NorthRelay StudioCopy Anchor Link

NorthRelay Studio is where your email templates and brands live. Every template, whether you build it in the dashboard, adopt it from the gallery or create it from code, is a versioned design: you edit a draft, review it, and publish an immutable release that sends use. Studio is included from the Micro plan ($12/mo).

Open it from the sidebar: Studio → Overview, Templates, Brands, Assets, Applications and Activity.

What you getCopy Anchor Link

Account templates and application templatesCopy Anchor Link

Your own templates, the ones you create in the dashboard, belong to the reserved application account. Products can own templates under their own application key. The two differ in how they treat brands and variables:

Sending with a templateCopy Anchor Link

Use the template id with the email API. Nothing changes if you already send this way:

curl -X POST https://app.northrelay.ca/api/v1/emails/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NORTHRELAY_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "from": { "email": "hello@acme.example", "name": "Acme" },
    "to": [{ "email": "ana@example.com" }],
    "content": { "templateId": "tmpl_123" },
    "variables": { "first_name": "Ana" }
  }'

The send uses the template's live release. A retired template is refused with TEMPLATE_RETIRED, a template that was never published with TEMPLATE_NOT_PUBLISHED, and missing required variables with MISSING_TEMPLATE_VARIABLES; each error names the fix.

Campaigns pick a template in the campaign wizard and render it with the contact's details, the brand and the unsubscribe links.

From codeCopy Anchor Link

Everything in Studio is available through /api/v1/designs, the SDKs and the MCP server.

# Create a draft for your application
curl -X POST https://app.northrelay.ca/api/v1/designs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NORTHRELAY_APP_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "applicationKey": "command-center",
    "key": "daily-digest",
    "locale": "en",
    "draft": {
      "name": "Daily digest",
      "subject": "{{title}} — {{date}}",
      "html": "<h1>{{title}}</h1>{{#each stories}}<p><a href=\"{{url}}\">{{headline}}</a></p>{{/each}}",
      "category": "NOTIFICATION",
      "variables": {
        "title": { "type": "string", "required": true, "example": "Digest" },
        "stories": { "type": "array", "items": { "headline": { "type": "string" }, "url": { "type": "string", "format": "url" } } }
      }
    }
  }'

# Publish revision 1, then send the live release with an idempotency key
curl -X POST https://app.northrelay.ca/api/v1/designs/$DESIGN_ID/publish \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NORTHRELAY_APP_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "expectedRevision": 1 }'

curl -X POST https://app.northrelay.ca/api/v1/designs/$DESIGN_ID/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $NORTHRELAY_APP_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: digest-2026-10-08" \
  -d '{ "to": [{ "email": "ops@example.com" }], "variables": { "title": "Digest", "date": "8 Oct", "stories": [] } }'

import { NorthRelayClient } from '@northrelay/sdk';
const nr = new NorthRelayClient({ apiKey: process.env.NORTHRELAY_API_KEY! });

const { data: usage } = await nr.designs.usage(designId);           // campaigns and send counts
await nr.designs.preview(designId, { sample: true, brandId });       // try another brand
const { data: brand } = await nr.designs.brandUsage(brandId);        // what a brand change affects
await nr.designs.uploadAsset({ imageBase64 });                       // logo for a brand

Every response is { success: true, data } or { success: false, error: { code, message } }. Writes carry expectedRevision (designs) or expectedUpdatedAt (brands), so two editors get a 409 REVISION_CONFLICT instead of overwriting each other.

API surfaceCopy Anchor Link

New releases render with handlebars-email-v2: values are escaped, template sources are checked on save and publish (no script, iframe, form, event handlers or javascript: links), and MJML styles and Outlook conditional comments are kept.

The TypeScript and Python SDKs expose these as client.designs, and the MCP server as the *_email_design*, *_email_brand* and *_email_asset* tools.

Installing templates into another accountCopy Anchor Link

A product that sends through its users' own NorthRelay accounts can ship its templates as a manifest: export the application's manifest from the product's account, then apply it with the user's credential into their account (dryRun: true to show the plan, then dryRun: false, publish: true to install and publish in one call). The export's version tells you when an installed copy is behind.

Embedding Studio in your productCopy Anchor Link

@northrelay/studio-react renders the same Studio screens (template library, workspace, brands) inside another React app. Your server proxies the Studio API with an application credential, so no NorthRelay key reaches the browser. Alteriom Command Center uses it.

Legacy APIsCopy Anchor Link

/api/v1/templates and /api/v1/brand-theme keep working until 30 April 2027 and return Deprecation, Sunset and Link: rel="successor-version" headers. Every existing template is now a Studio template with the same id, so templateId values in your code stay valid. Move template and brand management to /api/v1/designs.

PlansCopy Anchor Link

See Plans & Pricing for the full ladder.