templates

name	templates
description	Use when creating, updating, publishing, deleting, or listing Resend email templates via the API, or when defining template variables, understanding draft vs published state, or managing template lifecycle programmatically.

Resend Templates

Overview

Templates are reusable email structures stored on Resend. Define HTML and variables once; reference the template ID or alias when sending.

Use templates when: the same structure is reused across many sends, non-engineers need to edit copy without touching code, or you want version history.

Use inline html when: the structure changes per send, you need more than 50 dynamic variables, or you want tighter rendering control.

Template Lifecycle

Create (draft) → Publish → Send
      ↑ edit                 |
      └─────────────────────┘

Editing a published template creates a new draft — the published version keeps sending until you publish again.

State	Can send?
Draft	No
Published	Yes

SDK Methods (Node.js)

Operation	Method
Create	resend.templates.create(params)
Get	resend.templates.get(id)
List	resend.templates.list(params)
Update	resend.templates.update(id, params)
Delete	resend.templates.remove(id) ← not .delete()
Publish	resend.templates.publish(id)
Duplicate	resend.templates.duplicate(id)

Chainable Create → Publish

The SDK supports chaining .publish() after .create() or .duplicate():

const { data, error } = await resend.templates.create({
  name: 'Welcome',
  html: '<p>Hi {{{NAME}}}</p>',
}).publish();
// Template is created AND published in one call

Aliases

An alias is a stable, human-readable slug you set at create time. Pass it in the id field anywhere you'd use the auto-generated template ID.

// Set alias at create time
await resend.templates.create({
  name: 'Order Confirmation',   // display-only
  alias: 'order-confirmation',  // referenceable slug
  html: '<p>Hi {{{CUSTOMER_NAME}}}</p>',
});

// Reference by alias — no need to store the generated tmpl_ ID
template: { id: 'order-confirmation', variables: { CUSTOMER_NAME: 'Alice' } }

Variable Syntax

Use triple mustache in HTML and subject: {{{VARIABLE_NAME}}}

<!-- ✅ Correct -->
<p>Hi {{{CUSTOMER_NAME}}}, your order #{{{ORDER_ID}}} has shipped!</p>

<!-- ❌ Wrong — double braces don't render in Resend -->
<p>Hi {{CUSTOMER_NAME}}</p>

Plain substitution only — no {{#each}}, {{#if}}, or other Handlebars control flow. Pre-render dynamic lists server-side into a single HTML variable.

Variable key casing is arbitrary (ORDER_ID, orderId, order_id all work) but must be consistent: whatever casing you use in the template definition must match exactly in the send call.

Sending with a Template

const { data, error } = await resend.emails.send(
  {
    from: 'Acme <[e-mail]>',
    to: ['[e-mail]'],
    template: {
      id: 'order-confirmation',  // alias or auto-generated ID
      variables: { CUSTOMER_NAME: 'Alice', ORDER_ID: '12345' },
    },
  },
  { idempotencyKey: `order-confirm/${orderId}` }
);

Cannot combine template with html, text, or react — mutually exclusive. subject and from from the template can be overridden per-send.

For variable constraints, reserved names, full CRUD examples, pagination, and version history, see reference.md.