Installation

Install

pnpm add @payload-solutions/plugin-resend-broadcasts

Payload 3.88+, @payloadcms/richtext-lexical, @payloadcms/ui, React 19 and react-dom are peer dependencies you already have. The plugin brings the resend SDK and React Email with it.

What you need in Resend

1. An API key with full access — the plugin manages contacts, segments, contact properties and broadcasts. Sending-only keys cannot.
2. A verified domain to send from. The from address must be on it.
3. Optionally, a webhook for unsubscribes — set up below, once the app is running.

RESEND_API_KEY=re_...
RESEND_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_...   # after you create the webhook

Both are read from the environment by default; pass apiKey and webhookSecret to the plugin to take them from somewhere else.

Add the plugin

import { resendBroadcastsPlugin } from '@payload-solutions/plugin-resend-broadcasts'

export default buildConfig({
  collections: [Users, Subscribers /* … */],
  plugins: [
    resendBroadcastsPlugin({
      from: 'Acme <[email protected]>',
      sources: [
        // Users opt in: the added "Subscribed to newsletters" checkbox starts off.
        { collection: 'users' },
        // A sign-up collection: whoever is in it wants the newsletter.
        {
          collection: 'subscribers',
          defaultSubscribed: true,
          properties: {
            plan: { type: 'string', value: ({ doc }) => doc.plan },
          },
        },
      ],
    }),
  ],
})

sources is the only required option, and every source collection must be in collections before the plugin runs. Add media: { collection: 'media' } to put images in campaigns — see Images; the media collection must be publicly readable. Sources explains the fields it adds and the mapping options; Configuration lists everything else.

Regenerate what Payload derives from the config

pnpm payload generate:importmap
pnpm payload generate:types

The import map registers the admin components (the Preview & send tab, the list and campaign sidebars, the resync button). The types pick up the new collections and the fields added to your sources. If your database uses migrations, create one now — the plugin adds columns to every source collection and three collections of its own.

First boot

Start the app. In the admin, a Newsletter group appears with Lists, Campaigns, Sync runs and Newsletter Settings.

1. Open Newsletter Settings and fill in the site name and the footer — who you are and why the reader gets this. The unsubscribe link is added under it automatically.
2. Create a List: a name and a source. Saving creates its Resend segment and fills it in the background; the sidebar shows the member count when it is done.
3. If the source collections already held documents before the plugin was installed, click Resync everything with Resend above the Lists table once. It creates the missing contacts and fills every segment.
4. Create a Campaign, choose the list, write it, and open Preview & send.

Connect the unsubscribe webhook

Resend handles the unsubscribe link in every broadcast. To mirror those unsubscribes in Payload, add a webhook in the Resend dashboard (Webhooks → Add endpoint):

• Endpoint URL: https://your-site.com/api/resend-broadcasts/webhook
• Events: contact.updated and contact.created

Copy its signing secret into RESEND_WEBHOOK_SECRET and redeploy. Until the secret is set the endpoint answers 503, and a nightly or manual resync still pulls unsubscribes back. See Webhooks.

Without a Resend account

The plugin's own dev app runs against an in-memory Resend mock, so you can try every screen without a key. The mock lives in the repository at packages/plugin-resend-broadcasts/dev/resend-mock; point resend.baseUrl at a copy of it in your own project if you want the same for local development. See Recipes.

Where things live afterwards

Next: Sources.