notifier/QUICKSTART.md

Quick Start Guide

Prerequisites

1. Go 1.23.2 or higher installed
2. Dependencies installed: go mod tidy

Running the REST Server

Option 1: Using go run

go run ./cmd/restserver/main.go

Option 2: Build and run

go build -o bin/restserver ./cmd/restserver
./bin/restserver

Option 3: Using Make

make build
make run-rest

The server will start on http://localhost:8080 by default.

Testing with cURL

1. Health Check

curl http://localhost:8080/health

Expected response:

{
  "status": "healthy",
  "service": "notifier",
  "time": "2025-10-16T21:05:27Z"
}

2. Send a Simple Notification

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "stdout",
    "subject": "Hello World",
    "body": "This is a test notification!",
    "recipients": ["console"]
  }'

Expected response:

{
  "result": {
    "notification_id": "abc123...",
    "success": true,
    "message": "notification queued successfully",
    "sent_at": "2025-10-16T21:05:27Z"
  }
}

The notification will be printed to the server's stdout.

3. Send with Priority

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "stdout",
    "priority": 4,
    "subject": "CRITICAL Alert",
    "body": "This is a critical notification!",
    "recipients": ["console"],
    "max_retries": 5
  }'

Priority levels:

• 0 - Low
• 1 - Normal (default)
• 2 - High
• 3 - Critical

4. Send Batch Notifications

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications/batch \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "notifications": [
      {
        "type": "stdout",
        "subject": "Notification 1",
        "body": "First notification",
        "recipients": ["console"]
      },
      {
        "type": "stdout",
        "subject": "Notification 2",
        "body": "Second notification",
        "recipients": ["console"]
      }
    ]
  }'

5. Get Notification Statistics

curl http://localhost:8080/api/v1/stats

Expected response:

{
  "total_sent": 5,
  "total_failed": 0,
  "total_pending": 0,
  "total_queued": 0,
  "by_type": {
    "stdout": 5
  },
  "by_status": {
    "sent": 5
  },
  "average_latency_ms": 0
}

6. List Notifications

# List all notifications
curl http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications

# List with filters
curl "http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications?type=stdout&status=sent&limit=10"

7. Get Specific Notification

curl http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications/{notification-id}

Testing with Other Notifiers

SMTP (Email)

Update notifier.config with named accounts:

notifiers:
  smtp:
    personal:
      host: "smtp.gmail.com"
      port: 587
      username: "your-email@gmail.com"
      password: "your-app-password"
      from: "your-email@gmail.com"
      use_tls: true
      default: true
    work:
      host: "smtp.company.com"
      port: 587
      username: "you@company.com"
      password: "your-work-password"
      from: "notifications@company.com"
      use_tls: true

Then send:

# Uses default account (personal)
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "email",
    "subject": "Test Email",
    "body": "This is a test email!",
    "recipients": ["recipient@example.com"]
  }'

# Specify account explicitly
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "email",
    "account": "work",
    "subject": "Test Email",
    "body": "This is a test email!",
    "recipients": ["recipient@example.com"]
  }'

Slack

Update notifier.config with named workspaces:

notifiers:
  slack:
    main:
      webhook_url: "https://hooks.slack.com/services/YOUR/WEBHOOK/URL"
      username: "Notifier Bot"
      icon_emoji: ":bell:"
      default: true
    team-a:
      webhook_url: "https://hooks.slack.com/services/TEAM-A/WEBHOOK/URL"
      username: "Team A Bot"
      icon_emoji: ":rocket:"

Then send:

# Uses default workspace (main)
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "slack",
    "subject": "Deployment Alert",
    "body": "Application deployed successfully to production!",
    "recipients": ["#alerts"]
  }'

# Specify workspace explicitly
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "slack",
    "account": "team-a",
    "subject": "Deployment Alert",
    "body": "Application deployed successfully!",
    "recipients": ["#alerts"]
  }'

Ntfy

Update notifier.config with named servers:

notifiers:
  ntfy:
    public:
      server_url: "https://ntfy.sh"
      default: true
    private:
      server_url: "https://ntfy.mycompany.com"
      username: "your-username"
      password: "your-password"

Then send:

# Uses default server (public)
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "ntfy",
    "subject": "Mobile Alert",
    "body": "This will appear on your phone!",
    "recipients": ["mytopic"],
    "metadata": {
      "tags": ["warning", "skull"]
    }
  }'

# Specify server explicitly
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/v1/notifications \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "ntfy",
    "account": "private",
    "subject": "Mobile Alert",
    "body": "This will appear on your phone!",
    "recipients": ["mytopic"]
  }'

Configuration

Using Environment Variables

export NOTIFIER_SERVER_REST_PORT=9000
export NOTIFIER_QUEUE_WORKER_COUNT=20
export NOTIFIER_NOTIFIERS_SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
export NOTIFIER_NOTIFIERS_SMTP_PASSWORD=secret

./bin/restserver

Using notifier.config

Create or modify notifier.config in the project root:

server:
  rest_port: 8080
  host: "0.0.0.0"

queue:
  type: "local"
  worker_count: 10

notifiers:
  stdout: true

Docker Deployment

Build Docker Image

docker build -t notifier:latest .

Run with Docker

docker run -p 8080:8080 \
  -v $(pwd)/notifier.config:/app/notifier.config \
  notifier:latest

Using Docker Compose

docker-compose up

Kubernetes Deployment

Deploy to Kubernetes

# Apply all resources
kubectl apply -f k8s/

# Check status
kubectl get pods -l app=notifier
kubectl get svc -l app=notifier

# View logs
kubectl logs -f -l app=notifier

# Port forward to access locally
kubectl port-forward svc/notifier-rest 8080:8080

Next Steps

1. Add Authentication: Implement API key or OAuth authentication
2. Add Email Templates: Support for templated notifications
3. Add Webhooks: Get callbacks when notifications are sent/failed
4. Add Persistence: Store notifications in a database
5. Add Kafka Queue: For distributed processing
6. Add Metrics: Instrument with Prometheus metrics
7. Add Tests: Write unit and integration tests

Troubleshooting

Server won't start

• Check if port 8080 is already in use: lsof -i :8080
• Check notifier.config syntax
• Verify all dependencies are installed: go mod tidy

Notifications not sending

• Check server logs for errors
• Verify the notifier is enabled in notifier.config
• For SMTP: Verify credentials and allow less secure apps
• For Slack: Verify webhook URL is correct
• For Ntfy: Ensure topic name is valid

Queue filling up

• Increase worker count in notifier.config
• Check if notifiers are failing
• Review retry configuration

API Reference

Full API documentation available in ARCHITECTURE.md.

Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
GET	/health	Health check
POST	/api/v1/notifications	Send notification
POST	/api/v1/notifications/batch	Send batch
GET	/api/v1/notifications	List notifications
GET	/api/v1/notifications/{id}	Get notification
DELETE	/api/v1/notifications/{id}	Cancel notification
POST	/api/v1/notifications/{id}/retry	Retry notification
GET	/api/v1/stats	Get statistics