TypeScript · Express

Send an email from an Express 5 POST route with @messagebird/sdk. You'll need a Bird API key — create one in Developers → API keys as covered in Send your first email, then export it as BIRD_API_KEY.

1. Install

Code example

npm install express @messagebird/sdk
# pnpm add express @messagebird/sdk
# yarn add express @messagebird/sdk
# bun add express @messagebird/sdk

2. Send

Create src/server.ts — Express 5 forwards rejections from async handlers to the error middleware, so no try/catch wrapper is needed:

Code example

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

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

app.post("/send", async (req, res) => {
  const msg = await bird.email.send({
    from: "onboarding@messagebird.dev",
    to: ["delivered@messagebird.dev"],
    subject: "Hello from Bird",
    html: "<p>My first Bird email.</p>",
  });

  console.log(msg.id, msg.status); // "em_…", "accepted"
  res.json({ id: msg.id, status: msg.status });
});

app.listen(3000);

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 region is inferred from your key's bk_us1_ / bk_eu1_ prefix, so there's no base URL to configure. The SDK auto-generates an Idempotency-Key per call, so retried sends are safe.

3. Try it

Run the server and POST to the route:

Code example

npx tsx src/server.ts
curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/send

The API responds with 202 — Bird has accepted the message and delivers it asynchronously:

Code example

{
  "id": "em_019c1930687b7bfa8a1b2c3d4e5f6789",
  "status": "accepted"
}

Next steps

TypeScript email SDK — the full email surface: send, get, list, and the error model.
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.