Email templates

Personal by design. Ready at send time.

Design an email worth opening. Publish a version, then personalize every send. Build in the dashboard or with the API, CLI and MCP; your team works with the same stored templates.

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A sunlit coastal path above clear Mediterranean water — Example designs, personalized with each recipient’s values. Nothing is sent.

Trusted every day by teams that build world-class software

From the first hello to the next chapter.

A welcome, a newsletter, an order confirmation. Give each moment its own design, with the same template workflow behind it.

You’re in good company

A little more outside.

Notes from the coast

Hello, Alex.

Here’s to fresh air, unfamiliar paths and a little inspiration for your next chapter.

Find your next adventure

Make a first impression.

Welcome someone by name and give them a reason to come back.

The weekend edition · No. 08

Take the slower way.

Notes from the coast

Hello, Alex.

Some weekends call for fewer plans. Follow the coast, find your own corner, and stay a little longer.

Read the fieldnotes

Tell a story worth opening.

Bring your photography, editorial voice and reusable layout to every campaign.

Made to be lived with

Good things are on their way.

Thank you, Alex. We’re getting your order ready.

Handmade ceramic vase and bowl in warm afternoon light

The everyday collectionStoneware · Natural finish

Make the details personal.

Turn order data into a confirmation that feels like part of your brand.

Illustrative designs showing what you can build with your own content.

Store a template. Personalize at send.

The markup already lives in Bird.

Templates are part of the Bird Email API. Store the layout and its logic once; each send names the template by slug or id and passes the values its tokens need. The final message is rendered on our side, so the same template backs one receipt, a batch of a hundred, or a broadcast to a whole audience.

import { BirdClient } from "@messagebird/sdk";

const bird = new BirdClient({ apiKey: process.env.BIRD_API_KEY! });

// No subject and no html: the template's published version supplies both.
const { data, error } = await bird.email
  .send({
    from:     "orders@acme.com",
    to:       ["delivered@messagebird.dev"],
    category: "transactional",
    template: {
      slug:       "order-confirmation",
      parameters: {
        first_name: "Ada",
        order_number: "A-1043",
      },
    },
  })
  .safe();

More than find-and-replace.

Liquid, resolved on Bird's side when the message is generated.

01
Conditionals.
A Liquid if block shows only when its value applies, like a members-only note or a free-shipping banner, so one template covers both cases.
02
Loops.
A for loop repeats a row for each item in an array, so one order-confirmation template lists every line item a customer actually bought. One limit worth knowing up front: a broadcast carries a single value per contact property and has nothing to iterate, so a template that loops sends through the messages API rather than a broadcast.
03
Filters.
Pipe a value through a Liquid filter before it renders. The default filter catches a missing first name before it ships as an empty greeting.
04
Named parameters and contact fields.
Use flat names for your own parameters, such as order_number. Reserved bird.contact fields read recipient properties. Ordinary dotted parameter paths are rejected when publishing.
05
Nothing to declare.
The token list is read off your markup, combined across every language, so there's no separate variable schema to keep in step with the body. Use the parameter shapes documented for your sending workflow; broadcasts are limited to registered contact properties.

Author it the way you already work.

Three ways in, all reaching the same template. The dashboard builder is the visual one. The bird CLI drives the whole lifecycle from a script or a deploy step, and an agent reaches the same operations over MCP. Already have React Email components? Render them to HTML and store the result, leaving Bird's tokens as literal text in the JSX so they survive the render instead of baking in a value when React runs.

publish-receipt.sh

bird CLI

# Render React Email to HTML, then publish it as a template version.
node scripts/render-receipt.mjs > receipt.json

bird email templates create receipt --category transactional --source html
bird email templates versions languages set "$TEMPLATE" "$DRAFT" en \
  --body-file receipt.json --yes

# --validate-only reports every problem across every language, freezing nothing.
bird email templates versions submit "$TEMPLATE" "$DRAFT" --validate-only --yes
bird email templates versions submit "$TEMPLATE" "$DRAFT" --yes

A creative workflow you can trust

Beautiful in the inbox. Dependable behind the scenes.

Versioned, like the rest of your code.

Editing happens on a draft and never touches what's live, because a send always resolves the current published version and drafts are never sent. Publishing freezes an immutable, numbered version and makes it live; if a change goes wrong, roll back to an earlier one. Saves carry the revision you last read, so if a teammate changed that language meanwhile the save is refused as a conflict rather than overwriting their work. Delivery and engagement stats break down per template, so you can see which one is actually landing.

One template, up to 25 languages.

A template carries content in up to 25 languages, each with its own subject and body, keyed by a BCP-47 tag like en or pt-BR. A send names the language it wants, or leaves it off and gets the template's default. When a send asks for a language the template doesn't carry, on_missing_language decides what happens: fallback serves the closest match, so a request for pt-BR is answered by a stocked pt, and fail rejects the send outright, for content where the wrong language is worse than no send at all.

Preview exactly what will ship.

Fill a template with sample values and get back the subject and the HTML and text bodies a send would deliver. Preview renders the draft, which is how you check a change before it goes live, or a published version when you want to see what is going out right now. Nothing is sent. It also runs the same personalization checks as publishing, so a construct that would be rejected shows up here first.

Start from a reusable draft.

Start with the dashboard editor or copy a built-in template into an editable draft. Check subject, preview text, language and contact fallbacks before publishing. Keep the published version stable while you prepare the next change.

Go deeper in the docs.

The templates guide covers drafts, published versions, per-language content and the Liquid rules. The sending guide has the send-side contract, and email events and webhooks gets opens and clicks flowing back.

Put it into practice.

Continue with the documentation, guides and examples for this topic. Resources are in English.

Watch the guideHow to build an email template Follow the learning pathBuild your first integration

Try the practice and get an implementation brief

Questions about templates

Do I have to use a visual builder?

No. Use the dashboard editor or author HTML through the CLI and MCP workflows. React Email output can be stored as HTML with Bird placeholders preserved. The API, CLI and MCP operate on the same drafts and published versions you see in the dashboard.

How does personalization work?

Stored templates support Liquid and named parameters. Ordinary parameter names are flat, such as order_number. Reserved bird.contact fields read recipient properties. Broadcasts use registered contact properties and cannot use template loops; the messages API supports more general template sends.

Can I roll back a template?

Yes. Editing changes a draft. Publishing creates an immutable version used by later sends. Rolling back selects an earlier published version and resets the draft to that content; sends already accepted keep their content.

Can one template serve several languages?

A template can hold language-specific subject, preview text and body content. Configure a default language and decide whether a missing language falls back or fails. Preview with representative contact values before publishing.

Put your template to work

Email marketingUse your reusable content in a campaign built around your audience.BroadcastsMarketing campaigns: draft, target an audience, schedule, and send.SendingTransactional and marketing email, templates, and batch sends.Email API overviewThe full Email API: sending, deliverability, IPs, suppression, analytics, and broadcasts.

Personal by design. Ready at send time.

From the first hello to the next chapter.

Make a first impression.

Tell a story worth opening.

Make the details personal.

Store a template. Personalize at send.

The markup already lives in Bird.

More than find-and-replace.

Author it the way you already work.

Beautiful in the inbox. Dependable behind the scenes.

Versioned, like the rest of your code.

One template, up to 25 languages.

Preview exactly what will ship.

Start from a reusable draft.

Go deeper in the docs.

Put it into practice.

Questions about templates

Put your template to work

Create email your team can reuse.

Your details

Products of interest

Start with one channel.
Add the others when you're ready.

Personal by design. Ready at send time.

From the first hello to the next chapter.

Make a first impression.

Tell a story worth opening.

Make the details personal.

Store a template. Personalize at send.

The markup already lives in Bird.

More than find-and-replace.

Author it the way you already work.

Beautiful in the inbox. Dependable behind the scenes.

Versioned, like the rest of your code.

One template, up to 25 languages.

Preview exactly what will ship.

Start from a reusable draft.

Go deeper in the docs.

Put it into practice.

Questions about templates

Put your template to work

Create email your team can reuse.

Your details

Products of interest

Start with one channel.Add the others when you're ready.

Start with one channel.
Add the others when you're ready.