> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://ahasend.com/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. > ## Agent Instructions > AhaSend stores all message data in the EU. See /facts. > The API base URL is https://api.ahasend.com. Send the API key in the Authorization: Bearer header. See /api-reference/authentication. > Use send.ahasend.com for SMTP. Ports 25, 587 and 2525 use STARTTLS. Port 465 is not supported. See /smtp. > For send-only integrations, create an API Key v2 under Credentials → Add and scope it to messages:send:{your-domain}. See /send-api/credentials and /api-reference/scopes. # Create a Contact via the API > Create one contact in your AhaSend account with its name, status, unsubscribe choice and attributes. The new contact is on no list until you add it to one. The AhaSend API creates one account-global contact. Access requires `contacts:write`. Only `email` is required. The API trims it and changes it to lowercase. An email address that another contact of the account already has is refused with `409`. **Fields:** * `status` is `enabled` when you leave it out or send `null`. * `unsubscribed: true` creates the contact as unsubscribed account-wide, and sets `unsubscribed_at` to the current UTC time. Campaigns do not send to an unsubscribed contact. * `attributes` must use the keys and types that you defined in the dashboard, and a value cannot be `null`. See [Attributes](/docs/api-reference/contacts/overview#attributes). * `validation_status` and `last_validated_at` are read-only. The new contact is on no list, so a campaign cannot reach it yet. To add it to a list, use [Add or Update a List Contact](/docs/api-reference/lists/upsert-list-contact) or [Batch Add List Contacts](/docs/api-reference/lists/batch-add-list-contacts). Create Contact does not read or change suppressions. This operation accepts an `Idempotency-Key` header. The API stores a `201`, a `400` and a `409` for a duplicate contact for 24 hours, and replays them for a retry with the same key. A `409` with `Idempotent-Replayed: false` and `Retry-After` means a request with the same key is still in progress. See [Idempotency](/docs/api-reference/idempotency). ## Related Guides * [API authentication](/docs/api-reference/authentication), [Permission scopes](/docs/api-reference/scopes), [Idempotency](/docs/api-reference/idempotency). * [Contacts API overview](/docs/api-reference/contacts/overview), [Batch Upsert Contacts](/docs/api-reference/contacts/batch-upsert-contacts), [API errors](/docs/api-reference/errors), [API rate limits](/docs/api-reference/rate-limits). ## OpenAPI ````yaml openapi.yaml POST /v2/accounts/{account_id}/contacts openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: AhaSend API v2 description: > The AhaSend API v2 allows you to send transactional emails, manage domains, webhooks, routes, API keys, and view statistics. ## Authentication All API requests must be authenticated using a Bearer token in the Authorization header: ``` Authorization: Bearer aha-sk-64-CHARACTER-RANDOM-STRING ``` ## Scopes API keys have specific scopes that control access to different resources and actions: ### Message Scopes - `messages:send:all` - Send messages from any domain in the account - `messages:send:{domain}` - Send messages from a specific domain - `messages:cancel:all` - Cancel messages from any domain - `messages:cancel:{domain}` - Cancel messages from a specific domain - `messages:read:all` - Read messages from any domain - `messages:read:{domain}` - Read messages from a specific domain ### Domain Scopes - `domains:read` - Read all domains - `domains:write` - Create and update domains - `domains:delete:all` - Delete any domain - `domains:delete:{domain}` - Delete a specific domain ### Account Scopes - `accounts:read` - Read account information - `accounts:write` - Update account settings - `accounts:billing` - Access billing information - `accounts:members:read` - Read account members - `accounts:members:add` - Add account members - `accounts:members:update` - Update account members - `accounts:members:remove` - Remove account members ### Webhook Scopes - `webhooks:read:all` - Read all webhooks - `webhooks:read:{domain}` - Read webhooks for a specific domain - `webhooks:write:all` - Create and update webhooks - `webhooks:write:{domain}` - Create and update webhooks for a specific domain - `webhooks:delete:all` - Delete any webhook - `webhooks:delete:{domain}` - Delete webhooks for a specific domain ### Route Scopes - `routes:read:all` - Read all routes - `routes:read:{domain}` - Read routes for a specific domain - `routes:write:all` - Create and update routes - `routes:write:{domain}` - Create and update routes for a specific domain - `routes:delete:all` - Delete any route - `routes:delete:{domain}` - Delete routes for a specific domain ### Suppression Scopes - `suppressions:read` - Read suppressions - `suppressions:write` - Create suppressions - `suppressions:delete` - Delete suppressions - `suppressions:wipe` - Delete the account's suppressions except protected ones (dangerous) ### Template Scopes - `templates:read` - Read transactional templates, their drafts and their published versions, and campaign templates - `templates:write` - Create and update transactional templates, and publish, discard and restore their drafts; create and update campaign templates - `templates:delete` - Delete transactional templates and campaign templates ### Campaign Scopes - `campaigns:read` - Read campaigns, their stats and their recipients - `campaigns:write` - Create, update and duplicate campaigns - `campaigns:delete` - Delete draft campaigns - `campaigns:send` - Send, unschedule and test-send campaigns ### Contact Scopes - `contacts:read` - Read contacts - `contacts:write` - Create and update contacts - `contacts:delete` - Delete contacts ### Contact lifecycle and attributes Contacts are account-global. A contact created through this API joins no list on its own; campaigns target lists, so add it to one with the Lists endpoints before a campaign can reach it. Contact subscription state and suppression records are independent: creating, updating, unsubscribing, resubscribing, or deleting a contact never creates, changes, or removes complaint, permanent, or protected suppressions. Prefer unsubscribe over delete when the goal is only to stop marketing mail, because unsubscribe is reversible and preserves contact history. Writable attribute keys and types come from the account's contact-attribute definitions managed in the dashboard; this API does not expose property definition CRUD. Writes accept only canonical values for those definitions, while reads remain legacy-safe and can return any recursively nested JSON value previously stored. An email used as `{id_or_email}` is a raw SDK argument and must be percent-encoded exactly once as a URL path segment by an HTTP client. For example, do not pre-encode `user+tag@example.com` before passing it to an SDK that encodes path parameters. ### List Scopes - `lists:read` - Read lists and list membership - `lists:write` - Create and update lists, and add or remove their contacts - `lists:delete` - Delete lists ### Lists and membership A list is a static, private, single opt-in container of contacts, and it is what a campaign targets. A membership carries its own `subscription_status` (`unconfirmed`, `confirmed`, `unsubscribed`, or `complained`), which is per-list consent and is independent of the contact's account-wide `unsubscribed` flag. A membership created without a status named is `confirmed`, because that is what a campaign reaches. `complained` is the mailbox provider's verdict, never writable, and a membership holding it is frozen. Deleting a list keeps its memberships, so an unsubscribe survives it. Removing a contact from a list deletes the membership row and discards that record with it, which is why unsubscribing is the reversible way to stop marketing mail on one list. Expanding a list's members with `include_contacts=true` requires `contacts:read` in addition to `lists:read`. ### SMTP Credentials Scopes - `smtp-credentials:read:all` - Read all SMTP credentials - `smtp-credentials:read:{domain}` - Read SMTP credentials for a specific domain - `smtp-credentials:write:all` - Create SMTP credentials - `smtp-credentials:write:{domain}` - Create SMTP credentials for a specific domain - `smtp-credentials:delete:all` - Delete any SMTP credentials - `smtp-credentials:delete:{domain}` - Delete SMTP credentials for a specific domain ### Statistics Scopes - `statistics-transactional:read:all` - Read all transactional statistics - `statistics-transactional:read:{domain}` - Read transactional statistics for a specific domain ### API Key Scopes - `api-keys:read` - Read API keys - `api-keys:write` - Create and update API keys - `api-keys:delete` - Delete API keys ### Sub-Account Scopes - `sub-accounts:read` - List and read sub accounts under the parent - `sub-accounts:write` - Create and update sub accounts - `sub-accounts:delete` - Soft-delete sub accounts - `sub-accounts:suspend` - Pause and resume sub accounts, and unpause their domains - `sub-accounts:usage` - Read per-sub-account usage and allocated cost - `sub-account-api-keys:read` - List and read API keys owned by sub accounts - `sub-account-api-keys:write` - Create and update API keys owned by sub accounts - `sub-account-api-keys:delete` - Delete API keys owned by sub accounts ## Rate Limiting - General API endpoints: 100 requests per second, 200 burst - Statistics endpoints: 1 request per second, 1 burst ## Pagination List endpoints use cursor-based pagination with the following parameters: - `limit`: Maximum number of items to return (default: 100, max: 100) - `after`: Pass `pagination.next_cursor` to fetch the next page - `before`: Pass `pagination.previous_cursor` to fetch the previous page `after` and `before` are mutually exclusive. A legacy `cursor` query may be accepted by parts of the server for backwards compatibility, but it is not part of the v2 public contract. ## Time Formats All timestamps must be in RFC3339 format, e.g., `2023-12-25T10:30:00Z` ## Idempotency The operations that explicitly declare the optional `Idempotency-Key` header support idempotency. Other POST operations do not gain idempotency implicitly. When the header is provided: - A fresh execution does not return `Idempotent-Replayed`. - A completed stored response is replayed with its original status and body and `Idempotent-Replayed: true`. - An unexpired in-progress execution returns HTTP 409 with `Idempotent-Replayed: false` and a positive integer `Retry-After` header. - Reusing a key with a different HTTP method, resolved request path, or request body returns HTTP 422. That response has neither `Idempotent-Replayed` nor `Retry-After`. - For ordinary idempotent operations, deterministic 2xx and 4xx outcomes produced after the idempotency middleware are stored and replayed. Authentication and IP-allow-list failures happen before idempotency and are therefore not stored. - The two secret-bearing API-key create operations use manual encrypted completion. They store and replay a successful 201, including the same one-time `secret_key`; a controller-produced 4xx is not stored and leaves the key in progress until its execution lease expires. - Server errors (5xx), handler failures, and panics are not stored. The key is released so retrying the same request with the same key re-executes it. The v2 API does not use an HTTP 412 failed-key tombstone. - Idempotency keys for non-secret responses expire after 24 hours. - Encrypted API-key creation replay responses expire after 5 minutes. ## IP Allow Lists Each API key can carry an `ip_allow_list`: a set of source IPs that restrict where the key may authenticate from. - Entries are CIDR blocks (e.g. `203.0.113.0/24`) or bare IPv4/IPv6 addresses (stored as a `/32` or `/128`). They are canonicalized and de-duplicated; the allow-all prefixes `0.0.0.0/0` and `::/0` are rejected, and at most 100 entries are allowed after de-duplication (a longer list is rejected with HTTP 400). - An empty list (the default) places no restriction. - When the list is non-empty, any authenticated request whose client IP is not covered by an entry is rejected with HTTP 403 on every v2 endpoint, regardless of the key's scopes. - Manage the list with the `ip_allow_list` field on the API-key create and update endpoints (including the sub-account API-key endpoints). - When a key updates its own `ip_allow_list` to a value that excludes the caller's current IP, the update is rejected with HTTP 409 to prevent self-lockout. Updating a sub-account key from a parent key has no such guard. version: 2.0.0 contact: email: support@ahasend.com license: name: MIT identifier: MIT servers: - url: https://api.ahasend.com description: Production server security: - BearerAuth: [] tags: - name: Utility description: Utility endpoints for health checks and diagnostics - name: API Keys description: Manage API keys for authentication and access control - name: Domains description: Manage sending domains - name: Messages description: Send and manage transactional messages - name: Accounts description: Manage account settings and members - name: Contacts description: Read, create, update, batch upsert, and delete account-global contacts - name: Templates description: >- Create, change, publish and delete the account's transactional templates, and read them with their drafts, their published versions and the variables a send must supply - name: Campaign Templates description: >- Create, change, read and delete the account's campaign templates, the designs a campaign copies when it is made from one - name: Campaigns description: >- Create, change, read, duplicate, delete, test and send the account's marketing campaigns, and read their stats and recipients - name: Lists description: Manage contact lists and the contacts on them - name: Suppressions description: Manage email suppressions - name: Routes description: Manage inbound email routing - name: Webhooks description: Manage webhook notifications - name: SMTP Credentials description: Manage SMTP authentication credentials - name: Statistics description: Access transactional email statistics - name: Message Events description: Webhooks for outbound message delivery events - name: Suppression Events description: Webhooks for suppression list changes - name: Domain Events description: Webhooks for domain configuration issues - name: Route Events description: Webhooks for inbound email routing paths: /v2/accounts/{account_id}/contacts: post: tags: - Contacts summary: Create Contact description: > Creates one account-global contact with no list membership. Email is trimmed and lowercased. Writable attributes must match the account's dashboard-managed definitions; validation, membership, and activity fields are response-only. The contact cannot be campaign-targeted until it is added to a list with the Lists endpoints. This operation does not read or change suppression records. The optional `Idempotency-Key` follows the ordinary 24-hour v2 replay contract. Successful 201, controller-produced deterministic 400, and duplicate contact 409 outcomes are stored for 24 hours. An identical request replays the same status and semantically equivalent JSON body with `Idempotent-Replayed: true`. Authentication, authorization, rate-limit, payload-mismatch, and server-error responses are not stored. Reusing the key with a different method, resolved path, or semantic JSON payload returns 422. operationId: createContact parameters: - name: account_id in: path required: true description: Account ID schema: type: string format: uuid - $ref: '#/components/parameters/IdempotencyKey' requestBody: required: true content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/CreateContactRequest' responses: '201': description: Contact created successfully headers: Idempotent-Replayed: $ref: '#/components/headers/IdempotentReplayed' content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Contact' '400': description: Invalid request body, email, or attribute value headers: Idempotent-Replayed: $ref: '#/components/headers/IdempotentReplayed' content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' '401': description: Unauthorized content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' '403': description: Missing `contacts:write` scope content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' '409': description: | Either the normalized email already exists on the account or the idempotency-key execution is in progress. The in-progress case is identified only by `Idempotent-Replayed: false` plus a positive integer `Retry-After`. A fresh duplicate-contact response has neither header; a stored replay of that response has `Idempotent-Replayed: true`. headers: Idempotent-Replayed: description: | `false` with a positive `Retry-After` means an execution is in progress. `true` means a stored duplicate-contact 409 was replayed. Absent means a fresh duplicate-contact conflict. schema: type: string enum: - 'true' - 'false' Retry-After: $ref: '#/components/headers/IdempotencyRetryAfter' content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' '422': $ref: '#/components/responses/IdempotencyPayloadMismatch' '429': description: Too many requests content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' '500': description: Internal server error content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' security: - BearerAuth: - contacts:write x-code-samples: - lang: go label: AhaSend Go SDK source: | package main import ( "context" "fmt" "log" "os" "github.com/AhaSend/ahasend-go" "github.com/AhaSend/ahasend-go/api" "github.com/AhaSend/ahasend-go/models/requests" "github.com/google/uuid" ) func main() { client := api.NewAPIClient(api.WithAPIKey(os.Getenv("AHASEND_API_KEY"))) accountID := uuid.MustParse(os.Getenv("AHASEND_ACCOUNT_ID")) ctx := context.Background() // The SDK sends a fresh Idempotency-Key with this POST and reuses it on // its own retries, so a retried request is not applied twice. response, _, err := client.ContactsAPI.CreateContact(ctx, accountID, requests.CreateContactRequest{ Email: "person@example.com", FirstName: ahasend.String("Pat"), Attributes: map[string]any{"customer": true}, }) if err != nil { log.Fatalf("Error creating contact: %v", err) } fmt.Printf("Created contact %s\n", response.ID) } - lang: javascript label: Node.js 22+ (AhaSend SDK) source: > import { AhaSendClient } from "@ahasend/sdk"; const client = AhaSendClient.fromEnv(); // The SDK sends a fresh Idempotency-Key automatically and reuses it on its own retries. const contact = await client.contacts.create({ email: "person@example.com", first_name: "Pat", attributes: { customer: true }, }); console.log("Contact created.", { id: contact.id, status: contact.status }); components: parameters: IdempotencyKey: name: Idempotency-Key in: header required: false description: > Optional idempotency key for safe request retries. Must be a unique string for each logical request. An identical request with a completed stored outcome returns the original status and body. An in-progress execution returns 409, a changed method/path/body returns 422, and a released 5xx execution may run again. Keys for non-secret responses expire after 24 hours. API-key create responses include a one-time `secret_key`, so successful encrypted replay responses for those operations expire after 5 minutes. schema: type: string maxLength: 255 example: user-12345-create-domain-20240101 schemas: CreateContactRequest: type: object additionalProperties: false description: | Creates an account-global contact without list membership. Writable attribute keys and types are derived from definitions managed in the dashboard. Validation metadata, membership, and activity are not writable. required: - email properties: email: type: string format: email description: Contact email; trimmed and lowercased before persistence first_name: type: - string - 'null' last_name: type: - string - 'null' status: type: - string - 'null' enum: - enabled - disabled - blocked - null description: Defaults to `enabled` when omitted or null status_reason: type: - string - 'null' unsubscribed: type: - boolean - 'null' description: Only `true` creates an initial UTC unsubscription timestamp attributes: type: - object - 'null' description: | Values are validated against dashboard-managed account attribute definitions. Attribute members cannot be null. additionalProperties: $ref: '#/components/schemas/CanonicalContactAttributeValue' example: email: person@example.com first_name: Pat last_name: Example status: enabled status_reason: null unsubscribed: false attributes: customer: true score: 12.5 birthday: '2024-02-29' joined_at: '2026-09-09T10:04:56Z' Contact: type: object additionalProperties: false description: | Public contact projection. Attribute reads are legacy-safe: values can contain null, booleans, numbers, strings, arrays, or nested objects even though new writes accept only canonical dashboard-defined values. required: - object - id - created_at - updated_at - email - first_name - last_name - status - status_reason - unsubscribed - unsubscribed_at - attributes - validation_status - last_validated_at properties: object: type: string enum: - contact description: Object type identifier id: type: string format: uuid description: Unique identifier for the contact created_at: type: string format: date-time description: When the contact was created updated_at: type: string format: date-time description: When the contact was last updated email: type: string format: email description: Normalized contact email address first_name: type: string last_name: type: string status: type: string enum: - enabled - disabled - blocked status_reason: type: string unsubscribed: type: boolean unsubscribed_at: type: - string - 'null' format: date-time attributes: type: object additionalProperties: $ref: '#/components/schemas/JSONValue' validation_status: type: string enum: - unvalidated - valid - invalid - risky - unknown last_validated_at: type: - string - 'null' format: date-time ErrorResponse: type: object description: | Human-readable API error. The server currently sends no stable machine error code. In particular, clients must not parse `message` to distinguish IP-allow-list, scope, ownership, plan, self-lockout, suppression-duplicate, or other errors that share an HTTP status. additionalProperties: false required: - message properties: message: type: string description: Error description example: message: Error message CanonicalContactAttributeValue: description: | A non-null contact attribute value. The account's declared attribute definition selects the accepted member: `string` accepts a JSON string, `number` a finite JSON number, `boolean` a JSON boolean, `date` a strict ISO `YYYY-MM-DD` string, and `timestamp` an RFC3339 string. The server rejects values whose JSON type or format does not match that definition. anyOf: - type: string description: Value for a declared string attribute - type: number description: Finite value for a declared number attribute - type: boolean description: Value for a declared boolean attribute - type: string format: date description: Strict `YYYY-MM-DD` value for a declared date attribute - type: string format: date-time description: RFC3339 value for a declared timestamp attribute JSONValue: description: Any recursively nested JSON value stored in a contact attribute oneOf: - type: 'null' - type: boolean - type: number - type: string - type: array items: $ref: '#/components/schemas/JSONValue' - type: object additionalProperties: $ref: '#/components/schemas/JSONValue' headers: IdempotentReplayed: description: > Indicates that this response is a stored replay of a previous identical request. When this header is absent, the response is not a stored replay. Ordinary fresh responses do not send `false`; that value is reserved for an in-progress 409. schema: type: string enum: - 'true' IdempotencyRetryAfter: description: | Positive whole number of seconds after which the in-progress execution lease may be retried with the same key and unchanged request. schema: type: integer minimum: 1 responses: IdempotencyPayloadMismatch: description: | Idempotency key was already used with a different HTTP method, resolved request path, or request body. This response includes neither `Idempotent-Replayed` nor `Retry-After`. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' example: message: idempotency key was already used with a different request payload securitySchemes: BearerAuth: type: http scheme: bearer bearerFormat: aha-sk-64-CHARACTER-RANDOM-STRING description: | API key for authentication. Non-empty Security Requirement values are AhaSend API-key roles. Roles listed within one requirement object are jointly required; separate requirement objects are alternatives. ```` This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.