---
title: "Preview Sequence"
method: GET
path: "/sequences/{sequence_id}/preview"
tags: ["Sequence Lifecycle"]
---

# Preview Sequence

`GET /sequences/{sequence_id}/preview`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://be.graph8.com/api/v1`
- URL: `https://be.graph8.com/api/v1/sequences/{sequence_id}/preview`
- Auth: HTTP bearer

Load a sequence with its steps and channels, including RESOLVED copy. No enrollment.

Each step carries both:

- ``step_data``: the stored template, exactly as written, spintax braces and all.
- ``rendered``: the same copy with spintax collapsed to one real variant, plus
  ``total_combinations`` and up to three sample ``variants``.

Use ``rendered`` to answer "is my spintax working?". If ``variants`` differ from
each other, per-contact variation is live and each lead gets a different email.
``{{variables}}`` stay visible in ``rendered`` on purpose; they fill in at send
time from contact data, and a preview has no contact to fill them from.

``rendered`` is null for ON_DEMAND steps, whose copy the AI writes per contact
at send time rather than reading from ``step_data``.

## Path parameters

- `sequence_id` string, required: Sequence ID

## Headers

- `Authorization` string, nullable
- `X-Target-Org-Id` string, nullable

## Response `200`

Successful Response

- ApiResponseSequencePreviewResponse
  - `data` SequencePreviewResponse, required
    - `id` string, required
    - `name` string, nullable
    - `status` string, nullable
    - `description` string, nullable
    - `steps` PreviewStepItem[]
      - `id` string, required
      - `step_order` integer, required
      - `step_type` string, required
      - `input_type` string, required
      - `time_interval` integer, nullable
      - `step_data` object, nullable
      - `rendered` RenderedStepContent: What a step's copy actually looks like once spintax is resolved. Exists because ``step_data`` is the stored TEMPLATE, not the delivered email. A caller reading raw ``{{a|b|c}}`` back out of a field called "preview" has no way to tell working spintax from broken spintax, which is precisely how a working feature got reported as broken (see the PR that added this).
        - `subject` string, required: Subject with spintax resolved to one variant
        - `body` string, required: Body with spintax resolved to one variant
        - `spintax_blocks` integer, required: Count of top-level spintax blocks across subject + body. 0 means this step contains no spintax at all, which distinguishes 'nothing to vary' from 'spintax failed to resolve'.
        - `total_combinations` integer, required: Distinct emails this step can produce. Always >= 1; a value of exactly 1 means the copy is too templated to vary, which is a legitimate outcome and not an error.
        - `variants` string[]: Up to 3 distinct body renderings under different selection seeds. This is the proof that spintax works: if these differ, per-contact variation is functioning. Fewer than 3 entries means the copy cannot produce more.
        - `variables_resolved` boolean: False for this endpoint. Spintax is resolved but {{variables}} are left visible on purpose, because a preview has no contact and resolving against an empty contact would delete the token and show a hole in the copy. Variables fill in at send time.
        - `will_send_as_shown` boolean: True when the rendered copy above is what a recipient actually gets. False means content_issues contains errors that make the delivered email differ from this preview, because malformed tokens are silently DELETED at send rather than raising. Do not launch on a false.
        - `content_issues` object[]: Findings from the same content-syntax validator that blocks launch, so a caller sees them here instead of discovering them as a 400 on run (or worse, as missing text in a delivered email). Each entry carries code, severity, message, field and snippet. An error-severity entry will block POST /sequences/{id}/run.
    - `channels` PreviewChannelItem[]
      - `id` string, required
      - `channel_id` integer, nullable
      - `channel_value` string, nullable
      - `channel_type` string, nullable
  - `pagination` PaginationMeta
    - `page` integer, required: Current page number (1-indexed)
    - `limit` integer, required: Items per page
    - `total` integer, required: Total number of items
    - `has_next` boolean, required: Whether there are more pages
    - `next_cursor` string, nullable: Opaque cursor for the next page; null when there are no more items. Pass it back as the `cursor` query param to fetch the following page without computing page numbers.
    - `total_available` integer, nullable: Search endpoints only: how many records really match, when known. Can be larger than `total`, which is capped at the 10,000 results that can be paged. For company search this is a distinct-company estimate. Null when unknown; absent outside search.
    - `total_is_lower_bound` boolean, nullable: Search endpoints only: true when more records match than `total` shows (the result set is larger than the 10,000 results that can be paged). Absent outside search.
    - `notes` string[], nullable: Search endpoints only: plain-language notes about the result, e.g. that more records match than can be paged, or that a reversed `between` range was put in order.

## Other responses

- `422`: Validation Error

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/graph8/apis/graph8-developer-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/graph8/apis/graph8-developer-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/graph8/apis/graph8-developer-api/revisions/2e7cfa0ca921?raw)