Automations

Sendry Automations let you fire an event from your app and have Sendry run a multi-step workflow per contact — send an email, wait, branch on a condition, or split into an A/B test.

A typical use case: a user signs up, your backend fires user.signed_up, and Sendry automatically sends a welcome email, waits a day, then sends a tips email.

Automations are available on the Pro plan and above. The Free plan does not include automations.

Concepts

Trigger types

Re-entry policies

Status

Quickstart

1. Create an automation

In the dashboard, open Automations and click New Automation. The visual builder lets you drop in a trigger and chain steps without writing JSON.

You can also create one via the API:

curl -X POST https://api.sendry.online/v1/automations \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDRY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Welcome series",
    "trigger": {
      "type": "event",
      "event_name": "user.signed_up"
    },
    "reentry_policy": "once_per_contact"
  }'

2. Add steps

Build a sequence: send a welcome email, wait one day, send a follow-up tip.

# Step 1: welcome email
curl -X POST https://api.sendry.online/v1/automations/auto_abc123/steps \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDRY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "send_email",
    "config": {
      "from": "Acme <hello@acme.com>",
      "subject": "Welcome to Acme, {{first_name}}!",
      "html": "<h1>Hi {{first_name}}</h1><p>Glad you joined.</p>",
      "message_type": "marketing"
    }
  }'

# Step 2: wait 24 hours
curl -X POST https://api.sendry.online/v1/automations/auto_abc123/steps \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDRY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "wait",
    "config": { "duration_seconds": 86400 }
  }'

# Step 3: tips email
curl -X POST https://api.sendry.online/v1/automations/auto_abc123/steps \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDRY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "send_email",
    "config": {
      "template_id": "tpl_tips_day1",
      "from": "Acme <hello@acme.com>",
      "message_type": "marketing"
    }
  }'

3. Activate it

curl -X PATCH https://api.sendry.online/v1/automations/auto_abc123 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDRY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "status": "active" }'

4. Fire the event from your app

Whenever a user signs up, send the event. Sendry looks up (or creates) the contact by contact_email and starts a run.

await sendry.events.send({
  name: "user.signed_up",
  contact_email: "jane@acme.com",
  properties: { plan: "pro", first_name: "Jane" },
});

client.events.send(
    name="user.signed_up",
    contact_email="jane@acme.com",
    properties={"plan": "pro", "first_name": "Jane"},
)

curl -X POST https://api.sendry.online/v1/events \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SENDRY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "user.signed_up",
    "contact_email": "jane@acme.com",
    "properties": {"plan": "pro", "first_name": "Jane"}
  }'

That's it — Sendry handles the rest. Inspect runs in the dashboard or via GET /v1/automations/:id/runs.

Step type reference

Each step has a type and a config object whose shape depends on the type.

send_email

Sends an email to the contact triggering the run. Either template_id or both subject and a body (html/text) must be provided.

Variables in the body use {{variable_name}} syntax. Available by default: contact fields (first_name, email, etc.) and the event properties payload.

wait

Pauses the run for a fixed duration.

Common values: 3600 (1 hour), 86400 (1 day), 604800 (1 week).

branch

Splits the run path based on a condition. The next step continues if the condition is true; otherwise the run ends (or jumps to a configured "else" branch in the visual builder).

Condition operators:

Properties are looked up first in the event payload, then on the contact.

{
  "type": "branch",
  "config": {
    "condition": {
      "op": "property_eq",
      "property": "plan",
      "value": "pro"
    }
  }
}

ab_split

Splits incoming runs between two paths by weight. Useful for A/B-testing subject lines or content.

{
  "type": "ab_split",
  "config": {
    "split": { "a": 50, "b": 50 },
    "seed": "subject-test-2026-q1"
  }
}

API reference

All automation endpoints require Authorization: Bearer <api_key>. Mutation endpoints require full_access scope; reads accept read_only and above.

Event payload

{
  "name": "user.signed_up",
  "contact_email": "jane@acme.com",
  "properties": {
    "plan": "pro",
    "first_name": "Jane"
  }
}

Run object

{
  "id": "run_abc123",
  "automation_id": "auto_abc123",
  "contact_id": "ct_xyz789",
  "status": "in_progress",
  "current_step_index": 1,
  "started_at": "2026-05-10T09:00:00Z",
  "completed_at": null,
  "next_run_at": "2026-05-11T09:00:00Z"
}

Run status values: in_progress, completed, cancelled, failed.

Use cases

• Welcome drip — user.signed_up → welcome email → wait 1 day → tips email → wait 3 days → "ready to upgrade?" email.
• Cart abandonment — cart.abandoned → wait 1 hour → reminder email → wait 24 hours → discount email (branch on cart.recovered).
• Post-purchase follow-up — order.delivered → wait 3 days → "how was it?" email → wait 7 days → review request.
• Behavioral onboarding — feature.first_used → contextual tip email; feature.unused_after_7_days → nudge email.
• Re-engagement — contact_added_to_segment (segment: "inactive 30 days") → re-engagement email → branch on email.clicked.

Plan limits

Related

• Send email API — used by send_email steps under the hood.
• Templates API — manage template_id references.
• Visual Editor — build the templates referenced by automation steps.