Notifications
Reach your users across push, in-app inbox, email, SMS, and chat — with per-user preferences, topics for broadcast, and digest batching to avoid flooding them.
Concepts
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Workflow | A Novu notification template defining content, channels, and delivery steps. You trigger workflows by their workflow_id. |
| Channel | Delivery method: push, in-app, email, SMS, chat |
| Subscriber | A user registered to receive notifications (1:1 with user ID) |
| Topic | A named group of subscribers for fan-out delivery |
| Digest | Batching behavior configured in a Novu workflow step — groups events before delivery |
| Provider | External service for delivery (FCM, APNS, SendGrid, Twilio, etc.) |
Endpoint Paths
User-facing endpoints use /api/v1/notifications/, while admin/management endpoints use /api/v1/notifications/manage/.
Protojson Encoding
All responses use protobuf JSON encoding. Fields with default values (false, 0, "") are omitted from the response. Your decoder must treat missing fields as their default value.
Endpoint summary
The surface splits in two. User endpoints act on the calling user's own data and are
what a client app talks to. Management endpoints sit under manage/ and operate across
users — treat them as backend-only.
| Group | Count | Endpoints |
|---|---|---|
| User — Channel registration | 4 | register-push-device, unregister-push-device, get-registered-channels, get-inbox-session |
| User — In-app inbox | 11 | get-inbox-feed, get-inbox-unseen-count, mark-inbox-message, mark-all-inbox-messages, delete-inbox-message, archive-inbox-message, unarchive-inbox-message, archive-all-inbox-messages, archive-all-read-inbox-messages, complete-inbox-action, revert-inbox-action |
| User — Preferences | 4 | get-preferences, update-global-preference, update-workflow-preference, bulk-update-preferences |
| Management — Dispatch | 4 | manage/send, manage/send-bulk, manage/broadcast, manage/cancel |
| Management — Topics | 7 | manage/create-topic, manage/delete-topic, manage/add-subscribers-to-topic, manage/remove-subscribers-from-topic, manage/list-topic-subscribers, manage/check-topic-subscription, manage/send-to-topic |
| Management — Subscribers | 5 | manage/create-subscriber, manage/get-subscriber, manage/update-subscriber-data, manage/delete-subscriber, manage/list-subscribers |
| Management — Workflows | 5 | manage/create-workflow, manage/update-workflow, manage/get-workflow, manage/list-workflows, manage/delete-workflow |
| Management — Digest | 2 | manage/send-with-digest, manage/cancel-digest-event |
| Management — Providers | 2 | manage/configure-provider, manage/get-providers |
| Management — Activity | 2 | manage/get-delivery-status, manage/get-notification-activity |
Request and response schemas for each are in the Notification API Reference.
Where to next
| Page | Covers |
|---|---|
| Push Devices | Registering and unregistering FCM devices |
| Sending | Triggering notifications, bulk sends, digest batching |
| In-App Inbox | Feed, unseen counts, read/archive state, real-time socket |
| Preferences | Per-user channel and workflow opt-outs |
| Topics | Broadcast groups and subscriber membership |
| Administration | Subscribers, workflows, providers, delivery status |
Related
- Authentication & API Keys — Keys and acting on behalf of a user
- Webhooks — For notifying systems rather than people
- Notification API Reference — Full endpoint reference