SMSFlow Python SDK

The SMSFlow Python SDK makes it easy to send SMS messages and check SMS credit balance from backend Python applications, automation scripts, scheduled jobs, CRM integrations, ERP integrations, and operational tooling.

Documentation: https://docs.smsflow.co.za/

Install

pip install smsflow

Configuration

Store credentials in environment variables or your platform's secret manager.

export SMSFLOW_CLIENT_ID="YOUR_CLIENT_ID"
export SMSFLOW_CLIENT_SECRET="YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"

Do not put SMSFlow Client Secrets in source code, logs, notebooks, screenshots, or public issues.

Usage

import os
from smsflow import SmsFlowClient

client = SmsFlowClient(
    client_id=os.environ["SMSFLOW_CLIENT_ID"],
    client_secret=os.environ["SMSFLOW_CLIENT_SECRET"],
    timeout=30,
)

response = client.send_sms(
    campaign_name="Python SDK example",
    messages=[
        {
            "destination": "27000000000",
            "content": "Your SMSFlow Python test message was sent successfully.",
        }
    ],
)

print(response["sendResponse"]["eventId"])

Bulk send

client.send_sms(
    campaign_name="Order dispatch alerts",
    messages=[
        {"destination": "27000000000", "content": "Order 1001 has shipped."},
        {"destination": "27000000001", "content": "Order 1002 has shipped."},
    ],
)

Check balance

balance = client.get_balance()
print(balance["balance"])

Error handling

from smsflow import SmsFlowAuthenticationError, SmsFlowError, SmsFlowValidationError

try:
    client.send_sms(
        campaign_name="Transactional SMS",
        messages=[{"destination": "27000000000", "content": "Hello from SMSFlow."}],
    )
except SmsFlowAuthenticationError:
    print("Check your SMSFlow Client ID and Client Secret.")
    raise
except SmsFlowValidationError as exc:
    print("Fix the request before retrying.", exc.code, exc.body)
    raise
except SmsFlowError as exc:
    print(exc.status_code, exc.code, exc.retryable, exc.body)
    raise

Timeouts and retries

Set a timeout and opt in to retry handling when your application can safely handle it:

client = SmsFlowClient(
    client_id=os.environ["SMSFLOW_CLIENT_ID"],
    client_secret=os.environ["SMSFLOW_CLIENT_SECRET"],
    timeout=30,
    retry_retries=2,
    retry_base_delay=0.25,
    retry_max_delay=2.0,
)

balance = client.get_balance()  # Safe to retry temporary failures.

client.send_sms(
    campaign_name="Transactional SMS",
    retry=True,  # Use only with your own idempotency or duplicate-send guard.
    messages=[{"destination": "27000000000", "content": "Hello from SMSFlow."}],
)

Retry only temporary network failures, 408, 429, and 5xx responses. Do not retry validation errors, authentication failures, or insufficient-balance responses until the underlying issue has been fixed. Store the returned eventId against your own transaction or notification record.

Delivery status

The public HTTPS API currently exposes authentication, send, and balance endpoints. Delivery-status helper methods will be added when a public delivery-status endpoint is available.

Features

• Get and cache SMSFlow login tokens.
• Send one or more SMS messages.
• Schedule SMS messages using UTC delivery time.
• Respect opt-out checks by default.
• Check account balance.
• Raise typed structured exceptions when the API returns an error.
• Configure timeouts and opt-in retries for temporary failures.

Local test send

This command sends a real SMS and may consume test credits:

export SMSFLOW_CLIENT_ID="YOUR_CLIENT_ID"
export SMSFLOW_CLIENT_SECRET="YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"
export SMSFLOW_DESTINATION="27000000000"
PYTHONPATH=src python examples/send_sms.py

Security

Never commit real credentials. Use environment variables or a secret manager.

License

MIT