---
title: "Start an interaction"
method: POST
path: "/interactions"
tags: ["Interactions"]
---

# Start an interaction

`POST /interactions`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.primitive.dev/v1`
- URL: `https://api.primitive.dev/v1/interactions`
- Auth: HTTP bearer

Send the first step of a protocol from one of your addresses: a carrier email with the step's interaction.json part. The step is validated against the protocol before anything is sent. An Idempotency-Key makes a retry return the same interaction without sending again.

## Headers

- `Idempotency-Key` string

## Request body

- StartInteractionRequest
  - `protocol` string, required
  - `protocol_version` integer
  - `step` string, required
  - `from` string, required
  - `to` string, required
  - `payload` unknown
  - `expires_at` string, date-time, nullable
  - `subject` string
  - `body_text` string

## Response `200`

Start an interaction

- object
  - `success` true, required
  - `data` StartInteractionResult, required
    - `interaction_id` string, uuid, nullable, required
    - `wire_id` string, required
    - `step_id` string, required
    - `send_id` string, nullable, required
    - `events` string[], required

## Other responses

- `400`: Invalid request parameters
- `401`: Invalid or missing API key
- `403`: feature_disabled: interactions (or, for wake.dispatch, Wake dispatch) are not enabled for this organization; grant_forbidden: the credential does not hold the permission
- `429`: Rate limit exceeded. The `ratelimit-*` headers describe the limiter that rejected this request, with its own limit and window, not the API budget that successful responses report. A limiter that reports only a wait sends `Retry-After` alone.

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/primitive/apis/primitive-api.md) - [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/primitive/apis/primitive-api/llms.txt) - [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/primitive/apis/primitive-api/revisions/bce409c97acb?raw)