cURL

Send your first email with nothing but curl: export an API key, POST a message, and GET it back to watch it deliver. This is the raw HTTP flow; everything the SDKs do starts here.

1. Export your API key

Create a key in the dashboard under Developers → API keys (Send your first email walks through it), then export it:

Code example

export BIRD_API_KEY="bk_us1_..."

The region prefix picks your API host: bk_us1_ keys call https://us1.platform.bird.com, bk_eu1_ keys call https://eu1.platform.bird.com. The snippets below use us1; swap the host if your key says otherwise.

2. Send an email

POST to /v1/email/messages, sending from Bird's shared onboarding domain to the delivered@messagebird.dev sandbox address: no domain verification, no real mailbox needed.

const msg = await bird.email.send({
  from: { email: "onboarding@messagebird.dev", name: "Bird" },
  to: ["delivered@messagebird.dev"],
  subject: "Hello from Bird",
  html: "<p>My first Bird email.</p>",
});
console.log(msg.id, msg.status); // "em_…", "accepted"

msg = client.email.send(
    from_={"email": "onboarding@messagebird.dev", "name": "Bird"},
    to=["delivered@messagebird.dev"],
    subject="Hello from Bird",
    html="<p>My first Bird email.</p>",
)
print(msg.id, msg.status)

package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"os"

	bird "github.com/messagebird/bird-sdk-go"
	"github.com/messagebird/bird-sdk-go/option"
)

func main() {
	client, err := bird.NewClient(option.WithAPIKey(os.Getenv("BIRD_API_KEY")))
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	msg, err := client.Email.Send(context.Background(), bird.EmailSendParams{
		From:    "onboarding@messagebird.dev",
		To:      []string{"delivered@messagebird.dev"},
		Subject: "Hello from Bird",
		HTML:    "<p>My first Bird email.</p>",
	})
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Println(msg.Id, *msg.Status)
}

$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();

bird email send \
  --category transactional \
  --cc manager@acme.com \
  --from 'Acme Support <noreply@acme.com>' \
  --header X-Campaign=spring-2026 \
  --html '<h1>Hi there 👋</h1>' \
  --metadata '{"user_id":"usr_12345"}' \
  --reply-to support@acme.com \
  --subject 'Welcome aboard' \
  --tag category=welcome \
  --text 'Hi there' \
  --to 'Jane Doe <delivered@messagebird.dev>' \
  --track-clicks=false

curl -X POST https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/email/messages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BIRD_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "from": "onboarding@messagebird.dev",
    "to": ["delivered@messagebird.dev"],
    "subject": "Hello from Bird",
    "html": "<p>My first Bird email.</p>"
  }'

The API responds with 202 immediately: Bird has accepted the email and delivers it asynchronously. The *_count fields track your recipients through the delivery states; right now one recipient is accepted and none are delivered:

Code example

{
  "id": "em_01ky7ma8y2es1s2akzk53tmjn0",
  "status": "accepted",
  "category": "marketing",
  "from": { "email": "onboarding@messagebird.dev" },
  "to": [{ "email": "delivered@messagebird.dev" }],
  "subject": "Hello from Bird",
  "accepted_count": 1,
  "processed_count": 0,
  "delivered_count": 0,
  "deferred_count": 0,
  "bounced_count": 0,
  "complained_count": 0,
  "rejected_count": 0,
  "open_count": 0,
  "click_count": 0,
  "track_opens": true,
  "track_clicks": true,
  "created_at": "2026-07-23T13:58:20.866Z"
}

Raw HTTP has no SDK generating an idempotency key for you: if you retry a POST after a timeout, add an Idempotency-Key: <your-unique-key> header so the retry replays the original result instead of sending twice. Idempotency has the full semantics.

3. Watch it deliver

GET the message by its em_ ID and watch the status move from accepted through processed to delivered:

const msg = await bird.email.get("em_abc123");
msg.status; // "accepted" | "processed" | "delivered" | "bounced" | …
msg.delivered_count;
msg.bounced_count;

message = client.email.get("em_abc123")
print(message.id, message.status, message.delivered_count)

package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"os"

	bird "github.com/messagebird/bird-sdk-go"
	"github.com/messagebird/bird-sdk-go/option"
)

func main() {
	client, err := bird.NewClient(option.WithAPIKey(os.Getenv("BIRD_API_KEY")))
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	msg, err := client.Email.Get(context.Background(), "em_abc123")
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	fmt.Println(*msg.Status, *msg.DeliveredCount)
}

$message = $bird->email->get('eml_01krdgeqcxet5s7t44vh8rt9mg');
echo $message->getStatus();

bird email get <message-id>

curl https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/email/messages/em_01ky7ma8y2es1s2akzk53tmjn0 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BIRD_API_KEY"

Because the recipient is the delivered@messagebird.dev sandbox address, delivery is guaranteed: the message flows through Bird's real pipeline but never touches a real mailbox.

Next steps

Email API reference: the full request and response schema.
Authentication: keys, scopes, and the Authorization header.
Send your first email: the same flow with the dashboard and SDKs.
Sending domains: verify your own domain for production sending.