--- title: "Get an SMS template" method: GET path: "/v1/sms/templates/{template_ref}" tags: ["sms-templates"] --- # Get an SMS template `GET /v1/sms/templates/{template_ref}` ## Request - Base URL: `https://us1.platform.bird.com` - URL: `https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/sms/templates/{template_ref}` - Auth: one of: - HTTP bearer - API key in cookie `bird_session` Returns one SMS template's metadata, policies, language states, draft revision, and draft and live version IDs. The response is shallow; read a version to retrieve content and variables. An unknown or deleted template returns `404`. ## Headers - `X-Workspace-Id` string - `X-Organization-Id` string ## Response `200` The requested SMS template. - SMSTemplate: One SMS template identity and its authoring state. Content and variables live on versions, so this resource stays shallow. - `id` string, required - `workspace_id` string, required - `slug` string, required: A template's slug: what you send it by, for example `welcome-email`. Email and SMS slugs stay fixed after creation. WhatsApp slugs can change only before the first submission. A slug can contain lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores, has to start and end with a letter or a number, and can be up to 63 characters long. - `name` string, required: The template's display name. It defaults to the slug and can be changed on workspace templates. - `description` string, nullable, required: What the template is for. Null if it has no description. - `scope` 'system' | 'workspace', required: Whether the template is one of our built-in templates (`system`) or one your workspace created (`workspace`). - `status` 'draft' | 'pending' | 'active' | 'rejected' | 'inactive', required: Where the template stands as a whole. The same five states on every channel. - `draft`: nothing has ever gone live. - `pending`: nothing is live and at least one language is in review. - `active`: at least one language is live, so something can be sent. - `rejected`: it was reviewed and every language was refused. - `inactive`: nothing is live and nothing is in review, so content was withdrawn or was blocked before anything went live. A template with one language live is `active` even while another is still drafted or refused. Read `languages` for the state of each language and its reason. Which values a channel reports follows its review model. A channel whose content a third party reviews uses all five. On email and SMS, where content goes live on publish, a template is `draft`, `active` or `inactive`, and `pending` and `rejected` are reserved for the review stage coming to both, so a template reaching either is not a breaking change. - `category` 'transactional' | 'marketing' | 'authentication', required: Why messages use this template. Use `authentication` for one-time codes, `marketing` for promotions, and `transactional` for service messages. - `draft_version_id` string, required - `live_version_id` string, required - `published_version_id` string, required - `revision` integer, nullable, required: The draft revision to use for concurrent-edit checks. Null for a built-in template. - `languages` object, required: Each language the template has, keyed by canonical BCP-47 tag, with its live state and whether the draft contains unpublished changes. Content is available from version reads. - `default_language` string, required: A language tag in BCP-47 form, for example `en` or `pt-BR`. - `available_languages` LanguageTag[], required: Languages the live version can currently send. Empty before first publication. - `on_missing_language` 'fallback' | 'fail', required: What a send or a preview does when it asks for a language the template cannot serve. `fallback` serves the closest match instead. It tries a broader form of the same language first, so a request for `pt-BR` can be served by a stocked `pt`, and then the template's default language. A send never fails because a language is missing. `fail` rejects the send rather than serving a different language, for content where sending the wrong language is worse than not sending at all. It matches the requested tag or a broader form of it and refuses a sibling variant, so `pt-BR` is never served by `pt-PT`. A send that names no language still uses the default language. The default is per channel and stated on each channel's own field, because what a wrong-language send costs differs. Where every language is separately reviewed and separately priced, falling back silently would send content the recipient did not expect at a rate the sender did not choose. - `language_source_required` boolean, required: Whether each send must name a language instead of using the live version's default. - `last_submitted_at` string, date-time, nullable, required: When the template was last published. Null before first publication and for built-in templates. - `created_at` string, date-time, nullable, required: When the template was created. Null for built-in templates. - `updated_at` string, date-time, nullable, required: When the template was last modified. Null for built-in templates. ## 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 --- [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/6dfce1179799?raw)