Instantly SDK Patterns Skill

Instantly SDK Patterns

Overview

Production-ready patterns for Instantly API v2 integrations. Instantly has no official SDK — all integrations use direct REST calls to https://api.instantly.ai/api/v2/. These patterns provide type safety, retry logic, pagination, and multi-tenant support.

Prerequisites

Completed instantly-install-auth setup
Familiarity with async/await and TypeScript generics
Understanding of REST API pagination patterns

Instructions

Step 1: Type-Safe Client with Error Classification

// src/instantly/client.ts
import "dotenv/config";

export class InstantlyClient {
  private baseUrl: string;
  private apiKey: string;

  constructor(options?: { apiKey?: string; baseUrl?: string }) {
    this.apiKey = options?.apiKey || process.env.INSTANTLY_API_KEY || "";
    this.baseUrl = options?.baseUrl || "https://api.instantly.ai/api/v2";
    if (!this.apiKey) throw new Error("INSTANTLY_API_KEY is required");
  }

  async request<T>(path: string, options: RequestInit = {}): Promise<T> {
    const url = `${this.baseUrl}${path}`;
    const res = await fetch(url, {
      ...options,
      headers: {
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        Authorization: `Bearer ${this.apiKey}`,
        ...options.headers,
      },
    });

    if (!res.ok) {
      const body = await res.text();
      throw new InstantlyApiError(res.status, path, body);
    }

    return res.json() as Promise<T>;
  }

  // Typed convenience methods
  async getCampaigns(params?: { limit?: number; status?: number; search?: string }) {
    const qs = new URLSearchParams();
    if (params?.limit) qs.set("limit", String(params.limit));
    if (params?.status !== undefined) qs.set("status", String(params.status));
    if (params?.search) qs.set("search", params.search);
    return this.request<Campaign[]>(`/campaigns?${qs}`);
  }

  async getCampaign(id: string) {
    return this.request<Campaign>(`/campaigns/${id}`);
  }

  async createCampaign(data: CreateCampaignInput) {
    return this.request<Campaign>("/campaigns", {
      method: "POST",
      body: JSON.stringify(data),
    });
  }

  async activateCampaign(id: string) {
    return this.request<void>(`/campaigns/${id}/activate`, { method: "POST" });
  }

  async pauseCampaign(id: string) {
    return this.request<void>(`/campaigns/${id}/pause`, { method: "POST" });
  }

  async getAccounts(params?: { limit?: number; status?: number }) {
    const qs = new URLSearchParams();
    if (params?.limit) qs.set("limit", String(params.limit));
    if (params?.status !== undefined) qs.set("status", String(params.status));
    return this.request<Account[]>(`/accounts?${qs}`);
  }

  async addLead(data: CreateLeadInput) {
    return this.request<Lead>("/leads", {
      method: "POST",
      body: JSON.stringify(data),
    });
  }

  async listLeads(filter: ListLeadsInput) {
    return this.request<Lead[]>("/leads/list", {
      method: "POST",
      body: JSON.stringify(filter),
    });
  }

  async getCampaignAnalytics(ids: string[]) {
    const qs = ids.map((id) => `ids=${id}`).join("&");
    return this.request<CampaignAnalytics[]>(`/campaigns/analytics?${qs}`);
  }
}

// Error classification
export class InstantlyApiError extends Error {
  public retryable: boolean;

  constructor(public status: number, public path: string, public body: string) {
    super(`Instantly ${status} on ${path}: ${body}`);
    this.name = "InstantlyApiError";
    this.retryable = status === 429 || status >= 500;
  }
}

Step 2: TypeScript Interfaces

// src/instantly/types.ts
export interface Campaign {
  id: string;
  name: string;
  status: number; // 0=Draft,1=Active,2=Paused,3=Completed,4=Running Subsequences
  campaign_schedule: CampaignSchedule;
  sequences: Sequence[];
  daily_limit: number | null;
  stop_on_reply: boolean;
  email_gap: number;
  timestamp_created: string;
}

export interface CampaignSchedule {
  start_date: string | null;
  end_date: string | null;
  schedules: Array<{
    name: string;
    timing: { from: string; to: string };
    days: Record<string, boolean>;
    timezone: string;
  }>;
}

export interface Sequence {
  steps: SequenceStep[];
}

export interface SequenceStep {
  type: "email";
  delay: number;
  delay_unit?: "minutes" | "hours" | "days";
  variants: Array<{ subject: string; body: string; v_disabled?: boolean }>;
}

export interface Account {
  email: string;
  first_name: string;
  last_name: string;
  status: number;
  warmup_status: string;
  daily_limit: number | null;
  provider_code: number;
  warmup: { limit: number; increment: string; advanced: Record<string, unknown> };
}

export interface Lead {
  id: string;
  email: string | null;
  first_name: string | null;
  last_name: string | null;
  company_name: string | null;
  status: number; // 1=Active,2=Paused,3=Completed,-1=Bounced,-2=Unsubscribed,-3=Skipped
  campaign: string | null;
  email_open_count: number;
  email_reply_count: number;
}

export interface CreateCampaignInput {
  name: string;
  campaign_schedule: CampaignSchedule;
  sequences: Sequence[];
  daily_limit?: number;
  stop_on_reply?: boolean;
  email_gap?: number;
  open_tracking?: boolean;
  link_tracking?: boolean;
}

export interface CreateLeadInput {
  campaign?: string;
  list_id?: string;
  email: string;
  first_name?: string;
  last_name?: string;
  company_name?: string;
  custom_variables?: Record<string, string>;
  skip_if_in_workspace?: boolean;
  verify_leads_on_import?: boolean;
}

export interface ListLeadsInput {
  campaign?: string;
  list_id?: string;
  limit?: number;
  starting_after?: string;
}

export interface CampaignAnalytics {
  campaign_id: string;
  total_leads: number;
  emails_sent: number;
  emails_opened: number;
  emails_replied: number;
  emails_bounced: number;
}

Step 3: Retry with Exponential Backoff

// src/instantly/retry.ts
export async function withRetry<T>(
  operation: () => Promise<T>,
  maxRetries = 3,
  baseDelayMs = 1000
): Promise<T> {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await operation();
    } catch (err) {
      if (attempt === maxRetries) throw err;
      if (err instanceof InstantlyApiError && !err.retryable) throw err;

      const delay = baseDelayMs * Math.pow(2, attempt);
      const jitter = Math.random() * delay * 0.1;
      console.warn(`Retry ${attempt + 1}/${maxRetries} in ${delay}ms...`);
      await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, delay + jitter));
    }
  }
  throw new Error("Unreachable");
}

// Usage
const campaigns = await withRetry(() => client.getCampaigns({ limit: 50 }));

Step 4: Cursor-Based Pagination

// src/instantly/paginate.ts
export async function* paginate<T extends { id: string }>(
  client: InstantlyClient,
  path: string,
  pageSize = 100
): AsyncGenerator<T[], void, void> {
  let startingAfter: string | undefined;

  while (true) {
    const qs = new URLSearchParams({ limit: String(pageSize) });
    if (startingAfter) qs.set("starting_after", startingAfter);

    const page = await client.request<T[]>(`${path}?${qs}`);
    if (page.length === 0) break;

    yield page;
    startingAfter = page[page.length - 1].id;

    if (page.length < pageSize) break;
  }
}

// Usage — iterate all campaigns
for await (const batch of paginate<Campaign>(client, "/campaigns")) {
  for (const campaign of batch) {
    console.log(campaign.name, campaign.status);
  }
}

Step 5: Multi-Tenant Factory (Agency Pattern)

// src/instantly/factory.ts
const clients = new Map<string, InstantlyClient>();

export function getClientForWorkspace(workspaceId: string, apiKey: string): InstantlyClient {
  if (!clients.has(workspaceId)) {
    clients.set(workspaceId, new InstantlyClient({ apiKey }));
  }
  return clients.get(workspaceId)!;
}

// Usage — agency managing multiple client workspaces
const clientA = getClientForWorkspace("acme", process.env.ACME_API_KEY!);
const clientB = getClientForWorkspace("globex", process.env.GLOBEX_API_KEY!);

Python Client

# instantly/client.py
import os, time, httpx
from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import Optional

@dataclass
class InstantlyClient:
    api_key: str = ""
    base_url: str = "https://api.instantly.ai/api/v2"

    def __post_init__(self):
        self.api_key = self.api_key or os.getenv("INSTANTLY_API_KEY", "")
        self._client = httpx.Client(
            base_url=self.base_url,
            headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {self.api_key}", "Content-Type": "application/json"},
            timeout=30.0,
        )

    def get(self, path: str, params: Optional[dict] = None):
        r = self._client.get(path, params=params)
        r.raise_for_status()
        return r.json()

    def post(self, path: str, json_data: Optional[dict] = None):
        r = self._client.post(path, json=json_data)
        r.raise_for_status()
        return r.json()

    def patch(self, path: str, json_data: dict):
        r = self._client.patch(path, json=json_data)
        r.raise_for_status()
        return r.json()

    def delete(self, path: str):
        r = self._client.delete(path)
        r.raise_for_status()

    def list_campaigns(self, limit: int = 50):
        return self.get("/campaigns", params={"limit": limit})

    def get_campaign_analytics(self, campaign_id: str):
        return self.get("/campaigns/analytics", params={"id": campaign_id})

Error Handling

| Pattern | Use Case | Benefit | |---------|----------|---------| | Error classification | All API calls | retryable flag prevents retrying 400/403 errors | | Exponential backoff | 429 / 5xx errors | Respects rate limits automatically | | Cursor pagination | Large datasets | Memory-efficient iteration | | Multi-tenant factory | Agency/multi-workspace | Isolated clients per workspace |

Resources

Next Steps

Apply patterns in instantly-core-workflow-a for real-world campaign automation.

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