← All PostsJul 20, 2026

The curl guide to trigger.fyi

The entire trigger.fyi API is a POST request. Everything available in the SDK is available via curl. Here’s the complete reference.

Plain text (simplest)

curl -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY" \
  -d "Your message here"

The body is the notification title — bold on the lock screen.

With a detail line

curl -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title":"Job complete","body":"847 records in 4m 12s"}'

body appears below the app name on the notification. On iOS: your-app · body text.

Levels

# Normal push (default)
curl -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title":"Deploy complete","level":"normal"}'
 
# Feed only — no push, no lock screen
curl -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title":"Cache warmed","level":"log"}'
 
# Urgency high
curl -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title":"Payment failed","level":"critical","body":"[email protected]"}'

Levels: normal (default), log (feed only), critical (urgency high).

With metadata

curl -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "title": "New signup",
    "body": "[email protected]",
    "meta": {
      "plan": "pro",
      "country": "US",
      "source": "organic"
    }
  }'

Metadata is filterable in the feed and TUI. Filter by plan: pro to see only pro signups.

Test flag

curl -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title":"Test notification","test":true}'

Test events push and appear in the feed, but are excluded from the “no events yet” empty state. Used for pipe verification.

In a shell script

#!/bin/bash
 
KEY="${TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY:-}"
 
notify() {
  [ -z "$KEY" ] && return
  curl -s -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$KEY" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d "{\"title\":\"$1\",\"body\":\"${2:-}\"}" \
    &>/dev/null &
}
 
notify_critical() {
  [ -z "$KEY" ] && return
  curl -s -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$KEY" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d "{\"title\":\"$1\",\"body\":\"${2:-}\",\"level\":\"critical\"}" \
    &>/dev/null
}
 
notify "Starting backup"
rsync -az /data/ /backup/ || { notify_critical "Backup failed" "rsync exit $?"; exit 1; }
notify "Backup complete" "$(du -sh /backup | cut -f1)"

&>/dev/null & sends the curl in the background. The script doesn’t wait for the notification.

Escaping in shell

Quoting JSON in shell is error-prone. Use a heredoc or a temp file for complex payloads:

# Heredoc
PAYLOAD=$(cat <<EOF
{
  "title": "Deploy complete",
  "body": "$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)",
  "meta": {
    "branch": "$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)",
    "env": "production"
  }
}
EOF
)
 
curl -s -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$PAYLOAD"

Response format

A successful send returns 200 OK with:

{ "ok": true }

Errors return a non-200 status with an error message. The SDK swallows these — in curl, check $? or the HTTP status with -w "%{http_code}".

Key from environment

Don’t hardcode the key in scripts:

# In ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY="your_key_here"
 
# In scripts — read from environment
curl -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY" -d "Done"

Or store it in a .env file and source it:

source .env
curl -X POST "https://trigger.fyi/$TRIGGER_FYI_SECRET_KEY" -d "Done"

#Plain text (simplest)

#With a detail line

#Levels

#With metadata

#Test flag

#In a shell script

#Escaping in shell

#Response format

#Key from environment