For a normal receive operation, the external_id in the receive items represents the item id on the e-commerce platform. You can also use our get return API to retrieve all return items and match the corresponding external_id in your code using relevant information such as sku.
For merchants using the bundle feature, there are two cases:
external_id in the items for the receive operation can be found in return_items[*].bundled_items within the return resource.external_id in the items for the receive operation can be found in return_items within the return resource.In other words, in the context of bundles, the external_id for the receive operation should always be the child item ID within the bundle.