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Bhargav Bhatt
Bhargav Bhatt

Posted on Fully Autonomous

How I Built an Automated OCR Pipeline for Genesys Cloud using AWS Textract, Flask & Terraform

#architecture #automation #aws #terraform

If you’ve ever built custom integrations for Genesys Cloud, you know the frustration: an end-user sends a document, ID card, or multi-page PDF via Web Chat or Email, and an agent manually transcribes data while the customer waits.

To solve this, I built Genesys Cloud OCR Blueprint—a production-ready, zero-maintenance pipeline that automatically extracts structured text, masks sensitive PII (SSNs, credit cards), and injects the parsed data directly into Genesys Architect Flows or Agent Scripts in real time.

In this post, I'll break down how the architecture works, how it keeps hosting costs near zero, and how you can deploy it to your AWS account in under 5 minutes.

🏗️ Architecture Overview

The goal was simple: No third-party SaaS middleman, zero data retention, and zero fixed server costs.

[ Genesys Cloud ] 
      │  
      │ (1) Attachment Uploaded in Chat / Email / Flow
      ▼
[ Architect Flow / Data Action ]
      │
      │ (2) HTTPS Request with Doc URL
      ▼
[ AWS App Runner (Python Flask Microservice) ]
      │
      │ (3) In-Memory Split & Pre-processing
      ▼
[ AWS Textract ] ──► (4) Text Extraction & Regex PII Redaction
      │
      ▼
[ Output returned to Genesys Agent / Interaction Scope ]
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Why this stack?

  • AWS App Runner + Python Flask: Scales down to zero when idle—costing around ~$5/month for low-to-medium enterprise workloads.
  • AWS Textract: Pay-per-page OCR ($0.0015 / page) handling both standard images and complex multi-page PDFs.
  • In-Memory Redaction: Integrated regex filters redact SSNs and Credit Card numbers before sending data back to Genesys Cloud.

✨ Key Features

  • 📄 Multi-Page PDF & Image Support: Automatically splits multi-page PDFs in memory and returns both page-by-page arrays and unified full-text output.
  • 🔒 Automated PII Masking: Built-in regex filters detect and mask Social Security Numbers (SSNs) and Credit Card numbers prior to returning payloads.
  • 🛡️ Zero Data Retention / $0 SaaS Markup: Runs entirely inside your AWS security boundary—no third-party vendor lock-in or extra per-seat licensing.
  • ⚡ 5-Minute Infrastructure-as-Code: Fully automated deployment using Terraform and Archy (Genesys Architect CLI).

💰 AWS Cost Breakdown

Because every component is serverless or auto-scaling, your costs scale directly with your actual interaction volume:

Resource Pricing Model Estimated Monthly Cost
AWS App Runner ~$0.007 / vCPU hour (Pauses when idle) ~$5.00 / month (Low/Medium volume)
AWS Textract $1.50 per 1,000 pages $0.0015 / page processed

🛠️ Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have the following installed on your local environment:

  • AWS CLI (v2.x) — Configured with admin access (aws configure).
  • Terraform CLI (v1.5.0+) installed.
  • Archy CLI — Genesys Architect CLI installed and authenticated.
  • Genesys Cloud OAuth Client with permissions for Data Actions > All and Architect > Flow > All.

🚀 Quick-Start Deployment (Under 5 Minutes)

Step 1: Clone the Repository 

git clone https://github.com/bhkbdbhatt/genesys-cloud-ocr-blueprint.git
cd genesys-cloud-ocr-blueprint
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Step 2: Deploy AWS Infrastructure via Terraform

  1. Move to the terraform directory and copy the configuration template: 
cd terraform
cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars
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  1. Open terraform.tfvars and set your credentials and keys: 
aws_region          = "us-east-1"
ocr_api_key         = "your-secure-custom-api-key-here"
genesys_client_id     = "YOUR_GENESYS_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID"
genesys_client_secret = "YOUR_GENESYS_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET"
genesys_aws_region  = "us-east-1" # e.g., us-east-1, eu-west-1
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  1. Initialize and provision the infrastructure: 
terraform init
terraform apply -auto-approve
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💡 Note: Copy the app_runner_url from the terminal output when the apply finishes.

Step 3: Deploy Genesys Flow using Archy

  1. Navigate to the archy directory: 
cd ../archy
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  1. Log in to your Genesys Cloud org: 
archy login --clientId YOUR_CLIENT_ID --clientSecret YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET --region mypurecloud.com
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  1. Import and publish the inbound message flow: 
archy create --file ocr_flow.yaml
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🧪 Testing Your Setup

1. Service Health Check

Verify your container on AWS App Runner is active:

curl https://<YOUR-APP-RUNNER-URL>.awsapprunner.com/health
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Expected Response: {"status": "UP"}

2. End-to-End Test in Genesys Cloud

  1. In Genesys Cloud, go to Admin > Integrations > Actions.
  2. Locate OCR Attachment Text Extractor.
  3. Open Test Action, provide a public PDF URL in fileUrl, and click Execute.

⚙️ Customization & Troubleshooting

Custom PII Rules

To add custom masking rules (e.g., Policy Numbers, Account IDs), update the regular expressions in app/app.py:

# Custom regex snippet in app/app.py
SSN_REGEX = r'\b\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}\b'
CREDIT_CARD_REGEX = r'\b(?:\d[ -]*?){13,16}\b'
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Common Issues & Solutions

  • 401 Unauthorized on Data Action:
  • Cause: X-API-KEY in Genesys Data Action header doesn't match ocr_api_key in terraform.tfvars.

  • Fix: Sync keys in Genesys Cloud Data Actions or re-run terraform apply.

  • Data Action Timeout (734 / REST call timed out):

  • Cause: Genesys Data Actions hard-timeout at 15 seconds. Large PDFs (15+ pages) exceed this limit.

  • Fix: Lower image resolution/DPI in app/app.py or check docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the asynchronous SQS/S3 polling model.

  • 400 Bad Request: Failed to download attachment:

  • Cause: Expired or unauthenticated attachment URL.

  • Fix: Ensure Message.Message.attachments[0].contentUrl is passed directly within active interaction scope.

📖 License & Support

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