First event → first email

This is the public, ten-minute path from one event to one email. It uses the same purchase_completed payload as the homepage developer example, posted to the real ingest endpoint with a secret API key.

You will: create an API key, connect an email channel, author a template, build an event-triggered campaign, then fire the event with curl or Postman. Signup includes 100 free credits (email costs 1 credit per successful send; failed sends are free).

What you need

• An EngageApp account.
• SMTP, SES, Mailgun, or SendGrid credentials for email.
• curl or Postman.

1. Create a secret API key (~1 min)

Go to Settings → API keys and create a secret key (df_…). Copy it once. Send it as X-API-Key — not Authorization: Bearer. Publishable pk_… keys are rejected on this endpoint.

2. Connect email (~2 min)

Go to Channels → New → Email. Set from name and from address, pick your provider, save. Until a channel exists, campaigns have nowhere to send.

3. Author a one-email template (~2 min)

Go to Templates → New, choose Email, and write a short message. {{ first_name }} and event properties such as {{ event.properties.amount }} resolve at send time when the trigger snapshot includes them.

4. Build the journey: event → send (~3 min)

1. Open Campaigns → New (blank is fine).
2. Set the trigger to Event with name purchase_completed — the same name the homepage example uses.
3. Add a send message step that uses the email channel and template from steps 2–3.
4. Activate the campaign. Draft campaigns do not enroll.

5. POST the event (curl or Postman) (~2 min)

Ingest is POST https://api.engageapp.xyz/api/v1/public/events. The body is a batch: wrap the homepage fields in an events array. Include email so EngageApp can create a mailable contact from external_id (the homepage snippet omits email because it is illustrating ingest, not the first send).

curl -X POST https://api.engageapp.xyz/api/v1/public/events \
  -H "X-API-Key: df_your_secret_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "events": [
      {
        "external_id": "usr_9f8a2b",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "event_name": "purchase_completed",
        "properties": { "amount": 149, "plan": "pro" }
      }
    ]
  }'

Success looks like { "ingested": 1 }. In Postman: POST the same URL, header X-API-Key, raw JSON body as above.

6. Confirm the email went out

Open Events — you should see purchase_completed. Then open the campaign's analytics or delivery log. The first successful email costs 1 credit. If the send fails, no credit is taken.

If nothing sends

• Campaign still draft — activate it.
• Event name mismatch — trigger and payload must both be purchase_completed.
• No email on the contact — include email on the event (or upsert the contact first).
• Channel credentials rejected — check the email channel; failed sends stay free.
• Wrong path or auth — ingest is https://api.engageapp.xyz/api/v1/public/events with X-API-Key. POST /api/v1/events lists events in the dashboard; it does not ingest.

Next steps

• For a store, swap purchase_completed for checkout.started and clone Cart recovery — wait_until order.placed so buyers are not emailed.
• Read events and triggers.
• Add SMS or WhatsApp on the same journey once email works.