Plunk

Plunk handles both transactional emails and campaign emails (weekly newsletter).

Setup

1. Sign up at useplunk.com
2. Add + verify your sending domain via DNS
3. Get your Secret and Public API keys + set your verified sending email

PLUNK_SECRET_KEY=sk_...
PLUNK_PUBLIC_KEY=pk_...
PLUNK_FROM_EMAIL=[email protected]

Without PLUNK_SECRET_KEY, lib/plunk.ts returns null from send() and logs a warning — callers fail gracefully, nothing breaks.

Emails shipped

All templates are React Email components in emails/:

Sending an email

Helper signature in lib/plunk.ts:

await send({ to, subject, body, subscribed })

• to — recipient email
• subject — email subject
• body — rendered HTML string (render from a React Email component with @react-email/components)
• subscribed — true | false — whether Plunk should treat this address as a subscriber

Typical usage in lib/emails.ts:

const body = await render(<WelcomeEmail name={user.name} />)
await send({ to: user.email, subject: "Welcome", body, subscribed: true })

Newsletter (campaign)

For the weekly newsletter, the cron uses Plunk's /campaigns endpoint to create and send. The subscribed audience is managed entirely by Plunk — Launchy doesn't maintain a subscribers table. See Newsletter.

DNS / deliverability

Plunk auto-handles SPF + DKIM once you verify your domain. For DMARC (recommended):

Type: TXT
Host: _dmarc
Value: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[email protected]

Start with p=none to observe; upgrade to p=quarantine or p=reject after a few weeks.

Preview templates locally

bun run email:dev

React Email's dev server renders every template in emails/ with hot reload. Open the browser preview and iterate.

Testing real sends

bun scripts/send-test-newsletter.ts

Requires PLUNK_SECRET_KEY and TEST_EMAIL set. Renders the current week's batch and sends to you.

Custom emails

1. Create emails/my-email.tsx:

   import { EmailWrapper, Text } from "./components"
   export default function MyEmail({ name }: { name: string }) {
     return <EmailWrapper preview="Hi"><Text>Hi {name}</Text></EmailWrapper>
   }

2. Send from anywhere:

   const body = await render(<MyEmail name={user.name} />)
   await send({ to, subject: "Hi", body, subscribed: false })

Switching providers

To swap Plunk for Resend / SendGrid / Postmark, rewrite the body of send() in lib/plunk.ts. The call sites don't change.

Common issues

Emails not delivering — Check Plunk dashboard → Sends. Bounces or spam complaints suppress future sends.

"From address not verified" — Finish domain verification in Plunk.

Dev sees no email but no error — PLUNK_SECRET_KEY empty → the lib silently returns null. Set the key, or check logs for the "PLUNK_SECRET_KEY is not set" warning.