What it is
Your app has to tell people things: a password reset, a shipped parcel, a newsletter, a red badge in the corner. notifyd is the small server that does all of it, so your code makes one call and never has to think about providers, rate limits, retries or time zones again.
┌───────────────────────────── notifyd ──────────────────────────────┐
your app ─────▶ │ POST /v1/send ─▶ queue ─▶ priority ─▶ pacing ─▶ retry ─▶ failover │ ─▶ email · sms · whatsapp
│ │ push · in-app · telegram · slack · discord
your agent ───▶ │ POST /mcp ─▶ digest · jobs · retry · suppressions · settings │
└───────────────────────── PostgreSQL only ──────────────────────────┘
- Small and fast. One 12 MB binary, a 14 MB image to pull, 13 MB of RAM idle. It accepts 44 000 notifications per second and drains 3 500 per second on a laptop (method). No Redis, no message broker, no dashboard to host: PostgreSQL is the only dependency.
- Nothing gets lost. A password reset always goes before a campaign. When a provider says "slow down", that channel pauses for exactly the time asked and resumes in priority order; when it fails, a second provider takes over. Retries, idempotency and quiet hours in each recipient's time zone are built in.
- Your providers, your data. Resend, Cloudflare Email, any SMTP, AgentMail, Telnyx, Twilio, smsmode, APNs, Web Push, FCM. Self-hosted, MIT.
- Operated by an API or an AI agent. No admin UI: a digest endpoint says what needs attention and what to do, and the same operations are MCP tools, so the person on call can be an agent.
Three instances run in production today, one per company, operated this way.
Send in one call
curl -X POST https://notifyd.example.com/v1/send \
-H "X-Api-Key: sk_myapp_xxx" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"channels": ["email", "in_app"],
"subscriber_id": "user-1",
"subject": "Your report is ready",
"body": "Hey {{first_name}}, the analysis you requested is complete.",
"vars": {"first_name": "Alice"},
"priority": "normal",
"idempotency_key": "report-42-ready"
}'
Flat REST, curl works; TypeScript and Python clients
exist. Retries are safe (idempotency_key), scheduling is a field
(scheduled_at), a marketing campaign is POST /v1/batch with thousands of
subscribers per call and it lands in the bulk lane so it never delays a
password reset. Follow any send with GET /v1/jobs/:id. Runnable examples in
every language: examples/.
Run it from a terminal
The same binary is the operator's CLI, against any instance (the server host
has ADMIN_API_KEY in its environment, so it just works there):
notifyd digest # what needs attention, with the action for each finding
notifyd jobs --status failed # --project, --channel, --topic, --recipient, --since 24h, --limit, --json
notifyd job <id> # provider, attempts, delivery events
notifyd retry <id> # re-queue after fixing the cause
notifyd send-test --project myapp --channel email --to [email protected]
NOTIFYD_URL=https://notifyd.example.com NOTIFYD_ADMIN_API_KEY=… notifyd digest # from your laptop
Let your agent run it
Most notification tools were designed for a human clicking through a dashboard. notifyd exposes the operator's job as tools, with the detail a human operator would need:
1. One call says what needs attention. GET /v1/admin/digest ranks
findings and tells you the action for each one, in JSON or Markdown:
# notifyd digest — last 1d
Instance: commit e14e6f3, up 3d, email resend (+ smtp fallback), sms telnyx
## Findings
- **warning** — Primary email provider `resend` is resting for 47s after refusing messages; `smtp` is delivering.
_Nothing lost. Check the primary provider's status page; if it repeats, lower EMAIL_RATE_PER_SEC or move the primary role to the other provider._
- **warning** — Bounce rate 5.3 % over the window (14 bounced / 263 delivered).
_Above 5 % providers throttle or suspend the sender. Clean the recipient list; suppressions are applied automatically._
- **warning** — 3 job(s) failed in the last 1d (0.1 % of terminal jobs). Top cause: 422 unverified sender domain.
_Inspect with list_jobs(status=failed); permanent errors need a fix on the caller side, then retry_job._
## Queue pending 0, retry 2, processing 0
## Outcomes email/resend 4 812 sent, 3 failed · in_app 1 203 sent
## Latency email p50 0.6s, p95 2.1s (scheduled → accepted by provider)
## Deliverability delivered 4 790, bounced 14, complained 0, unsubscribed 9
2. The same operations as MCP tools. POST /mcp is a Streamable HTTP
MCP server (current spec revision, legacy initialize kept). Add it to Claude
Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or your own agent:
{ "mcpServers": { "notifyd": {
"type": "http", "url": "https://notifyd.example.com/mcp",
"headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer ${NOTIFYD_ADMIN_API_KEY}" } } } }
Every tool carries readOnlyHint / destructiveHint annotations and an
outputSchema. A read-only operator key (READONLY_API_KEY) exposes only
the read tools, for an agent that reports but must not act. Every MCP call is
audited.
3. The digest comes to you. DIGEST_NOTIFY=telegram:<chat id> (or a
Slack / Discord webhook) and the findings above land in your chat when
something needs attention; notifyd digest --to telegram:… sends one now.
4. Everything an agent needs to integrate is in the repo. docs/llms.txt
is the whole API in plain text for a context window; three Agent Skills
ship in skills/ (notifyd-operate, notifyd-integrate,
notifyd-deploy):
npx skills add rmzlb/notifyd
Published on the official MCP registry as mcp-name: io.github.rmzlb/notifyd
(server.json). Full operator guide: docs/AGENT.md.
Features
Channels
- Email — Resend, Cloudflare Email Service, AgentMail, any SMTP (
lettre), attachments, per-project sender identity - SMS — Telnyx, Twilio or smsmode, swap with one variable
- RCS — smsmode (
BASIC/TEXTauto-selection, quick replies, click-to-call, rich cards and carousels) - WhatsApp — Telnyx
- Push — APNs natively (
.p8token auth, HTTP/2, badge, sound, thread id, silent pushes, dead tokens dropped), Web Push (VAPID), FCM - In-app inbox — REST + realtime SSE (
EventSource), read / archive / star, unread badge, multi-replica through PostgresNOTIFY
Delivery engine
- Priorities —
critical,normal,bulklanes;/v1/batchand campaign tags land inbulk - Pacing — token bucket per channel (
EMAIL_RATE_PER_SEC); a provider 429 pauses that channel forRetry-Afterwithout consuming an attempt, other channels keep flowing, and when it resumes the claim order putscriticalfirst - Retries — 30 s → 2 m → 10 m → 30 m → 2 h with jitter, 4xx fail fast, rejected batches fall back item by item
- Failover — second email provider with a circuit breaker (
EMAIL_FALLBACK_PROVIDER) - Send windows — quiet hours per project, evaluated in each subscriber's timezone
- Segments —
batchto "plan = pro and country in FR, BE" with a small filter vocabulary compiled to bound SQL; preview the count first - Scheduling, idempotency, stuck-job reaper, batch idempotency
Governance
- Unsubscribe — RFC 8058
List-Unsubscribeone-click on every marketing email, suppression scopesall/marketing - Topics and preferences — a
topicon any send ("tips", "billing"); subscribers opt out per topic and channel, honoured at enqueue; the unsubscribe page offers "this topic only" before "all marketing" - Multi-project — one instance, many projects, isolated by API key, key rotation with a grace period
- PII masking in logs, audit log of every mutation, per-project rate limit
Operations
- Digest, MCP server, Agent Skills,
llms.txt - Metrics —
/v1/metrics,/v1/metrics/prometheus, per-template metrics - Open and click tracking — own pixel and signed redirect links for every email provider, on marketing email by default (transactional links stay untouched),
opened_at/clicked_aton the job, off per project or per request - Webhooks — delivery events to your endpoints
- Workflows — event-triggered multi-step sequences, state in Postgres
- Templates —
{{variable}}substitution, stored per project
Quick Start
Docker (recommended)
The image reads its configuration from environment variables; no config file to mount.
git clone https://github.com/rmzlb/notifyd.git && cd notifyd
cat > .env <<'EOF'
JWT_SECRET=change-me-32-random-chars-minimum
ADMIN_API_KEY=change-me-32-random-chars-minimum
RESEND_API_KEY=re_xxx
[email protected]
EOF
docker compose up -d # notifyd + Postgres 16, http://localhost:3400
Create a project and get its API key:
curl -s -X POST http://localhost:3400/v1/admin/projects \
-H "X-Api-Key: $ADMIN_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"id":"myapp","name":"My app","channels":["email","in_app"],"from_email":"[email protected]"}'
# → {"project": {"id": "myapp", "api_key": "sk_myapp_…", …}}
Prebuilt image, linux/amd64 and linux/arm64: ghcr.io/rmzlb/notifyd.
Binary, crate, Nix or source
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/rmzlb/notifyd/releases/latest/download/notifyd-installer.sh | sh
brew install rmzlb/tap/notifyd # macOS and Linux, Homebrew
cargo binstall notifyd # prebuilt from the GitHub release
cargo install notifyd # build from crates.io
nix run github:rmzlb/notifyd # flake: packages, devShell, NixOS module
# then
DATABASE_URL=postgres://notifyd:pass@localhost:5432/notifyd \
JWT_SECRET=… ADMIN_API_KEY=… RESEND_API_KEY=… EMAIL_FROM=… notifyd
Release binaries: Linux x86_64 and aarch64, macOS Intel and Apple Silicon.
NixOS: services.notifyd.enable = true; with an environmentFile (see
flake.nix).
No provider yet? EMAIL_PROVIDER=log prints emails instead of sending them.
Verify
curl http://localhost:3400/v1/health
# → {"status":"ok","db":"ok","version":"0.2.2","commit":"…","uptime_seconds":12}
→ Full setup, TOML alternative, production notes: docs/SETUP.md
API at a glance
Project endpoints take X-Api-Key: sk_<project>_…; operator endpoints take
the admin (or read-only) key, as X-Api-Key or Authorization: Bearer.
Inbox endpoints also accept a subscriber JWT.
→ Every endpoint with examples: docs/API.md, or feed docs/llms.txt to your agent.
vs. the alternatives
Every number in this table was measured by us; the Novu figures come from its own community docker-compose, idle, on the same machine and with the same tool as ours. Method, hardware and bias disclaimer in docs/BENCHMARKS.md.
Clients
Both clients cover the whole API (send, batch, jobs, subscribers, preferences, templates, workflows, suppressions, inbox) and raise a typed error on any non-2xx answer.
TypeScript / JavaScript — npm i github:rmzlb/notifyd until the notifyd-sdk package lands on npm this week; the package name and the import below do not change (Node 18+, browsers, edge runtimes; zero dependencies)
import { createNotifydClient } from 'notifyd-sdk';
const notifyd = createNotifydClient({ url: process.env.NOTIFYD_URL!, apiKey: process.env.NOTIFYD_API_KEY! });
const { jobIds } = await notifyd.send({
channels: ['email', 'in_app'], subscriberId: 'user-42',
subject: 'Your order shipped', body: 'Hi {{first_name}}, parcel {{parcel}} is on its way.',
vars: { first_name: 'Alice', parcel: 'FR-2041' }, idempotencyKey: 'order-2041-shipped',
});
const job = await notifyd.getJob(jobIds[0]); // status, provider, attempts, delivery events
// Browser inbox: subscriber token from your backend, live updates over EventSource
const inbox = createNotifydClient({ url, subscriberToken });
const stream = await inbox.openInboxStream('user-42', { onMessage: (e) => {
const event = JSON.parse(e.data);
if (event.type === 'new_notification') showToast(event.notification);
if (event.type === 'count_update') updateBadge(event.unread_count);
} });
Python — pip install "git+https://github.com/rmzlb/notifyd.git#subdirectory=clients/python" until notifyd-sdk lands on PyPI this week (3.9+, sync and asyncio, httpx only) — clients/python
from notifyd import Notifyd
nd = Notifyd(os.environ["NOTIFYD_URL"], api_key=os.environ["NOTIFYD_API_KEY"])
result = nd.send(channels=["email", "in_app"], subscriber_id="user-42",
subject="Your order shipped", body="Hi {{first_name}}, parcel {{parcel}} is on its way.",
vars={"first_name": "Alice", "parcel": "FR-2041"}, idempotency_key="order-2041-shipped")
print(nd.get_job(result["job_ids"][0])["status"])
Any other language: the API is flat JSON over HTTP and docs/llms.txt is the whole contract on one page.
Workflows
Multi-step sequences triggered by an event, state in Postgres, survive restarts. Steps run in order; a condition jumps to a step index.
curl -X POST http://localhost:3400/v1/workflows -H "X-Api-Key: sk_myapp_xxx" -d '{
"id": "welcome-series", "name": "Welcome series", "trigger_event": "user.signup",
"steps": [
{"type": "send", "channel": "email", "template": "welcome"},
{"type": "delay", "duration_secs": 86400},
{"type": "condition", "field": "payload.plan", "operator": "eq", "value": "pro", "on_true": 4},
{"type": "send", "channel": "email", "template": "nudge"}
]}'
curl -X POST http://localhost:3400/v1/workflows/trigger -H "X-Api-Key: sk_myapp_xxx" \
-d '{"event": "user.signup", "subscriber_id": "user-42", "payload": {"plan": "free"}}'
Step types: send, delay, condition (inbox.is_read or payload.<key>)
and digest (collect events for a while, then send one message). Full
script: examples/welcome-series.sh.
Configuration
Environment variables are the primary interface (that is what the image and
the compose file use); a notifyd.toml is accepted for local development.
Required: DATABASE_URL, JWT_SECRET, ADMIN_API_KEY. Then one provider:
→ Every variable, per provider: docs/CONNECTORS.md and docker-compose.yml. TOML reference: notifyd.toml.example.
Architecture
┌──────────────────────── notifyd (one binary) ───────────────────────┐
HTTP /v1, /mcp ─▶ axum API ─▶ jobs table ─▶ worker: claim (SKIP LOCKED, by priority) │
│ ├─ pacer per channel, channel pause on 429│
│ ├─ connectors (email/sms/whatsapp/push/in-app)
│ ├─ failover breaker, retries, reaper │
│ └─ webhooks, metrics, audit │
│ SSE hub ◀── Postgres NOTIFY ── (any replica) │
└───────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
▼
PostgreSQL 16
src/
├── api/ # routes: send, batch, jobs, inbox, subscribers, templates, workflows, webhooks, admin ops, health
├── connectors/ # email (resend, cloudflare, smtp, agentmail, log), sms, whatsapp, push, in_app
├── worker.rs # claim by priority, batch context, finalize, retries, failover
├── pacing.rs # token buckets and channel pauses
├── failover.rs # provider circuit breaker
├── ops.rs # digest, findings, operator actions
├── mcp.rs # MCP server (tools, annotations, audit)
├── send_window.rs # quiet hours in the subscriber's timezone
├── unsubscribe.rs # List-Unsubscribe tokens and landing
├── sse.rs # inbox stream, Postgres NOTIFY fan-out
├── workflow_engine.rs, templates.rs, webhooks.rs, deliverability.rs, metrics.rs, pii.rs, middleware.rs
migrations/ # SQL, applied at start-up
skills/ # Agent Skills: operate, integrate, deploy
server.json # MCP registry entry
flake.nix # Nix package, devShell, NixOS module
dist-workspace.toml # cargo-dist: release binaries and installer
~14 000 lines of Rust, no unsafe. 12 MB binary (16 MB static musl in the image), 14 MB image to pull and 31 MB on disk, 13 MB RSS
idle, 23 MB while draining 100 000 jobs. → docs/ARCHITECTURE.md
Status
notifyd is a 0.x running in production for three companies. Not done yet: Swift and Kotlin packages; no dashboard, A/B testing or inbound email by design. Order and sizes in docs/ROADMAP.md. Breaking changes are announced in release notes; the queue schema is migrated automatically.
Documentation
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome; good first issue is the place to
start, and big features begin with an issue. Read CONTRIBUTING.md.
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/notifyd.git && cd notifyd
cargo test && EMAIL_PROVIDER=log DATABASE_URL=… JWT_SECRET=dev ADMIN_API_KEY=dev cargo run
License
MIT.