I built a small email API for my own projects

Every product I ship needs the same few emails: a welcome after signup, a password reset, a receipt, an invite. Amazon SES is cheap and reliable, but wiring it up again for each project got old. So I built a thin layer on top of it for myself.

It is called Pigeon.

What it does

You add your domain, put a sending key in your app, and call the API (or plain SMTP). Amazon SES, in your own AWS account, does the delivery. Pigeon keeps the pieces around it: domain checks, keys, a log of each call, and a monthly plan, so a bounce or a limit shows up before a user writes in.

import { Pigeon } from "pigeon";

const pigeon = new Pigeon(process.env.PIGEON_API_KEY, {
  baseUrl: "https://pigeonfs.com"
});

await pigeon.emails.send({
  from: "Ada <[email protected]>",
  to: ["[email protected]"],
  subject: "Reset your password",
  html: "<p>Choose a new password.</p>"
});

The same call exists in Python, Go, Java, Rust and Elixir.

Where it stands

This is a one-person prototype. I use it in my own projects, and it is not a finished product. I put it on Product Hunt to get honest feedback, not to claim more than it is.

What I would like to know

• Is the API shape clear enough?
• Would you use this instead of wiring SES yourself?
• What is missing before it is useful on day one?

Links

• Project: pigeonfs.com
• Product Hunt: Pigeon on Product Hunt

Comments here or on Product Hunt are very welcome.