PHP

Send an email from a plain PHP script with messagebird/sdk. You need a Bird API key: create one in Developers → API keys (Send your first email walks through it), then export it as BIRD_API_KEY.

1. Install

Codebeispiel

composer require messagebird/sdk

The SDK requires PHP 8.2+ and sends over any PSR-18 HTTP client you have installed, discovered automatically.

2. Send

Create send.php:

Codebeispiel

<?php

// Send your first email. Set BIRD_API_KEY in your environment, then run:
//   php examples/quickstart-email.php

declare(strict_types=1);

require __DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';

use MessageBird\Bird;

$bird = new Bird(getenv('BIRD_API_KEY') ?: '');

$message = $bird->email->send(
    from: 'Bird <onboarding@messagebird.dev>',
    to: ['delivered@messagebird.dev'],
    subject: 'Hello from Bird',
    html: '<p>My first Bird email.</p>',
);

echo $message->getId(), ' ', $message->getStatus(), "\n";

onboarding@messagebird.dev is Bird's shared onboarding sender and delivered@messagebird.dev is a sandbox recipient that always delivers: no domain verification needed. The SDK infers the region from your key's bk_us1_ / bk_eu1_ prefix (no base URL to configure) and auto-generates an Idempotency-Key per call, so retried sends are safe.

3. Run it

Codebeispiel

php send.php

The script prints the message ID and status:

Codebeispiel

em_01ky7ma8y2es1s2akzk53tmjn0 accepted

accepted is the API's 202: Bird has the message and delivers it asynchronously. Fetch it by its em_ ID with $bird->email->get($message->getId()) and watch the status move to delivered.

Next steps

PHP SDK: the full client, error model, and webhook verification.
Send your first email: creating an API key and the full set of sandbox addresses.
Sending domains: verify your own domain for production sending.
Email API reference: the full request and response schema.