65 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
65 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
---
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title: Introduction
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description: Get started with Plunk
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---
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## What is Plunk?
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Plunk is an open-source email platform built on AWS SES. It provides a complete solution for transactional emails, marketing campaigns, and automated workflows—everything you need to manage email communications at scale.
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## What you can build
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### Send transactional emails
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Send password resets, order confirmations, and notifications via API with template support and variable substitution.
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```javascript
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await fetch('{{API_URL}}/v1/send', {
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method: 'POST',
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headers: {
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'Authorization': 'Bearer sk_your_secret_key',
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'Content-Type': 'application/json'
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},
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body: JSON.stringify({
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to: 'user@example.com',
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subject: 'Welcome {{name}}!',
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body: '<h1>Hello {{name}}</h1><p>Thanks for signing up.</p>',
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data: { name: 'John' }
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})
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});
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```
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### Run marketing campaigns
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Send newsletters and product updates to segments of your audience. Schedule sends or deliver immediately.
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### Automate email sequences
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Build drip campaigns, onboarding flows, and behavior-triggered emails with the visual workflow builder.
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## Core concepts
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**Contacts** — People in your audience. Each has an email, subscription status, and custom data fields.
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**Templates** — Reusable email designs. Marketing templates respect subscription status; transactional templates always send.
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**Segments** — Dynamic groups based on contact data. Update automatically as data changes.
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**Campaigns** — One-time email broadcasts to all contacts, a segment, or filtered audience.
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**Workflows** — Automated sequences with delays, conditions, and event triggers.
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**Events** — Track user actions (signups, purchases) to trigger workflows and build segments.
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## Authentication
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Each project has two API keys:
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- **Secret Key (sk_*)** — Server-side only. Required for all endpoints except event tracking.
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- **Public Key (pk_*)** — Client-side safe. Only works with `/v1/track` for event tracking.
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Never expose secret keys in frontend code.
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## Next steps
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- [Quick Start](/getting-started/quick-start) — Send your first email in 5 minutes
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- [Authentication](/getting-started/authentication) — Understand API keys
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- [API Reference](/api-reference/overview) — Explore all endpoints
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