    db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db)
):
    result = await db.execute(select(User).where(User.username == form_data.username))
    user = result.scalar_one_or_none()

    if not user or not verify_password(form_data.password, user.hashed_password):
        raise HTTPException(
            status_code=status.HTTP_401_UNAUTHORIZED,
            detail="Incorrect username or password",
            headers={"WWW-Authenticate": "Bearer"},
        )

    access_token_expires = timedelta(minutes=ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES)
    access_token = create_access_token(
        data={"sub": user.username, "role": user.role},
        expires_delta=access_token_expires
    )
    return {"access_token": access_token, "token_type": "bearer"}

6. WebSocket for Real-Time Support

Real-time chat between customers and support agents.

WebSocket Manager:

from fastapi import WebSocket, WebSocketDisconnect
from typing import Dict, List

class ConnectionManager:
    def __init__(self):
        self.active_connections: Dict[int, List[WebSocket]] = {}

    async def connect(self, websocket: WebSocket, ticket_id: int):
        await websocket.accept()
        if ticket_id not in self.active_connections:
            self.active_connections[ticket_id] = []
        self.active_connections[ticket_id].append(websocket)

    def disconnect(self, websocket: WebSocket, ticket_id: int):
        if ticket_id in self.active_connections:
            self.active_connections[ticket_id].remove(websocket)
            if not self.active_connections[ticket_id]:
                del self.active_connections[ticket_id]

    async def send_message(self, message: str, ticket_id: int):
        if ticket_id in self.active_connections:
            for connection in self.active_connections[ticket_id]:
                await connection.send_text(message)

    async def broadcast(self, message: str, ticket_id: int, exclude: WebSocket = None):
        if ticket_id in self.active_connections:
            for connection in self.active_connections[ticket_id]:
                if connection != exclude:
                    await connection.send_text(message)

manager = ConnectionManager()

@app.websocket("/ws/ticket/{ticket_id}")
async def websocket_endpoint(
    websocket: WebSocket,
    ticket_id: int,
    token: str,
    db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db)
):
    # Verify token
    try:
        payload = jwt.decode(token, SECRET_KEY, algorithms=[ALGORITHM])
        username = payload.get("sub")
    except JWTError:
        await websocket.close(code=status.WS_1008_POLICY_VIOLATION)
        return

    await manager.connect(websocket, ticket_id)
    try:
        while True:
            data = await websocket.receive_text()
            message = {
                "ticket_id": ticket_id,
                "username": username,
                "message": data,
                "timestamp": datetime.utcnow().isoformat()
            }
            await manager.broadcast(json.dumps(message), ticket_id)
    except WebSocketDisconnect:
        manager.disconnect(websocket, ticket_id)

7. Background Tasks

Handle email notifications and long-running operations without blocking responses.

Email Notification Task:

import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart

def send_email_notification(to_email: str, subject: str, body: str):
    """Background task to send email"""
    try:
        msg = MIMEMultipart()
        msg['From'] = "support@company.com"
        msg['To'] = to_email
        msg['Subject'] = subject

        msg.attach(MIMEText(body, 'html'))

        # Configure SMTP
        with smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587) as server:
            server.starttls()
            server.login("support@company.com", "password")
            server.send_message(msg)
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Failed to send email: {e}")

@app.post("/tickets/")
async def create_ticket(
    ticket: TicketCreate,
    background_tasks: BackgroundTasks,
    db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db)
):
    db_ticket = Ticket(**ticket.dict())
    db.add(db_ticket)
    await db.commit()
    await db.refresh(db_ticket)

    # Send confirmation email in background
    background_tasks.add_task(
        send_email_notification,
        ticket.customer_email,
        f"Ticket #{db_ticket.id} Created",
        f"Your support ticket has been created. We'll respond within 24 hours."
    )

    return db_ticket

8. Pagination & Filtering

Essential for support ticket lists with many records.

Pagination Dependencies:

from typing import Optional

class PaginationParams(BaseModel):
    skip: int = Field(0, ge=0, description="Number of records to skip")
    limit: int = Field(10, ge=1, le=100, description="Maximum records to return")

class TicketFilters(BaseModel):
    status: Optional[TicketStatus] = None
    priority: Optional[TicketPriority] = None
    category: Optional[str] = None
    assigned_to: Optional[int] = None
    search: Optional[str] = Field(None, description="Search in title/description")

@app.get("/tickets/", response_model=List[TicketResponse])
async def list_tickets(
    filters: TicketFilters = Depends(),
    pagination: PaginationParams = Depends(),
    db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db),
    current_user: User = Depends(get_current_user)
):
    query = select(Ticket)

    # Apply filters
    if filters.status:
        query = query.where(Ticket.status == filters.status)
    if filters.priority:
        query = query.where(Ticket.priority == filters.priority)
    if filters.category:
        query = query.where(Ticket.category == filters.category)
    if filters.assigned_to:
        query = query.where(Ticket.assigned_to == filters.assigned_to)
    if filters.search:
        search_term = f"%{filters.search}%"
        query = query.where(
            (Ticket.title.ilike(search_term)) |
            (Ticket.description.ilike(search_term))
        )

    # Apply pagination
    query = query.offset(pagination.skip).limit(pagination.limit)
    query = query.order_by(Ticket.created_at.desc())

    result = await db.execute(query)
    tickets = result.scalars().all()

    return tickets

9. Error Handling & Middleware

Consistent error responses and logging.

Custom Exception Handlers:

from fastapi.responses import JSONResponse

class TicketNotFoundError(Exception):
    def __init__(self, ticket_id: int):
        self.ticket_id = ticket_id

@app.exception_handler(TicketNotFoundError)
async def ticket_not_found_handler(request: Request, exc: TicketNotFoundError):
    return JSONResponse(
        status_code=404,
        content={
            "error": "ticket_not_found",
            "message": f"Ticket with ID {exc.ticket_id} not found",
            "ticket_id": exc.ticket_id
        }
    )

@app.exception_handler(ValidationError)
async def validation_exception_handler(request: Request, exc: ValidationError):
    return JSONResponse(
        status_code=422,
        content={
            "error": "validation_error",
            "message": "Invalid request data",
            "details": exc.errors()
        }
    )

Logging Middleware:

import time
import logging

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

@app.middleware("http")
async def log_requests(request: Request, call_next):
    start_time = time.time()

    # Log request
    logger.info(f"Request: {request.method} {request.url}")

    response = await call_next(request)

    # Log response
    process_time = time.time() - start_time
    logger.info(
        f"Response: {response.status_code} "
        f"(took {process_time:.2f}s)"
    )

    response.headers["X-Process-Time"] = str(process_time)
    return response

10. CORS Configuration

Enable web clients to access the API.

from fastapi.middleware.cors import CORSMiddleware

app.add_middleware(
    CORSMiddleware,
    allow_origins=[
        "http://localhost:3000",  # React dev server
        "https://support.company.com"  # Production domain
    ],
    allow_credentials=True,
    allow_methods=["*"],
    allow_headers=["*"],
)

11. API Documentation

FastAPI automatically generates interactive documentation.

Customizing Documentation:

from fastapi import FastAPI

app = FastAPI(
    title="Customer Support API",
    description="API for managing customer support tickets, agents, and real-time chat",
    version="1.0.0",
    contact={
        "name": "Support Team",
        "email": "tech@company.com"
    },
    license_info={
        "name": "MIT"
    }
)

# Add tags for organization
tags_metadata = [
    {
        "name": "tickets",
        "description": "Operations with support tickets",
    },
    {
        "name": "users",
        "description": "User and agent management",
    },
    {
        "name": "chat",
        "description": "Real-time chat via WebSocket",
    },
]

app = FastAPI(openapi_tags=tags_metadata)

12. Testing

Comprehensive testing with pytest and httpx.

Test Setup:

import pytest
from httpx import AsyncClient
from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import create_async_engine, async_sessionmaker, AsyncSession
from main import app, get_db

TEST_DATABASE_URL = "postgresql+asyncpg://user:password@localhost/test_support_db"

@pytest.fixture
async def test_db():
    engine = create_async_engine(TEST_DATABASE_URL)
    async with engine.begin() as conn:
        await conn.run_sync(Base.metadata.create_all)

    TestSessionLocal = async_sessionmaker(engine, class_=AsyncSession, expire_on_commit=False)

    async with TestSessionLocal() as session:
        yield session

    async with engine.begin() as conn:
        await conn.run_sync(Base.metadata.drop_all)

@pytest.fixture
async def client(test_db):
    async def override_get_db():
        yield test_db

    app.dependency_overrides[get_db] = override_get_db
    async with AsyncClient(app=app, base_url="http://test") as ac:
        yield ac
    app.dependency_overrides.clear()

@pytest.mark.anyio
async def test_create_ticket(client: AsyncClient):
    response = await client.post(
        "/tickets/",
        json={
            "title": "Test Ticket",
            "description": "This is a test ticket",
            "priority": "high",
            "category": "technical",
            "customer_email": "customer@example.com"
        }
    )
    assert response.status_code == 200
    data = response.json()
    assert data["title"] == "Test Ticket"
    assert data["status"] == "open"

Performance Optimization

Database Query Optimization

Use Eager Loading:

from sqlalchemy.orm import selectinload

@app.get("/tickets/{ticket_id}/full")
async def get_ticket_with_comments(
    ticket_id: int,
    db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db)
):
    query = select(Ticket).options(
        selectinload(Ticket.comments),
        selectinload(Ticket.assigned_agent)
    ).where(Ticket.id == ticket_id)

    result = await db.execute(query)
    ticket = result.scalar_one_or_none()
    if not ticket:
        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Ticket not found")
    return ticket

Database Connection Pooling:

engine = create_async_engine(
    DATABASE_URL,
    pool_size=10,
    max_overflow=20,
    pool_pre_ping=True,
    pool_recycle=3600
)

Caching with Redis

import redis.asyncio as redis
from fastapi import Depends

redis_client = redis.Redis(host='localhost', port=6379, decode_responses=True)

async def get_cached_ticket(ticket_id: int) -> Optional[dict]:
    cached = await redis_client.get(f"ticket:{ticket_id}")
    if cached:
        return json.loads(cached)
    return None

async def cache_ticket(ticket_id: int, data: dict, expire: int = 300):
    await redis_client.setex(
        f"ticket:{ticket_id}",
        expire,
        json.dumps(data)
    )

@app.get("/tickets/{ticket_id}")
async def get_ticket(
    ticket_id: int,
    db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db)
):
    # Try cache first
    cached = await get_cached_ticket(ticket_id)
    if cached:
        return cached

    # Query database
    result = await db.execute(select(Ticket).where(Ticket.id == ticket_id))
    ticket = result.scalar_one_or_none()
    if not ticket:
        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Ticket not found")

    # Cache result
    ticket_dict = {
        "id": ticket.id,
        "title": ticket.title,
        "status": ticket.status.value,
        # ... other fields
    }
    await cache_ticket(ticket_id, ticket_dict)

    return ticket_dict

Security Best Practices

1. Environment Variables: Never hardcode secrets
2. Input Validation: Use Pydantic models for all inputs
3. Rate Limiting: Implement with slowapi or custom middleware
4. SQL Injection Prevention: Use SQLAlchemy ORM (never raw SQL)
5. HTTPS Only: Configure SSL/TLS in production
6. CORS: Restrict to known origins
7. Authentication: Use JWT with short expiration times
8. Password Hashing: Always use bcrypt or similar

Deployment Considerations

Docker Configuration

FROM python:3.11-slim

WORKDIR /app

COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

COPY . .

CMD ["uvicorn", "main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]

Health Checks

@app.get("/health")
async def health_check(db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db)):
    try:
        # Check database connection
        await db.execute(text("SELECT 1"))
        return {
            "status": "healthy",
            "database": "connected",
            "timestamp": datetime.utcnow().isoformat()
        }
    except Exception as e:
        raise HTTPException(
            status_code=503,
            detail=f"Service unhealthy: {str(e)}"
        )

Monitoring & Observability

Prometheus Metrics

from prometheus_client import Counter, Histogram, generate_latest
from fastapi.responses import Response

REQUEST_COUNT = Counter('http_requests_total', 'Total HTTP requests', ['method', 'endpoint', 'status'])
REQUEST_DURATION = Histogram('http_request_duration_seconds', 'HTTP request duration')

@app.middleware("http")
async def metrics_middleware(request: Request, call_next):
    start_time = time.time()
    response = await call_next(request)
    duration = time.time() - start_time

    REQUEST_COUNT.labels(
        method=request.method,
        endpoint=request.url.path,
        status=response.status_code
    ).inc()
    REQUEST_DURATION.observe(duration)

    return response

@app.get("/metrics")
async def metrics():
    return Response(generate_latest(), media_type="text/plain")

Common Patterns for Customer Support

1. Ticket Assignment Logic

@app.post("/tickets/{ticket_id}/assign")
async def assign_ticket(
    ticket_id: int,
    agent_id: int,
    db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db),
    current_user: User = Depends(get_current_active_agent)
):
    # Get ticket
    result = await db.execute(select(Ticket).where(Ticket.id == ticket_id))
    ticket = result.scalar_one_or_none()
    if not ticket:
        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Ticket not found")

    # Verify agent exists and is active
    agent_result = await db.execute(select(User).where(User.id == agent_id))
    agent = agent_result.scalar_one_or_none()
    if not agent or agent.role != "agent" or not agent.is_active:
        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Invalid agent")

    # Update ticket
    ticket.assigned_to = agent_id
    ticket.status = TicketStatusEnum.IN_PROGRESS
    await db.commit()

    return {"message": f"Ticket assigned to {agent.full_name}"}

2. SLA Tracking

from datetime import timedelta

def calculate_sla_breach(ticket: Ticket) -> dict:
    sla_hours = {
        TicketPriorityEnum.URGENT: 4,
        TicketPriorityEnum.HIGH: 8,
        TicketPriorityEnum.MEDIUM: 24,
        TicketPriorityEnum.LOW: 48
    }

    sla_deadline = ticket.created_at + timedelta(hours=sla_hours[ticket.priority])
    now = datetime.utcnow()

    if ticket.status in [TicketStatusEnum.RESOLVED, TicketStatusEnum.CLOSED]:
        resolution_time = ticket.resolved_at or ticket.updated_at
        breached = resolution_time > sla_deadline
        time_to_resolution = (resolution_time - ticket.created_at).total_seconds() / 3600
    else:
        breached = now > sla_deadline
        time_to_resolution = None

    return {
        "sla_deadline": sla_deadline,
        "breached": breached,
        "time_to_resolution_hours": time_to_resolution
    }

3. Bulk Operations

@app.post("/tickets/bulk-update")
async def bulk_update_tickets(
    ticket_ids: List[int],
    update_data: TicketUpdate,
    db: AsyncSession = Depends(get_db),
    current_user: User = Depends(get_current_active_agent)
):
    result = await db.execute(
        select(Ticket).where(Ticket.id.in_(ticket_ids))
    )
    tickets = result.scalars().all()

    if not tickets:
        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="No tickets found")

    for ticket in tickets:
        if update_data.status:
            ticket.status = update_data.status
        if update_data.priority:
            ticket.priority = update_data.priority
        if update_data.assigned_to:
            ticket.assigned_to = update_data.assigned_to

    await db.commit()

    return {"updated_count": len(tickets), "ticket_ids": ticket_ids}

Troubleshooting Guide

Common Issues

1. Database Connection Errors

• Check connection string format: postgresql+asyncpg://user:pass@host:port/db
• Ensure asyncpg is installed: pip install asyncpg
• Verify PostgreSQL is running and accepting connections

2. Async/Await Errors

• Always use async def for async database operations
• Use await when calling async functions
• Don't mix sync and async SQLAlchemy sessions

3. Pydantic Validation Errors

• Check field types match the schema
• Use Optional[] for nullable fields
• Add validators for custom business logic

4. JWT Token Issues

• Verify SECRET_KEY is consistent
• Check token expiration time
• Ensure ALGORITHM matches between encoding and decoding

5. WebSocket Connection Drops

• Implement reconnection logic on client side
• Add heartbeat/ping messages
• Check for network timeouts

Summary

This FastAPI skill provides everything needed to build production-ready customer support APIs with:

• High-performance async operations
• Type-safe data validation
• Secure authentication
• Real-time communication
• Comprehensive testing
• Monitoring and observability

Key advantages for customer support systems:

• Handle thousands of concurrent requests
• Real-time updates for agents and customers
• Automatic API documentation for onboarding
• Type safety reduces bugs in critical workflows
• Easy integration with PostgreSQL and other databases