Templates

Templates are stored in the Plunk dashboard and can be used in campaigns, workflows, and transactional emails sent through /v1/send.

Anatomy of a template

A template bundles everything needed to render an email: content, sender, and behaviour.

When a template is used by /v1/send, the request can override any of subject, body, from, fromName, replyTo — the template's values act as defaults.

Sender domain verification

The from address must be on a verified domain. Creating or updating a template with an unverified from returns 403. See Verifying domains.

Designing templates

Templates can be created using the built-in editor or by uploading your own HTML.

Personalization

You can use contact data to personalize your templates by using the handlebars syntax {{ key }}, where key is the contact data key. Subjects and bodies are rendered with Liquid, so besides variables like {{ key }} you also get conditionals, loops and filters. See Template language for the full reference.

<p>Hi {{firstName ?? 'there'}},</p>

{% if locale == 'es' %}
  <p>Tu plan {{plan | upcase}} se renueva pronto.</p>
{% else %}
  <p>Your {{plan | upcase}} plan renews soon.</p>
{% endif %}

Always Available Variables

These variables are always available in your templates, regardless of custom contact data:

Fallback Values

You can provide fallback values for variables that might not be set:

Hello {{firstName ?? 'there'}}!

If firstName is not set, this will render as "Hello there!" Liquid's default filter does the same thing and can fall back to another variable rather than a literal:

Hello {{firstName | default: nickname}}!

Conditionals, loops and filters

Anything Liquid supports works in a template — branch on a custom field, loop over an array, or transform a value with a filter:

{% case plan %}
  {% when 'pro' %}<p>Here's 20% off your renewal.</p>
  {% when 'free' %}<p>Upgrade and save 20%.</p>
  {% else %}<p>Thanks for being with us.</p>
{% endcase %}

<ul>
  {% for item in cartItems %}
    <li>{{item.name}} — {{item.price | times: quantity | round: 2}}</li>
  {% endfor %}
</ul>

This lets a single campaign cover combinations that would otherwise need one campaign per segment — e.g. three languages × two offers in one send instead of six. See Template language.

Special Fields

The following fields are reserved by Plunk but can still be used.

Previewing templates

You can preview your templates by selecting a contact in the preview window. This will allow you to see how the template will look for that specific contact, with their data populated.

Duplicating and finding usage

• POST /templates/:id/duplicate — creates an editable copy. Useful for A/B variants or as a starting point for related emails.
• GET /templates/:id/usage — lists every campaign, workflow step, and other reference that points at this template. Use this to answer "what breaks if I change this template?" or to find leftover references before deletion.

Templates types

There are three types of templates in Plunk. Each type is treated at the same priority when sending emails, you should not pick one type over the other based on deliverability or performance.

What's next