Quickstart

⏰ Estimated setup & testing time: 15min.

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1. Sign Up and Get API Keys

• Keep these credentials secure as they’ll be used for all API requests

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2. Create an Email Address

You have two options to create your A1Mail email address:

curl --location 'https://api.a1base.com/v1/emails/{account_id}/create-email' \
--header 'X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
--header 'X-API-Secret: YOUR_API_SECRET' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
    "address": "hello",
    "domain_name": "a1send.com"
}'

Note: Email addresses must be between 5 and 30 characters long.

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3. Test Your New Inbox - Set Up Webhook for Receiving Emails

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Overview

To receive incoming emails, you’ll need to configure a webhook that will notify your application when new emails arrive. This section guides you through setting up and testing webhooks in your development environment.

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3.1. Create a Webhook Endpoint

First, create an endpoint in your application to receive email notifications. You can use one of our example snippets below or create your own.

from flask import Flask, request, jsonify

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/webhook/email', methods=['POST'])
def email_webhook():
    # Get the webhook payload
    data = request.json        
    
    # Process the incoming email
    print(f"Received email: {data['subject']} from {data['sender_address']}")
    
    # Access specific parts of the email
    email_id = data.get('email_id')
    subject = data.get('subject')
    sender = data.get('sender_address')
    recipient = data.get('recipient_address')
    timestamp = data.get('timestamp')
    raw_email = data.get('raw_email_data')
    
    # Your logic here
    # ...
    
    # Return a success response
    return jsonify({"status": "success"}), 200

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(debug=True, port=5000)

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3.2 Expose Your Local Webhook Endpoint

To receive emails in your inbox, you need to expose your local webhook endpoint to the internet. You can use ngrok to do this. Run the following command in your CLI to start ngrok:

ngrok http 3000

After starting ngrok

1. Find the forwarding URL in the ngrok output:

   Forwarding https://0fcbcda91e79.ngrok.app -> http://localhost:3000
   

2. Create the full webhook URL by appending your webhook endpoint path:

   https://0fcbcda91e79.ngrok.app/webhook/email
   

3. Use this complete URL in the A1Mail dashboard webhook settings.

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3.3 Register Your Webhook in the Dashboard

Once you have your webhook URL, you need to register it in the A1Mail dashboard:

1. Log in to your A1Base Dashboard
2. Navigate to the Email Settings section
3. Find your email address and click “Configure Webhook”
4. Enter your full webhook URL (e.g., https://0fcbcda91e79.ngrok.app/webhook/email)
5. Click “Save Changes”

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3.4 Test Your Webhook

Send a test email to your inbox and check if the webhook is receiving the email notifications.

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4. Send Your First Email

Now that you’ve confirmed your inbox can receive emails, you can start sending emails as that email address.

curl --location 'https://api.a1base.com/v1/emails/{account_id}/send' \
--header 'X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
--header 'X-API-Secret: YOUR_API_SECRET' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
    "from": "[email protected]",
    "to": "[email protected]",
    "subject": "My First A1Mail Email",
    "text": "Hello from my AI agent! This is my first email sent through A1Mail."
}'

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5. In Summary

To ensure everything is working correctly:

1. Send a test email to your new A1Mail address from your personal email
2. Check that your webhook receives the incoming email notification
3. Respond to the email using the A1Mail API

Now that you’ve set up basic email functionality, explore more advanced features:

• Sending HTML Emails
• Setting Up Custom Mail Domains
• Email Webhook Security

With these steps completed, your AI agent now has a fully functional email inbox! You can send and receive emails programmatically, enabling your agent to communicate with users through email.