Transactional

Quick Start

Send your first transactional email in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  1. A Transactional account (sign up free)
  2. A verified domain for sending emails
  3. An API key from your dashboard

Step 1: Create an Email Server

An email server is a logical container for your emails. Create one from the dashboard:

  1. Go to Email > Servers
  2. Click Create Server
  3. Enter a name (e.g., "Production" or "My App")
  4. Click Create

Step 2: Set Up a Message Stream

Each server has message streams to separate different types of emails:

  1. Open your newly created server
  2. Go to the Streams tab
  3. You'll see a default Transactional stream already created
  4. This stream is configured for transactional emails (welcome emails, receipts, etc.)

Step 3: Add a Sender Identity

You need a verified sender address to send emails:

  1. Go to Senders in your server
  2. Click Add Sender
  3. Enter your sender email (e.g., hello@yourdomain.com)
  4. Verify the domain by adding DNS records

Step 4: Generate an API Key

  1. Go to API Keys in your server
  2. Click Create API Key
  3. Copy and securely store your API key

Step 5: Send Your First Email

Using the TypeScript SDK

Install the SDK:

npm install transactional-sdk

Send an email:

import { Transactional } from 'transactional-sdk';
 
const client = new Transactional({
  apiKey: process.env.TRANSACTIONAL_API_KEY,
});
 
async function sendWelcomeEmail() {
  const result = await client.emails.send({
    from: 'hello@yourdomain.com',
    to: 'user@example.com',
    subject: 'Welcome to our platform!',
    html: `
      <h1>Welcome!</h1>
      <p>Thanks for signing up. We're excited to have you.</p>
    `,
  });
 
  console.log('Email sent:', result.messageId);
}
 
sendWelcomeEmail();

Using cURL

curl -X POST https://api.usetransactional.com/v1/emails/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "from": "hello@yourdomain.com",
    "to": "user@example.com",
    "subject": "Welcome to our platform!",
    "html": "<h1>Welcome!</h1><p>Thanks for signing up.</p>"
  }'

Step 6: Verify Delivery

After sending, you can:

  1. Check the Activity tab in your server to see the email
  2. View delivery status (sent, delivered, opened, clicked)
  3. See any bounce or error information

What's Next?

Now that you've sent your first email, explore more features: