Quickstart

From zero to your first message in under 10 minutes. Sandbox sends are free and don't need a funded wallet.

Create an account

curl

# Or just use the dashboard: /signup
curl -X POST http://localhost:5160/dashboard/signup \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "email": "you@company.co.za",
    "password": "a-strong-password",
    "organizationName": "My Company"
  }'

Create a test API key

Go to API keys → New key, pick the Test project and copy the lap_test_… key - it is shown exactly once.

Send a sandbox message

curl

curl -X POST http://localhost:5160/v1/messages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer lap_test_YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "+27821234567",
    "body": "Hello from LapSMS!"
  }'

The response comes back immediately:

response

{
  "id": "msg_01j9v7...",
  "status": "delivered",
  "to": "+27821234567",
  "segments": 1,
  "encoding": "gsm7",
  "sandbox": true,
  "charge": { "amount": 0.00, "currency": "ZAR" }
}

Sandbox messages are marked "sandbox": true, cost R0.00 and go straight to delivered without touching a real phone.

Check a message's status

curl

curl http://localhost:5160/v1/messages/msg_01j9v7... \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer lap_test_YOUR_KEY"

Go live

Create a key on the Live project, fund your wallet, and use the same request. Real messages move queued → submitted → delivered; you can watch each one in the dashboard's message log, and get pushed updates via webhooks.

Client libraries

Any HTTP client works. Here's the same call in C# and TypeScript:

using var http = new HttpClient();
http.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization =
    new("Bearer", "lap_test_YOUR_KEY");

var response = await http.PostAsJsonAsync(
    "http://localhost:5160/v1/messages",
    new { to = "+27821234567", body = "Hello from LapSMS!" });

var message = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<JsonElement>();
Console.WriteLine(message.GetProperty("id"));

TypeScript

const res = await fetch("http://localhost:5160/v1/messages", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: "Bearer lap_test_YOUR_KEY",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    to: "+27821234567",
    body: "Hello from LapSMS!",
  }),
});

const message = await res.json();
console.log(message.id, message.status);