How to generate API keys for API and SMTP sending with IAM

Reviewed on June 02, 2025

This page shows you how to generate API keys with IAM to send transactional emails via API and SMTP.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

A Scaleway account logged into the console
Owner status or IAM permissions allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization
A domain name
Configured your domain with Transactional Email
Added SPF, DKIM, and MX records to your domain

Generate an API key using IAM and send emails via the API

To send your emails via the API, a valid API key and your Project ID are required.

Create an IAM application.
Create a policy giving appropriate permissions to carry out actions for Transactional Email in the desired Project(s), with the IAM application attached as a principal.
Create an API key for your application.
Important
Make sure you save your secret and access keys as you will need them in the following step.
Open a terminal on your computer and type the following command to send an email via the API:

cat > mail.json <<EOF
{
    "from": {
        "name": "Alice",
        "email": "alice@my.domain.example.com"
    },
    "to": [
        {
        "name": "Bob",
        "email": "bob@caramail.fr"
        }
    ],
    "subject": "Some subject",
    "text": "Some text.",
    "html": "<p>Some <span style=\"font-weight:bold\">HTML</span>.</p>",
    "project_id": "<project-id>",
    "attachments": [
        {
            "name": "file.html",
            "type": "text/html; charset=\"utf8\"",
            "content": "PCFET0NUWVBFIGh0bWw+CjxodG1sIGxhbmc9ImVuIj4KICAgIDxoZWFkPgogICAgICAgIDxtZXRhIGNoYXJzZXQ9InV0Zi04Ij4KICAgICAgICA8dGl0bGU+dGl0bGU8L3RpdGxlPgogICAgPC9oZWFkPgogICAgPGJvZHk+CiAgICAgICAgPHA+SGVsbG8gPHNwYW4gc3R5bGU9ImNvbG9yOmJsdWUiPndvcmxkPC9zcGFuPiE8L3A+CiAgICA8L2JvZHk+CjwvaHRtbD4="
        }
    ]
}
EOF

curl -X POST "https://api.scaleway.com/transactional-email/v1alpha1/regions/$REGION/emails" \
-H "X-Auth-Token: $TOKEN" \
-d @mail.json

Important

If you have not configured your environment on your local machine, make sure you replace \<project_id\> with your Project ID, $REGION with fr-par and $TOKEN with your secret key. If you do not replace the Project ID, the API displays a "permission denied" error message.
Make sure you replace the email addresses with yours and your recipient's.

The following output should display:

{"emails":[{"id":"655c27f2-b2a3-4a9f-8e1f-3e6dc268b1c4","message_id":"3d928e21-187a-4539-b303-403156e37911","project_id":"3e44a89e-1f75-45f5-9b93-422db94165eb","mail_from":"alice@my.domain.example.com","rcpt_to":"bob@caramail.fr","rcpt_type":"to","created_at":"2022-08-01T07:55:36.758671147Z","updated_at":"2022-08-01T07:55:36.758671147Z","status":"new","status_details":"not yet processed","try_count":0,"last_tries":[]}]}%

Generate an API key using IAM to send emails via SMTP

Note

Scaleway supports the PLAIN and LOGIN authentication methods.

The Transactional Email SMTP relay is available at smtp.tem.scaleway.com on ports 25, 587, 2587 (non TLS), 465 and 2465 (TLS). To send your emails using SMTP, a valid API secret key and your Project ID are required.

Generate an API key as shown above.
Authenticate yourself to the server using your Project ID as a username.
Use your secret key as a password and start sending emails.