Python

This guide shows how to install and use the official unsent Python SDK.

Installation

Install the SDK from PyPI using pip:

pip install unsent

Initialize

Import the unsent class and initialize the client with your API key.

from unsent import unsent

# Initialize with raise_on_error=False to return errors as tuples
client = unsent("un_xxx", raise_on_error=False)

Send an email

Now you can send an email. The SDK uses TypedDict definitions (like EmailCreate) to provide type hinting in your editor, but at runtime, you simply pass a standard Python dictionary.

Here is an example of sending a simple HTML email:

from unsent import unsent, types

client = unsent("un_xxx")

# Define the email payload
payload: types.EmailCreate = {
    "to": "user@example.com",
    "from": "no-reply@yourdomain.com",
    "subject": "Welcome",
    "html": "<strong>Hello!</strong>",
    "headers": {"X-Campaign": "welcome"},
}

# Send the email
data, err = client.emails.send(payload)

if err:
    print("Error:", err)
else:
    print("Email sent:", data)

Note

Unsent forwards your custom headers to SES. Only the X-Unsent-Email-ID and References headers are managed automatically by Unsent.

Attachments and scheduling

You can also send emails with attachments and schedule them for later delivery.

Attachments: Provide a list of attachments, where each attachment has a filename and content (Base64 encoded string).
Scheduling: Use the scheduledAt field with a datetime object.

from datetime import datetime, timedelta
from unsent import types

payload: types.EmailCreate = {
    "to": ["user1@example.com", "user2@example.com"],
    "from": "no-reply@yourdomain.com",
    "subject": "Report",
    "text": "See attached.",
    "attachments": [
        {"filename": "report.txt", "content": "SGVsbG8gd29ybGQ="},  # Content must be Base64 encoded
    ],
    "scheduledAt": datetime.utcnow() + timedelta(minutes=10), # Schedule for 10 minutes from now
}

data, err = client.emails.create(payload)

Batch send

To send multiple emails efficiently in a single request, use the batch method.

items: list[types.EmailBatchItem] = [
    {"to": "a@example.com", "from": "no-reply@yourdomain.com", "subject": "A", "html": "<p>A</p>"},
    {"to": "b@example.com", "from": "no-reply@yourdomain.com", "subject": "B", "html": "<p>B</p>"},
]

data, err = client.emails.batch(items)

Retrieve and manage emails

You can retrieve details of sent emails, update scheduled emails, or cancel them.

Get an email

Fetch the status and details of a specific email using its ID:

email, err = client.emails.get("email_123")

Update schedule time

Change the scheduled delivery time for a pending email:

from datetime import datetime, timedelta

update: types.EmailUpdate = {"scheduledAt": datetime.utcnow() + timedelta(hours=1)}
data, err = client.emails.update("email_123", update)

Cancel a scheduled email

Cancel a scheduled email so it won't be sent:

data, err = client.emails.cancel("email_123")

Contacts

Manage your contacts and organize them into contact books. All contact operations require a contact book ID (book_id).

Create a contact

Add a new contact to a specific contact book. You can include custom properties.

create: types.ContactCreate = {
    "email": "user@example.com",
    "firstName": "Jane",
    "properties": {"plan": "pro"},
}

data, err = client.contacts.create("book_123", create)

Get a contact

Retrieve a contact's details:

contact, err = client.contacts.get("book_123", "contact_456")

Update a contact

Update a contact's information:

update: types.ContactUpdate = {"subscribed": False}

data, err = client.contacts.update("book_123", "contact_456", update)

Upsert a contact

Use upsert to create a contact if they don't exist, or update them if they do.

upsert: types.ContactUpsert = {
    "email": "user@example.com",
    "firstName": "Jane",
}

data, err = client.contacts.upsert("book_123", "contact_456", upsert)

Delete a contact

Remove a contact from a book:

data, err = client.contacts.delete(book_id="book_123", contact_id="contact_456")

Campaigns

Campaigns allow you to send emails to all contacts in a specific contact book.

Create a campaign

Create a new campaign by defining its content and the target contact book.

campaign: types.CampaignCreate = {
    "name": "Welcome Series",
    "subject": "Welcome!",
    "html": "<p>Thanks for joining us!</p>",
    "from": "welcome@yourdomain.com",
    "contactBookId": "book_123",
}

data, err = client.campaigns.create(campaign)

Schedule a campaign

Schedule the campaign to be sent at a specific time.

schedule: types.CampaignSchedule = {
    "scheduledAt": "2024-12-01T10:00:00Z"
}

data, err = client.campaigns.schedule("campaign_123", schedule)

Pause and Resume

Control the delivery of your campaign.

# Pause
data, err = client.campaigns.pause("campaign_123")

# Resume
data, err = client.campaigns.resume("campaign_123")

Domains

Manage your sending domains.

List domains

Get a list of all domains and their statuses.

data, err = client.domains.list()

Create a domain

domain: types.DomainCreate = {
    "domain": "yourdomain.com",
    "region": "us-east-1",
}

data, err = client.domains.create(domain)

Verify a domain

Check the verification status of a domain.

data, err = client.domains.verify(123)

Error handling

The SDK supports two modes of error handling.

Raising Exceptions (Default)

By default, the client raises unsentHTTPError for non-2xx responses. This is useful for standard exception handling.

from unsent import unsent, unsentHTTPError

# Raises exceptions on errors (default)
client = unsent("un_xxx")

try:
    data, _ = client.emails.get("email_123")
except unsentHTTPError as e:
    print("Request failed:", e)

Returning Error Tuples

If you prefer to check for errors in the return value instead of using try-except blocks, pass raise_on_error=False when initializing the client.

# Returns (None, error) instead of raising
client = unsent("un_xxx", raise_on_error=False)

data, err = client.emails.get("email_123")

if err:
    print("Error:", err)
else:
    print("Success:", data)

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