Send email with Python

Prerequisites

You need a Rovela account (free, no card), an API key from the dashboard, and a verified sending domain. Python 3.7 or later is assumed throughout, with the requests library installed. The same approach works with urllib from the standard library, or with httpx for async, by swapping the HTTP call.

import os
import requests

res = requests.post(
    "https://api.rovela.dev/emails",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['ROVELA_API_KEY']}",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "from": "hello@yourdomain.com",
        "to": "user@example.com",
        "subject": "Welcome aboard",
        "html": "<p>Thanks for signing up. Your account is ready.</p>",
    },
)
print("Sent:", res.json()["id"])

Send your first email

Import requests and os, read your API key from an environment variable, and POST a JSON body to the /emails endpoint. The from address must be on a domain you have verified. The response includes an id you can use to look up the delivery status later.

Retries with idempotency keys

Network requests fail, and the safe response to a timeout is to retry. But a retry can produce a second message if the first one actually went through and only the response was lost. An idempotency key fixes this: send the same key on every attempt, and Rovela returns the original response without dispatching a duplicate. Generate the key once before the retry loop, not inside it.

import os
import time
import uuid
import requests

def send_with_retry(payload, retries=3):
    key = str(uuid.uuid4())
    for i in range(retries + 1):
        res = requests.post(
            "https://api.rovela.dev/emails",
            headers={
                "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['ROVELA_API_KEY']}",
                "Content-Type": "application/json",
                "Idempotency-Key": key,  # same key on every attempt
            },
            json=payload,
        )
        if res.status_code < 500:
            return res                    # 2xx or 4xx — stop
        time.sleep(min(1000 * 2 ** i, 8000) / 1000)  # backoff, capped
    raise RuntimeError(f"send failed after {retries} retries")

Environment variables

Never put an API key in source code. Use os.environ and load it from a .env file with python-dotenv in development, or from your deployment platform's secret store in production. Rotate the key from the Rovela dashboard if it is ever exposed; the new key takes effect immediately and the old one stops working.