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Inboxes & projects

An inbox collects the mail sent with its SMTP credentials. Create one per app and environment (for example Checkout · staging and Checkout · CI) so that each environment's mail stays separate and each set of credentials can be rotated on its own.

Creating an inbox

Team owners and admins create inboxes with + New in the sidebar, or through the API:

bash
curl -X POST https://testlie.com/api/inboxes \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "name": "Checkout · staging", "maxMessages": 500 }'

The response includes the inbox's id, SMTP credentials (smtp.host, smtp.ports, smtp.username, smtp.password) and, when the server has an inbound domain, its inboundAddress.

Setting Notes
Name Up to 80 characters.
Project Optional; see below.
Message limit How many messages the inbox keeps (1 to 10,000, capped by your plan). When it is full, the oldest messages are removed as new ones arrive. Default 500.
SMTP password Shown to every team member. Admins can Rotate password; apps using the old one start getting 535 straight away.

Disposable inboxes

For a test run that should leave nothing behind, create an inbox that deletes itself (and its messages) after a while:

bash
curl -X POST https://testlie.com/api/inboxes -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "name": "ci-run-1234", "expiresInMinutes": 60 }'

expiresInMinutes can be up to 7 days (10080). The worker removes expired inboxes within a minute of their expiry. Disposable inboxes count toward your plan's inbox limit while they exist.

Projects

Projects group inboxes in the sidebar. They are optional: with no projects the sidebar is a flat list. Create them from the sidebar or the Projects page (admins), then pick a project in an inbox's Inbox settings tab. Deleting a project keeps its inboxes; they move to Ungrouped.

Roles

Role Can
Member Read, search, mark and delete messages; empty inboxes; use identity providers; see webhooks (without their secrets).
Admin Everything members can, plus create, configure and delete inboxes, projects, webhooks, forwarding, API keys and team SSO, invite people, and read the audit log.
Owner Everything admins can, plus manage roles and delete the team.

API keys act as an admin for inboxes, messages, webhooks and identity providers. Team, SSO and API-key management need a signed-in person.

Live updates

The message list updates the moment mail arrives, for everyone viewing the inbox, over server-sent events (GET /api/inboxes/:id/events). Unread counts in the sidebar update with it.

Retention

Messages are deleted when the inbox's message limit pushes them out, when someone deletes them, and when they are older than your plan's retention period (see Plans & limits). When a team moves to a plan with a shorter retention period (after cancelling, a failed payment or the end of a trial), messages older than the new period are deleted within minutes, and each inbox keeps only the new plan's number of messages from its next message on.