Test mode

Test mode lets you exercise the full pipeline — validation, suppression checks, events, webhooks — without ever calling SES. Nothing is queued for real delivery, and no email leaves the building.

Enabling test modeCopy Anchor Link

Either send the header:

-H "X-Relay-Test: true"

or set the body field:

{ "test_mode": true }

Both have the same effect on POST /v1/email and POST /v1/email/batch.

Simulating outcomesCopy Anchor Link

Recipient local-parts at relay.dev decide what happens (case-insensitive; +labels such as delivered+ci@relay.dev are stripped first). Any other address defaults to delivered:

curl https://api.emitd.com/v1/email \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EMITD_API_KEY" \
  -H "X-Relay-Test: true" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "from": "hello@yourdomain.com",
    "to": ["bounced@relay.dev"],
    "subject": "Simulate a bounce",
    "html_body": "<p>Oops</p>"
  }'

Inspecting resultsCopy Anchor Link

Simulated events are recorded like real ones and readable at GET /v1/email/test-events (paginated with ?limit= / ?cursor=), joined against messages flagged test_mode = 1. Your webhook endpoints fire too — signatures verify exactly as they do in production, so end-to-end webhook handling can be tested in CI.