Friday Fact: Logic Apps in VS Code fail to save if the Designer can’t resolve your API ID

When building Logic Apps in VS Code, there’s a key detail you should understand—especially when using the Designer. It’s not just about how the Designer looks but how it behaves depending on your setup.

Let’s say your Logic App needs to connect to an operation in API Management (APIM). The process is pretty straightforward:

• Search for the APIM connector in the Designer, select your APIM instance, give the connection a name, and choose the API you want to work with.
• This creates an entry like this in your connections.json:

"apiManagementConnections": {
  "apiManagementOperation": {
    "apiId": "/subscriptions/xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/test-dev-rg/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/apim-dev/apis/postapi",
    "baseUrl": "https://apim-test.demo.pt/dev/operation/createpost",
    "subscriptionKey": "@appsetting('apiManagementOperation_SubscriptionKey')",
    "displayName": "CN-APIM"
  }
}

Now, if you prefer using app settings instead of hardcoding values (which is a best practice), your connection would look like this:

"apiManagementConnections": {
  "apiManagementOperation": {
    "apiId": "@appsetting('post-api-Id')",
    "baseUrl": "@appsetting('post-api-baseUrl')",
    "subscriptionKey": "@appsetting('post-api-SubscriptionKey')",
    "displayName": "CN-APIM",
    "authentication": {
      "type": "ManagedServiceIdentity"
    }
  }
}

Once you deploy your Logic App, make sure the app settings in the environment match the values you were previously hardcoding. Otherwise, your Logic App will not behave as expected.

Now, here’s a common gotcha: If you’re still developing and have already switched to using app settings, you might notice that the Designer stops working properly. That’s because the apiId is now referencing a variable instead of a real API path. As a result, if you try to modify your Logic App—like adding variables or scopes—it might fail to save. Frustrating, right?

The fix is simple: just add those app setting values to your local local.settings.json file. For example:

"post-api-Id": "/subscriptions/xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/test-dev-rg/providers/Microsoft.ApiManagement/service/apim-dev/apis/postapi",
"post-api-baseUrl": "https://apim-test.demo.pt/dev/operation/createpost"

With this in place, the Designer will recognize the API again, and you’ll be able to make changes and save without issues.

Bonus tip:

• If your APIM lives in a different subscription than the rest of your resources, you can also update the WORKFLOWS_SUBSCRIPTION_ID value in local.settings.json to match the subscription where your APIM is. That’ll solve the issue of the Designer not displaying your API correctly.

Hope you enjoyed this Friday Fact!

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Author: Luis Rigueira

Luis Rigueira is a Enterprise Integration Consultant at DevScope View all posts by Luis Rigueira