VintaSend Templates API
REST API that exposes a
ManagedTemplateService
over HTTP, built with Django and django-ninja.
It exists so a template-management UI does not have to embed a template store: the UI
becomes a pure API client, and any implementation of this contract can serve it. It is
the templates-side sibling of
vintasend-api, which does the same
for notifications, and follows the same conventions — bearer-token auth, a { data } /
{ error } envelope, 1-indexed pages, camelCase on the wire.
openapi.yaml is generated, not maintained. It is produced from
the route declarations in
api.py and the schemas in
contract.py and
query.py by
manage.py export_openapi. A test asserts the committed copy matches the live routes, so
a change that was not regenerated fails the suite rather than shipping a stale contract.
┌─────────────────────┐ HTTPS + API key ┌───────────────────────┐
│ Template mgmt UI │ ───────────────────▶ │ vintasend-templates- │
│ server-side only │ ◀─────────────────── │ api (this project) │
└─────────────────────┘ JSON contract └───────────┬───────────┘
│
┌──────────────┴──────────────┐
│ Your ManagedTemplateService│
│ template manager backend + │
│ managed template renderer │
└─────────────────────────────┘
The API owns everything that needs backend credentials — database access, template rendering. The UI owns presentation and user authentication.
Why Django, for a library with no web framework
The same reason as vintasend-api: the template store decides. The reference backend,
vintasend-django-templates-manager, persists templates through the Django ORM, and
reading them needs a Django app registry and connection handling — another framework's
process would have to boot a half-configured Django anyway.
Nothing is lost for non-Django deployments. BaseTemplateManagerBackend is a pluggable
seam, so a FastAPI application storing templates through SQLAlchemy is served by this
same API: point MANAGED_TEMPLATE_SERVICE_FACTORY at a factory that builds a
SQLAlchemy-backed service and the HTTP layer neither knows nor cares.
Endpoints
| Method | Path | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| GET | /health |
Liveness probe (unauthenticated) |
| GET | /api/v1/capabilities |
Filter capabilities of the configured backend |
| GET | /api/v1/templates |
List template versions with filters and pagination |
| POST | /api/v1/templates |
Create a template's first version |
| GET | /api/v1/templates/{key} |
One version — the latest unless ?version= is given |
| DELETE | /api/v1/templates/{key} |
Delete one never-published version (the latest unless ?version=); a published one is a 409 CONFLICT |
| GET | /api/v1/templates/{key}/versions |
Every version, newest first |
| POST | /api/v1/templates/{key}/versions |
Create a new version from the latest |
| GET | /api/v1/templates/{key}/versions/{version} |
One pinned version |
| DELETE | /api/v1/templates/{key}/versions/{version} |
Delete one pinned, never-published version; a published one is a 409 CONFLICT |
| GET | /api/v1/templates/{key}/composition |
One version assembled — what the engine actually receives |
| GET | /api/v1/templates/{key}/status-history |
Status audit trail, most recent first |
| POST | /api/v1/templates/{key}/status |
Move a version to an explicitly named status |
| POST | /api/v1/templates/{key}/activate |
Publish a version |
| POST | /api/v1/templates/{key}/deactivate |
Retire a version without archiving it |
| POST | /api/v1/templates/{key}/archive |
Archive a version (terminal by default) |
| POST | /api/v1/templates/{key}/preview |
Render a version against a supplied context |
| PUT | /api/v1/templates/{key}/tags |
Replace one version's tags, in place |
| GET | /api/v1/tags |
List tags with filters and pagination |
| POST | /api/v1/tags |
Create a tag ahead of any template using it |
| GET | /api/v1/tags/{slug} |
One tag |
| PATCH | /api/v1/tags/{slug} |
Rename a tag (its slug is regenerated) |
| DELETE | /api/v1/tags/{slug} |
Delete a tag, stripping it from every template |
| POST | /api/v1/tags/{slug}/archive |
Retire a tag from the pickers |
| POST | /api/v1/tags/{slug}/restore |
Put an archived tag back on offer |
A browsable version of the generated schema is served at /api/v1/docs.
Conventions a client can rely on:
pageis 1-indexed.hasMoreistruewhen the next page has at least one row, so a list that exactly fills its last page never offers an empty one. The template-manager seam has no count method, so no total is available: after a full page the API reads the one row that would follow it.- Request bodies are JSON. A request that declares
application/json(or anyapplication/*+json) must carry valid JSON, so an empty body there is a 400. A request that declares no media type, or another one, counts as an omitted body when its body is empty, which is how an all-optional body (activate,deactivate,archive,preview,POST /templates/{key}/versions) is left out. Anything else is a 400 rather than a guess.curl -dsends form encoding unless told otherwise, so pass-H 'Content-Type: application/json'. GET /templateslists one row per key by default. A row in the store is a version, so the raw read returns a key once per version it has ever had.mostRecentActiveVersiondefaults totrueand narrows that to each key's current version — the highest-numberedactiveordraftone. SendmostRecentActiveVersion=falseto list every version.versionomitted means "the latest" everywhere exceptstatus-history, where it means "every version" — that endpoint forwards it to the backend, which returns the whole key's trail.GET /templatesorders only when asked, and only by what the backend can sort.orderByFieldtakeskey,name,version,status,createdAtorupdatedAt;orderByDirectiontakesascordescand defaults toasc. Neither has a default field, so omitting them asks for the backend's own order. See Ordering.- Every template payload carries
isAbstract: whether that version is a base to build on rather than one to send. See Composition. - Every template payload carries
allowedTransitions: the statuses that version can move to right now, as the configured service answers it. A UI enables buttons from that rather than reimplementing the lifecycle or discovering it by catching a 409. - A send renders the newest
activeversion, never a draft. Reads here are the editing view:versionomitted returns the newest version whatever its status, and a preview with noversionrenders that. When several versions are active, an unpinned send renders the highest-numbered one, so activating an older version does not change what is sent. - Only a never-published version can be deleted. A version that was ever activated is
refused with a 409
CONFLICT: a notification may be pinned to it, and its status history records who published it. Archive it instead. That applies toDELETE /templates/{key}with noversiontoo, which resolves to the latest version, so prefer naming the version you mean. Status history is never deleted. changedByin a status body is only a fallback. A host that knows who is calling setsMANAGED_TEMPLATE_ACTOR_RESOLVER(see Attribution), and its answer replaces whatever the body says.templateManagedBackendin a create body can be overridden by the host. A host serving one backend setsMANAGED_TEMPLATE_BACKEND_NAME(see Backend name), and every new template is stored under it, whatever the body says.- Timestamps are ISO-8601 UTC strings,
nullwhen unset — never absent. - Errors always use the envelope
{ "error": { "code", "message", "details"? } }.
Tags
Tags label template versions so they can be found. A template carries any number of tags and a tag is carried by any number of templates.
-
The slug is the identity. It is normalized from the text — lowercased, accents folded, everything else collapsed to
-— and is unique store-wide, soBlack Friday,black fridayandBLACK-FRIDAYare one tag. Store theslug, not thetext. -
Anywhere a tag is named, its text works too.
GET /tags/Black%20FridayandGET /tags/black-fridayare the same lookup, and the same holds for the filters. -
Tags are created on the fly. Send
tagsonPOST /templatesorPOST /templates/{key}/versionsand any tag that does not exist yet is created. UsePOST /tagsonly when a collision should be reported rather than resolved — it is a 409 there and silent everywhere else. -
Renaming changes the slug.
PATCH /tags/{slug}regenerates it, so a stored filter naming the old slug stops matching. Read the newslugoff the response. Renaming onto another tag's text is allowed and yields-2: two tags may read the same, and the slug is what tells them apart. -
Archive hides the tag; delete removes the label. An archived tag drops out of
GET /tags?status=activebut stays on the templates carrying it, and filtering by it still finds them. Deleting is what strips the label, and it is not reversible. -
Searching by tag uses
includesAllTags(carries every tag listed) orincludesAnyOfTags(carries at least one). Repeat the parameter per tag. Sending both combines them with AND, like every other filter pair. A template matching several of the tags listed is returned once, not once per match.GET /api/v1/templates?includesAllTags=billing&includesAllTags=urgent GET /api/v1/templates?includesAnyOfTags=billing&includesAnyOfTags=marketing -
Tags belong to a version, not a key, so two versions of one template can be labelled differently — a draft can be tagged for review without relabelling what is live.
Versions in the listing
The store holds a row per version, and a template-management UI almost always wants a list of
templates. GET /api/v1/templates therefore defaults to mostRecentActiveVersion=true:
GET /api/v1/templates # one row per key — the current version
GET /api/v1/templates?mostRecentActiveVersion=false # every version of every key
GET /api/v1/templates/{key}/versions # every version of one key, newest first
Current means the highest-numbered active or draft version: what is published, plus the
draft on its way to replacing it. A key whose versions are all inactive or archived has no
current version and does not appear in the default listing — ask for
mostRecentActiveVersion=false to see it.
A status filter applies on top of the default, so ?status=archived on its own finds
nothing: the one row kept per key is never inactive or archived. Send both:
GET /api/v1/templates?status=archived&mostRecentActiveVersion=false
false lifts the restriction rather than inverting it: it lists everything, not only the rows
the default hides. The complement is a legitimate query in the library's filter vocabulary
({"most_recent_active_version": False}) but there is no wire parameter for it, because no UI
has asked to list only superseded versions.
The narrowing happens in the store, so pagination still counts what the backend counted. A
backend declining fields.mostRecentActiveVersion has the filter dropped like any other
unsupported one, and its listing shows every version.
Ordering the listing
GET /api/v1/templates?orderByField=name&orderByDirection=asc
orderByField accepts key, name, version, status, createdAt and updatedAt —
each a scalar the backend already stores per row, so a store can answer it from an index.
Tags are absent because ordering by a many-to-many has no single value to compare, and
mostRecentActiveVersion because it is a filter rather than a field.
orderByDirection is asc or desc, and defaults to asc when a field is given without
one. Sent on its own it is a 400: there is nothing to order by, and ignoring it would
look exactly like a backend that cannot sort.
Ask /capabilities first. Every orderBy.* key defaults to false, so a backend that
has not declared a field cannot sort by it and the request is a 400 naming the key:
// GET /api/v1/capabilities
{
"data": {
"orderBy.key": true,
"orderBy.name": true,
"orderBy.version": true,
"orderBy.status": false, // this backend cannot sort by status
"orderBy.createdAt": true,
"orderBy.updatedAt": true
// ... plus the fields.*, logical.* and stringLookups.* keys
}
}
Build the sortable columns of a UI from that report and the 400 never happens. Unlike an
unsupported filter, which is dropped so the request still succeeds, an unsupported
order is refused — see Design notes for why the two differ.
The order is applied by the backend to the whole result set before a page is chosen, so page 2 of an ordered listing is the second page of that order rather than the backend's own second page re-sorted.
Composition: templates built on templates
A managed template can build on another one, and all of it is resolved before any
template engine runs — so the stored bodyTemplate is only half of what renders:
base-email <html><body>
{% managed_block header %}<h1>Acme</h1>{% managed_endblock %}
{% managed_children %}
{% managed_include "footer" %}
</body></html>
welcome {% managed_extends "base-email" %}
{% managed_block header %}<h1>Welcome!</h1>{% managed_endblock %}
<p>Hi {{ name }}, welcome aboard.</p>
The tag language belongs to
vintasend-managed-templates
— managed_extends, managed_children, managed_block / managed_endblock,
managed_super, managed_include, with version=2 to pin a reference. This API stores those templates as written and exposes what they assemble to.
GET /api/v1/templates/{key}/composition returns the assembled sources, plus what the
version directly references and whether it is abstract:
GET /api/v1/templates/welcome/composition # the latest version
GET /api/v1/templates/welcome/composition?version=3
{ "data": {
"key": "welcome",
"version": 3,
"isAbstract": false,
"references": [
{ "kind": "extends", "key": "base-email", "version": null, "field": "bodyTemplate" }
],
"composedBodyTemplate": "<html><body><h1>Welcome!</h1>...",
"composedSubjectTemplate": null,
"composedPreheaderTemplate": null
} }
Nothing there is rendered against a context: {{ name }} and every other engine tag
survives untouched. POST /templates/{key}/preview is what renders — and it composes
first, so a preview shows the base's chrome around the child's content, exactly as a real
send would.
A template that cannot be assembled — a base that does not exist, a chain that loops, a
malformed tag — is a 409 TEMPLATE_COMPOSITION_ERROR carrying the library's message,
which names the reference chain that broke. It is a 409 and not a 404 because the template
asked for is there; what it names is not.
Previewing tells the two ways a template can be broken apart by code, so a UI knows whether to send the editor to the chain or to the template:
- A template that cannot be assembled is the same 409
TEMPLATE_COMPOSITION_ERRORthe composition endpoint gives. - A template that assembles but fails to render is a 409
PREVIEW_UNAVAILABLEcarrying the renderer's message. - A store that fails while assembling is a plain 500
INTERNAL_ERROR: its message stays on the server, and the error goes to the unhandled-error hook.
Two more things worth knowing:
- Each of the three sources composes against the same field of what it references. A
child's body extends the base's body, its subject extends the base's subject.
fieldon every reference says which one it was written in. - References are direct only. What the referenced templates themselves reference is not followed, and nothing is resolved — a reference to a template that does not exist is reported here rather than raising.
isAbstract
Every template payload carries isAbstract: true when the version is a base to build on
rather than a template to send — it declares a {% managed_children %} hole, or blocks
without extending anything.
GET /api/v1/templates?isAbstract=false # what a "pick a template to send" screen lists
GET /api/v1/templates?isAbstract=true # the bases, for a "pick a base to extend" screen
GET /api/v1/templates # both
On a listing it is read from the backend's stored flag, so filtering is a column lookup rather than a parse of every row, and serializing a page costs nothing. The composition endpoint recomputes it from the source instead, which makes that copy the authority — worth asking for when the flag cannot be trusted, such as a backend that predates it.
A backend declining fields.isAbstract has the filter dropped like any other unsupported
one, and its listing shows both.
Error codes
| Code | Status | Means |
|---|---|---|
BAD_REQUEST |
400 | Invalid input. See below. |
UNAUTHORIZED |
401 | Missing or wrong API key. |
FORBIDDEN |
403 | The caller was authenticated and is not allowed to do this. Declared on every route for hosts that check permissions in front of this API; the API key alone never produces it. |
NOT_FOUND |
404 | No such template key, or no such version of it. |
CONFLICT |
409 | The request cannot be applied in the current state: a tag whose text already slugs onto an existing one, or deleting a published version. |
INVALID_STATUS_TRANSITION |
409 | The lifecycle does not allow that status change. |
PREVIEW_UNAVAILABLE |
409 | The template could not be rendered; the message says why. |
TEMPLATE_COMPOSITION_ERROR |
409 | The template could not be assembled — a missing base, a loop, a malformed tag. The message names the chain. |
INTERNAL_ERROR |
500 | Unexpected failure. Reported generically, with an X-Request-Id header; logged as one redacted line. |
Every 400 carries details.issues, a list of { "path", "message" }, whatever the mistake
was, so a client reads one shape:
| Mistake | path |
|---|---|
| An invalid query parameter or body field | the field, dotted when nested |
A version in the path that is not a positive integer (/versions/1abc) |
version |
| A body that is not valid JSON, not a JSON object, or not sent as JSON | empty |
| An order the backend cannot apply | orderByField / orderByDirection |
| A value the backend refused, such as tag text with nothing sluggable in it | empty, repeating the message |
An unexpected error is logged as one line: its class name, the request id, the method and the
route pattern (api/v1/templates/<key>/preview, not the path). Its message, its traceback, the
request body and a preview's context are never logged: errors from the template store or the
template engine can carry template content and context values, which in the applications this
API serves can be health data. Django's own django.request record for the 500 is suppressed
too, since it would repeat the concrete path and attach the request object. The request id is
the client's X-Request-Id when it matches [A-Za-z0-9._-]{1,128}, and a fresh UUID otherwise,
so a client cannot forge a log line through it. Set MANAGED_TEMPLATE_UNHANDLED_ERROR_HANDLER to send errors somewhere with its own
scrubbing instead (see Unexpected errors).
Authentication
By default, every /api/v1 request must carry the shared secret:
Authorization: Bearer $VINTASEND_API_KEY
Call this API from your UI's own server side so the key never reaches a browser. If you
do need to call it from a browser, set VINTASEND_API_CORS_ORIGINS to the allowed
origins — and put a per-user auth layer in front of it first.
A host that knows its callers sets VINTASEND_API_AUTHENTICATOR instead, and the shared key
is then neither checked nor required. See Authenticating callers yourself.
Installing and embedding
The package is a Django app, so the API can run inside a Django project you already deploy rather than as a service of its own:
pip install vintasend-templates-management-api
Add the app and include its URLconf under a prefix of your choosing:
# settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
# ...
"vintasend_templates_management_api.templates_manager.apps.TemplatesManagerConfig",
]
# urls.py
from django.urls import include, path
urlpatterns = [
# ...
path("templates-api/", include("vintasend_templates_management_api.templates_manager.urls")),
]
That serves /templates-api/health and /templates-api/api/v1/.... The routes are the same as
in the standalone project, under your prefix. Include the URLconf once per project. The main
API's URL namespace is vintasend_templates_management_api, so its routes reverse as
vintasend_templates_management_api:<name> and do not collide with
vintasend-api's when one project mounts both.
The app reads these settings from your settings module. Each has a default, so leave out what you do not use:
| Setting | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_SERVICE_FACTORY |
yes | "" |
Dotted path to the callable building your service. See Configuring your service. |
VINTASEND_API_KEY |
unless an authenticator is set | "" |
Shared secret clients send as a bearer token. |
VINTASEND_API_AUTHENTICATOR |
no | unset | (request) -> None, replacing the shared-key check. See below. |
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_BACKEND_NAME |
no | "" |
Backend name every new template is stored under. See Backend name. |
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_ACTOR_RESOLVER |
no | unset | (request) -> str | None, who made a status change. See Attribution. |
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_UNHANDLED_ERROR_HANDLER |
no | unset | (exc, request, request_id) -> None. See Unexpected errors. |
VINTASEND_API_CORS_ORIGINS |
no | [] |
Browser origins allowed to call the API, as a list. Only read by the optional CORS middleware. |
The three callables take a dotted path or the callable itself. The required settings, and a
callable that cannot be imported, fail manage.py check, the same as in the standalone project.
Nothing else from the standalone project is needed: not its settings module, its middleware or
its handler404. Two of those are optional extras:
- CORS. Add
"vintasend_templates_management_api.templates_manager.cors.CorsMiddleware"toMIDDLEWAREonly if a browser calls the API directly. It applies to the API's routes under whatever prefix you mount them, and to nothing else your project serves. - A JSON 404. Errors from the API's routes always use the
{ error }envelope. A path that matches no route at all gets your project's 404 page. To answer those in the envelope too, sethandler404 = "vintasend_templates_management_api.templates_manager.views.envelope_404"in your root URLconf. It applies to every unmatched path in your project, not only the API's.
Authenticating callers yourself
VINTASEND_API_AUTHENTICATOR names a callable (request) -> None that runs before every
/api/v1 route. Return to let the request through. Raise ApiError("UNAUTHORIZED", ...) for a
caller with no valid credential and ApiError("FORBIDDEN", ...) for one you know and refuse: a
401 would tell a signed-in user to sign in again. Both reach the client in the contract's error
envelope. The callable may be async. /health is never authenticated.
To check a token yourself, such as one your identity provider issued, read it with
bearer_token. It takes the request or the header's value, matches the Bearer scheme in any
case, and returns None when there is no token:
# myproject/templates_api.py
from vintasend_templates_management_api.templates_manager.auth import ApiError, bearer_token
def authenticate(request):
token = bearer_token(request)
user = verify_token(token) if token is not None else None # your own verification
if user is None:
raise ApiError.unauthorized("Sign in to manage templates.")
if not user.can_edit_templates:
raise ApiError.forbidden("You cannot manage templates.")
request.templates_user = user # for the actor resolver below
def resolve_actor(request):
return request.templates_user.email
# settings.py
VINTASEND_API_AUTHENTICATOR = "myproject.templates_api.authenticate"
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_ACTOR_RESOLVER = "myproject.templates_api.resolve_actor"
The authenticator only decides who may call. Who made a status change is still
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_ACTOR_RESOLVER's answer, as in Attribution.
The setting has the same name and shape in vintasend-api, so a project mounting both can
point them at one function, and that function may raise either package's ApiError: a refusal
is recognised by its class name and its code, as the TypeScript packages do, not by its class.
Only UNAUTHORIZED and FORBIDDEN count as a refusal; an ApiError with any other code, like
any other exception, is an unexpected error and answers 500.
Running it on its own
The package also carries a complete Django project, for a deployment that runs the API as a
service of its own. Configure it through environment variables (see
Environment variables), or through a .env file in the directory you
start it from. The project does not depend on a WSGI server, so install one alongside it:
pip install vintasend-templates-management-api gunicorn
export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=vintasend_templates_management_api.settings
django-admin check # fails on missing or unusable settings
gunicorn vintasend_templates_management_api.wsgi:application --bind 0.0.0.0:3334
Your service factory must be importable by the process, so install it as a package or put its
directory on PYTHONPATH. vintasend_templates_management_api.asgi:application is there for an
ASGI server, though the API is synchronous throughout.
Getting started
To work on the API itself, from a checkout:
poetry install
cp .env.example .env
Then configure the service the API should read from (below), and run:
poetry run python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:3334
Configuring your service
The API ships no template store of its own. Point MANAGED_TEMPLATE_SERVICE_FACTORY at a
callable that returns a configured service:
# vintasend_templates_management_api/vintasend_config.py
from vintasend_managed_templates.managed_template_renderer import ManagedTemplateEmailRenderer
from vintasend_managed_templates.managed_template_service import ManagedTemplateService
def create_template_service():
backend = ... # your BaseTemplateManagerBackend
renderer = ManagedTemplateEmailRenderer(backend, ...) # wraps an ordinary renderer
return ManagedTemplateService(
template_manager_backend=backend,
template_renderer=renderer,
)
Start from
vintasend_config.example.py,
copying it to vintasend_templates_management_api/vintasend_config.py (gitignored) in a checkout.
With the package installed, the factory lives in any module of yours the process can import,
such as myproject.templates_api.create_template_service. The factory is called once per process and its result reused, so it must be safe to call once and the
service it returns must be safe to share across requests.
Only the preview endpoint uses the renderer, so a deployment that never previews can pass one that raises. A preview never uses a fallback registered on the renderer: it renders a stored version or reports a 404.
Attribution
Status routes record a changedBy in the audit trail. By default it comes from the request
body, which is only safe when everyone holding the API key is trusted to attribute honestly.
When the host knows who is calling (a gateway header, a session it validated), point
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_ACTOR_RESOLVER at a callable that answers it:
# vintasend_templates_management_api/vintasend_config.py
def resolve_actor(request) -> str | None:
return request.headers.get("X-Authenticated-User") # set by your trusted proxy
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_ACTOR_RESOLVER=vintasend_templates_management_api.vintasend_config.resolve_actor
When it is set, its answer is what /status, /activate, /deactivate and /archive all
record, and any changedBy in the body is ignored. None records the change as unattributed.
The resolver may be async. The body field stays optional in the contract, so existing clients
keep working. In settings.py you can also assign the callable itself rather than a dotted path.
Backend name
POST /templates stores the templateManagedBackend its body carries. A host that serves one
template backend sets MANAGED_TEMPLATE_BACKEND_NAME, and every new template is stored under that
name instead, so a caller cannot label a template with another backend:
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_BACKEND_NAME=medplum
Unset, the body's value is stored. The body field stays required either way, so clients written against the contract keep working.
Unexpected errors
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_UNHANDLED_ERROR_HANDLER names a callable (exc, request, request_id) -> None
that receives every error the API does not map to a contract error, in place of the default
one-line log. It may be async. It gets the exception itself, so keeping health data out of
wherever it sends it is your responsibility. If it raises, the default line is logged instead
and what it raised is not; the client gets the same generic 500 with the same X-Request-Id
either way.
def report_unhandled_error(exc, request, request_id):
error_tracker.capture(exc, tags={"request_id": request_id}) # with its own scrubbing
The lifecycle is your service's, not this API's. A ManagedTemplateService subclass with
its own ALLOWED_STATUS_TRANSITIONS, or one built with
validate_status_transitions=False, is reported accurately through allowedTransitions
and enforced through the same 409.
Environment variables
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
VINTASEND_API_KEY |
unless an authenticator is set | Shared secret clients must send as a bearer token. |
VINTASEND_API_AUTHENTICATOR |
no | Dotted path to (request) -> None, replacing the shared-key check. See Authenticating callers yourself. |
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_SERVICE_FACTORY |
yes | Dotted path to the callable building your service. |
VINTASEND_API_CORS_ORIGINS |
no | Comma-separated browser origins allowed to call the API. |
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_BACKEND_NAME |
no | Backend name every new template is stored under, replacing the create body's. See Backend name. |
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_ACTOR_RESOLVER |
no | Dotted path to (request) -> str | None, who made a status change. See Attribution. |
MANAGED_TEMPLATE_UNHANDLED_ERROR_HANDLER |
no | Dotted path to (exc, request, request_id) -> None. See Unexpected errors. |
DJANGO_SECRET_KEY |
no | Django requires one; this API signs nothing. |
DJANGO_DEBUG / DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS / DJANGO_LOG_LEVEL |
no | Standard Django knobs. |
DJANGO_DB_* |
no | Only needed by backends that resolve their models through Django. |
The required ones are enforced by a Django system check, so a deployment missing one fails
on manage.py check and on runserver rather than on the first request. The three hooks are
checked the same way: a dotted path that does not import, or names something that is not
callable, fails the check. Run
manage.py check in your release step if you serve with gunicorn.
Development
poetry run python manage.py runserver # dev server
poetry run pytest # tests
poetry run ruff check . # lint
poetry run ruff format . # format
poetry run mypy # type-check
poetry run python manage.py export_openapi # regenerate openapi.yaml
poetry run python manage.py export_openapi --check # fail if it is stale
Tests drive the real Django application through the test client over a real
ManagedTemplateService composed of in-memory seams. Faking the seams rather than the
service is deliberate: version resolution, the transition table and filter validation are
the service's behaviour, and this API's job is to expose it faithfully — a fake service
would let a route drift from the thing it is meant to be exposing without the suite
noticing.
Design notes
Worth knowing if you are implementing this contract elsewhere, or wondering why something is missing.
Filters are dropped; orders are refused. Both are negotiated against the same capability report, and they resolve in opposite directions. That is deliberate:
| Unsupported filter | Unsupported order | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | dropped, request succeeds | 400 BAD_REQUEST |
| If it were ignored | more rows than asked for | the same rows, arbitrary sequence |
| Can the client tell? | yes, from the rows | no |
A client rendering an unordered page under a highlighted "sorted by name" column header is
displaying a sort that never happened, and nothing in the response says so. Sending
orderByDirection without orderByField is a 400 for the same reason — ignoring it looks
exactly like a backend that cannot sort, which hides the client bug.
Neither ordering parameter has a default. Every orderBy.* capability defaults to
false, so a default field would make the ordinary listing a 400 against most backends.
Omitted asks for the backend's own order — which is what an unordered listing has always
returned. Note this differs from vintasend-api, which does default its order; there,
every notification backend can sort.
Read GET /api/v1/capabilities and offer only the columns it reports as sortable.
Pagination needs no negotiation. vintasend-api reads pagination.oneIndexed off
each backend because notification backends genuinely differ. Here ManagedTemplateService
validates page >= 1 itself and no call reaches a backend without passing through that
validation, so the wire's 1-indexing is the service's convention.
Capabilities are declared, not required. BaseTemplateManagerBackend.get_filter_capabilities
is concrete and returns {}, so a backend that says nothing keeps working. As with
notifications, a backend declares only what it cannot do, and ManagedTemplateService
merges its report over the library's default.
The orderBy.* keys are the one exception to "a missing key means supported": they
default to false. Ordering is newer vocabulary than the filters, so a true default
would have every backend written before it existed claim an order it silently ignores. A
backend that can sort declares it — and should verify each claim by running the sort, not
by reading its store's documentation.
Composition is reported, not enforced on write. A template that extends a base which
does not exist yet is stored without complaint: a UI drafting a set of templates would
otherwise have to create them in dependency order, and a base can legitimately be written
after the child that names it. The cost is that a broken reference is found on read rather
than on save — which is why GET /templates/{key}/composition exists and returns the
library's message verbatim, and why a save-then-check round trip is the pattern for an
editor that wants to warn before publishing. Publishing is where it matters: a template
that cannot be assembled cannot be sent, so check before POST /templates/{key}/activate.
Preview contexts are plain dicts. The renderer seam types a context as
NotificationContextDict, but that class cannot represent an ordinary nested object: its
validation requires every value inside a nested dict to itself be a
NotificationContextDict, with no base case for a scalar, so {"user": {"name": "Ana"}}
is inexpressible. None values and lists of strings are refused for related reasons, and
both appear in real stored contexts. Since a notification's stored context_used is a
plain dict and renderers only read from a context, the caller's object is passed through —
the same thing vintasend-api does. A preview that refused what a real send carries would
be a worse guide to production than no preview.
Updates create versions. POST /templates/{key}/versions rather than a PATCH,
because the backend copies the latest version forward and applies the non-None fields to
the copy. An already-published version is never modified, and the route shape says so.
Deletion is per version. The seam has no operation removing every version of a key, so neither does this API; doing it as a loop here would be a multi-step deletion with no transaction around it.
Retagging is the one write that does not create a version. PUT /templates/{key}/tags
edits a version in place, unlike every other write on a template. Tags describe how a
template is found, not what it renders, so relabelling one for search should not fork a
version and drop it back to draft. To change tags and content together, send tags on
POST /templates/{key}/versions instead — where an omitted tags carries the previous
version's forward and [] clears them.
Tag listing is paged in this API, not in the store. The template-manager seam has no
paginated tag read, so GET /tags slices the page in process. That is sound in a way
in-process ordering would not be: get_tags returns the whole set in one stable order,
so a page is a slice of a complete list rather than a re-sort of an arbitrary window.
fields.mostRecentActiveVersion is a capability of its own. It is not a column test like
every other field: a backend answers it by comparing a row against the other versions of its
key, which a store keeping no version history cannot do. Declining it means the list endpoint
drops it and returns a row per version — the honest answer for a store that has only one.
The two tag filters are separate capabilities. fields.includesAllTags and
fields.includesAnyOfTags are different queries — the first needs a per-template count
over the tags asked for, the second only needs membership — so a backend can support one
without the other. As with every filter, a declined one is dropped rather than failing the
request.
License
MIT
Metadata
Release files for vintasend-templates-management-api 3.5.0
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