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sinch-mailgun-inspect

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Checks email quality before sending via Mailgun Inspect API. Use when previewing emails across clients, checking accessibility (WCAG), validating links, validating images, or analyzing email HTML/CSS compatibility.

Web Dev

What this skill does


# Mailgun Inspect

## Overview

Mailgun Inspect (by Sinch) is an email pre-send quality control API. Five capabilities:

| Capability | Base Path | Input |
|------------|-----------|-------|
| Accessibility | `/v1/inspect/accessibility` | `html` + `encoded` |
| Link Validation | `/v1/inspect/links` | `links` URL array (or `/html-validate` for HTML) |
| Image Validation | `/v1/inspect/images` | `links` URL array (or `/html-validate` / `/upload`) |
| Code Analysis | `/v1/inspect/analyze` | `html` (no `encoded` field) |
| Email Previews | `/v1/preview/tests` (V1) / `/v2/preview/tests` (V2) | varies |

For full endpoint tables and request schemas, see [references/api-endpoints.md](references/api-endpoints.md).

## Agent Instructions

Before generating code, gather from the user (skip any item already specified in the prompt or context):

1. **Scope** — broad QC (run all four HTML-based tests in parallel) or a specific capability (e.g. "check links" → run only that one)?
2. **Input method** — raw HTML, a list of URLs, or an image file? Route to the correct endpoint per the capability table.
3. **Region** — US or EU? Must match the user's Mailgun account.
4. **Language** — any language, or curl. This API is REST-only; there is no SDK wrapper.

Product gotchas to apply unconditionally:
- **Always poll** — test-creation POST endpoints are typically async; poll GET until status is `"Complete"` or `"Completed"`; treat `"Failed"` as terminal error.
- **V2 preview shortcut** — `POST /v2/preview/tests` can trigger accessibility, link validation, image validation, and code analysis in a single call by adding content-checking fields to the body. Use this when the user wants previews + quality checks together.

Refer to the API references linked in Links for request/response schemas.

**Security**: See the Security section below for url fetching policy and credential handling.

## Getting Started

### Agent Credentials handling

Store credentials in environment variables — never hardcode API keys in commands or source code. In scripts and CI, inject the key via `MAILGUN_API_KEY` (or your platform’s secret mechanism), not literals in the job definition. Do not paste live keys into shell commands that may be logged, shared, or committed.

```bash
export MAILGUN_API_KEY="your-private-api-key"
```

### Authentication

Ensure that authentication headers are properly set when making API calls. Mailgun Inspect uses HTTP Basic Auth — username `api`, password your Mailgun Private API key:

```bash
--user "api:$MAILGUN_API_KEY"
```

Keep the Mailgun private API key in environment variables or a secret manager. Avoid generating commands or code that embed the key next to `--user` except via a variable (as in the example above).

See the [sinch-authentication](../sinch-authentication/SKILL.md) skill for full auth setup.

### Base URLs

| Region | Endpoint |
|--------|----------|
| US | `api.mailgun.net` |
| EU | `api.eu.mailgun.net` |

### Async Workflow -- Critical

Create responses may return `"status": "Processing"` or `"Completed"` depending on endpoint/workload. You **must** poll the GET endpoint until status is `"Complete"` or `"Completed"` (treat `"Failed"` as terminal error) to get actual results.

### Canonical Example: Accessibility Test

```bash
# 1. Create test (returns 201 + test ID)
curl -X POST \
  "https://api.mailgun.net/v1/inspect/accessibility" \
  --user "api:$MAILGUN_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"html": "<html><body><h1>Hello</h1><img src=\"logo.png\"></body></html>", "encoded": false}'

# 2. Poll for results (repeat until status is "Complete" or "Completed"; "Failed" = error)
curl -X GET \
  "https://api.mailgun.net/v1/inspect/accessibility/TEST_ID" \
  --user "api:$MAILGUN_API_KEY"
```

All other endpoints follow the same create-then-poll pattern. Adapt the path and request body per the capability table above. For programmatic use, prefer the Node.js SDK from the authentication skill so the key is not interpolated into command strings.

## Key Concepts

### Choosing the Right Input Method

Each capability accepts different input types. Pick the right one:

- **Have raw HTML?** Use the `html` field directly. For accessibility, set `encoded: false`. For links/images, use the `/html-validate` sub-endpoint. For code analysis, POST to `/v1/inspect/analyze`.
- **Have a list of URLs?** Links and images accept a `links` array of URLs -- no HTML needed.
- **Have an image file?** Use `/v1/inspect/images/upload`.
- **Using base64?** Only accessibility supports `encoded: true`. Code analysis does not use an `encoded` boolean; use supported request fields (`html`/`url`/`mime`/`transfer_encoding`/`charset`).

### Endpoint Path Gotchas

These paths are commonly confused:

- Code analysis is `/v1/inspect/analyze` -- NOT `/v1/inspect/code`
- Email previews are at `/v1/preview/tests` and `/v2/preview/tests` -- NOT `/v1/inspect/preview`
- Link/image HTML input uses the `/html-validate` sub-endpoint -- the base POST takes a URL array

### Response Lifecycle

1. **POST** returns `{"meta": {"status": "Processing"}, "items": {"id": "abc123", ...}}`
2. **GET** poll until status is `"Complete"` or `"Completed"` (treat `"Failed"` as terminal error)
3. **DELETE** clean up when done

Accessibility POST returns **201**. All other POSTs return **200**.

## Common Patterns

### Full Pre-Send Check

For a complete email quality check, fire all four HTML-based tests in parallel, then poll each:

1. `POST /v1/inspect/accessibility` -- body: `{"html": "...", "encoded": false}`
2. `POST /v1/inspect/links/html-validate` -- body: `{"html": "..."}`
3. `POST /v1/inspect/images/html-validate` -- body: `{"html": "..."}`
4. `POST /v1/inspect/analyze` -- body: `{"html": "..."}`
5. Poll each `GET /v1/inspect/{category}/{test_id}` until complete

**V2 shortcut**: If also generating email previews, `POST /v2/preview/tests` can trigger all four content checks in one call by including content-checking fields in the request body. See [references/api-endpoints.md § Email Previews](references/api-endpoints.md#email-previews).

### CI/CD Gate

Create test, poll until complete, parse results, fail build on critical issues. See the canonical example above for the create-and-poll pattern. Use `jq` to extract status and results for scripting.

### Image Optimization

After validating images, optimize them:
- `POST /v1/inspect/images/{id}/optimize` -- optimize all images in a test
- `POST /v1/inspect/images/{id}/optimize/{image_id}` -- optimize a single image

### Code Analysis Filtering

Filter results by client support when retrieving code analysis:

`GET /v1/inspect/analyze/{id}?support_type=n&application_type=web`

Values: `support_type` = y/a/n/u (yes/anomaly/no/unknown), `application_type` = web/mobile/desktop.

## Gotchas and Best Practices

1. **Content-Type** -- All requests use `application/json` (not form data like Mailgun Send).
2. **Async results** -- Creates may return `"Processing"` or `"Completed"` depending on endpoint/workload. Always check the status before assuming results are available.
3. **Accessibility returns 201** -- All other creates return 200.
4. **Input types differ** -- Only accessibility uses `html` + `encoded`. Links and images take a `links` URL array. Code analysis takes `html` without `encoded`. Using the wrong body silently fails.
5. **`/html-validate` for HTML input** -- If you have HTML (not URLs), use the `/html-validate` sub-endpoint for links and images.
6. **Same auth as Mailgun Send** -- No separate credentials. Same API key, same Basic Auth.
7. **Region consistency** -- Use the same region (US or EU) as your Mailgun Send account.
8. **Pagination** -- List endpoints support `limit` (max 1000, default 100) and `skip` (default 0).

## Security

- **API key handling** — never expose `MAILGUN_API_KEY` in client-side code, logs, or committed source. Inspect uses the same key as Mailgun Send, so a leaked key grants both inspection and sending 

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