---
title: "Publish a Realtime event"
method: POST
path: "/v1/realtime/apps/{realtime_app_id}/events"
tags: ["realtime-events"]
---

# Publish a Realtime event

`POST /v1/realtime/apps/{realtime_app_id}/events`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://us1.platform.bird.com`
- URL: `https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/realtime/apps/{realtime_app_id}/events`
- Auth: one of:
  - HTTP bearer and API key in header `X-Realtime-Key` and API key in header `X-Realtime-Secret`
  - API key in cookie `bird_session` and API key in header `X-Realtime-Key` and API key in header `X-Realtime-Secret`

Publishes an event to one or more channels of a Realtime app. Listing several channels broadcasts the event to all of them in one call. Connected clients subscribed to those channels receive it in real time.

## Headers

- `Idempotency-Key` string
- `X-Workspace-Id` string
- `X-Organization-Id` string

## Request body

- RealtimePublish: A Realtime publish: delivers one event to one or more channels of the app. Listing several channels fans the event out to all of them (broadcast) in a single call.
  - `event` string, required: The event name clients bind to. Application event names are free-form; the `bird:` and `bird_internal:` prefixes are reserved for the protocol and rejected.
  - `channels` RealtimeChannelName[], required: The channels to deliver the event to (up to 100 per call). Prefix with `private-` or `presence-` for authenticated channels. A `private-encrypted-` channel must be the only channel in its publish: each encrypted channel has its own key, so a fan-out would hand the other channels unreadable ciphertext.
  - `data` unknown
  - `exclude_connection_id` string: Exclude this connection from delivery, to avoid echoing a change back to the client that triggered it. The value is the client's connection id, assigned when its connection is established.
  - `include` RealtimeChannelInclude[]: Per-channel attributes to return alongside the publish, reflecting each channel's state at publish time. `member_count` is available only for presence channels. `connection_count` requires the app's connection-counting flag. Requesting attributes counts as one additional message toward usage.

## Response `200`

The event was accepted for delivery.

- RealtimePublishResult: The result of a Realtime publish. The event was accepted and fanned out to the requested channels; delivery to connected clients is asynchronous.
  - `data` RealtimeChannelListItem[]: Per-channel attributes at publish time, present only when the request asked for them via `include`; one item per distinct target channel, sorted by name.
    - `member_count` integer: Distinct members (presence channels only; requires `include=member_count`).
    - `connection_count` integer: Connections currently subscribed to this channel (requires `include=connection_count` and the app's connection-counting flag). Channel-scoped: distinct from the app-wide peak connections metric.
    - `name` string, required: A Realtime channel name. Only letters, digits, and _ - = @ , . ; Prefix with `private-` or `presence-` for authenticated channels, or `private-encrypted-` for channels whose payloads are end-to-end encrypted with a key only you hold.

## Other responses

- `400`: Bad request
- `401`: Authentication required
- `403`: Insufficient permissions
- `404`: Resource not found
- `422`: The request has invalid field values, violates a business rule, or carries a query parameter the endpoint does not declare. Field validation errors use `type: validation_error` and include the affected fields in `details`. Business-rule errors identify the failed rule in `type`.
- `429`: Rate limit exceeded
- `500`: Internal server error
- `503`: The service is temporarily unavailable. If `Retry-After` is present, wait for that delay before retrying; otherwise, retry with exponential backoff. Reuse the same idempotency key and request when retrying a mutation.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/messagebird/apis/bird-api/revisions/3e2a50466454?raw)