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Overview

A creative is a saved pairing of a front design (an image template) and a message template in your Creatives library. It is the recommended way to send: instead of assembling an image, a message, and handwriting settings on every request, you pass one creative_id and thanks.io sends the creative exactly as saved — its design, message, handwriting, and background all come from the creative. Creatives are designed and managed under Creatives in your dashboard. Creatives you build yourself, designs you make with ThanksAI, and templates you save while sending all appear in the library. The API lists and reads your library so your integration can find the right creative_id; it does not create creatives.

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Sending a Creative

Pass the creative’s id as creative_id to any send or estimate endpoint, with your audience:
A creative sends exactly as saved, so it cannot be combined with parameters that would change what it prints — see Send a Creative for the exact rules. Only qrcode_url and, for letters, additional_pages_url can be added.

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Finding the Right Creative

List Creatives returns your library 24 per page, default creatives first. Three filters matter most for sending:
  • mailer_type: a creative can only be sent through the endpoint matching its type. For postcards, size counts: a 6x9 send needs a postcard6x9 creative, while postcard is 4x6.
  • complete_only=1: return only creatives that are ready to send.
  • search: match creatives by name.

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Complete and Incomplete Creatives

A creative can only be sent when it is complete: both the front design and the message are present (letters need only a message). Each creative in the API response carries:
  • is_complete — whether it can be sent.
  • needs — which sides an incomplete creative is missing (front, message).
To complete a creative, open it in your dashboard’s Creatives library and add the missing side. Sending an incomplete creative returns a 422.