Mailisk is an end-to-end email testing platform. It allows you to receive emails with code and automate email tests.
- Get a unique subdomain and unlimited email addresses for free.
- Easily automate E2E password reset and account verification by catching emails.
- Virtual SMTP support to test outbound email without 3rd party clients.
For a more step-by-step walkthrough see the NodeJS Guide.
npm install --save-dev mailiskyarn add mailisk --devAfter installing the library import it and set the API Key
const { MailiskClient } = require("mailisk");
// create client
const mailisk = new MailiskClient({ apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY" });
// send email (using virtual SMTP)
await mailisk.sendVirtualEmail(namespace, {
from: "test@example.com",
to: `john@${namespace}.mailisk.net`,
subject: "Testing",
text: "This is a test.",
});
// receive email
const result = await mailisk.searchInbox(namespace);
console.log(result);This library wraps the REST API endpoints. Find out more in the API Reference.
Use searchInbox to fetch messages that arrived in a given namespace, optionally waiting until the first new mail shows up.
For the full parameter options see the endpoint reference.
Default behaviour:
- Waits until at least one new email arrives (override with
wait: false). - Times out after 5 minutes if nothing shows up (adjust via
requestOptions.timeout). - Ignores messages older than 15 minutes to avoid picking up leftovers from previous tests (change via
from_timestamp).
// wait up to the default 5 min for *any* new mail
const { data: emails } = await mailisk.searchInbox(namespace);
// custom 60-second timeout
await mailisk.searchInbox(namespace, {}, { timeout: 1000 * 60 });
// polling pattern — return immediately, even if inbox is empty
await mailisk.searchInbox(namespace, { wait: false });A common pattern is to wait for the email your UI just triggered (e.g. password-reset).
Pass to_addr_prefix so you don’t pick up stale messages:
const { data: emails } = await mailisk.searchInbox(namespace, {
to_addr_prefix: `john@${namespace}.mailisk.net`,
});Send an email using Virtual SMTP. This will fetch the SMTP settings for the selected namespace and send an email. These emails can only be sent to an address that ends in @{namespace}.mailisk.net.
const namespace = "mynamespace";
await mailisk.sendVirtualEmail(namespace, {
from: "test@example.com",
to: `john@${namespace}.mailisk.net`,
subject: "This is a test",
text: "Testing",
});This does not call an API endpoint but rather uses nodemailer to send an email using SMTP.
List all namespaces associated with the current API Key.
const namespacesResponse = await mailisk.listNamespaces();
// will be ['namespace1', 'namespace2']
const namespaces = namespacesResponse.map((nr) => nr.namespace);Get information about an attachment.
const attachment = await mailisk.getAttachment(attachmentId);Retrieve the raw bytes of a file attached to an email message.
Typically you call this after searchInbox → iterate over email.attachments[] → pass the desired attachment.id.
import fs from "node:fs";
import path from "node:path";
// assume 'email' was fetched via searchInbox()
const { id, filename } = email.attachments[0];
// download the attachment
const buffer = await mailisk.downloadAttachment(id);
// save to disk (preserve original filename)
fs.writeFileSync(filename, buffer);Streaming large files
downloadAttachment returns the entire file as a single Buffer. If you expect very large attachments and want to avoid holding them fully in memory, use getAttachment(attachmentId).download_url and stream with fetch / axios instead:
const meta = await mailisk.getAttachment(id);
const res = await fetch(meta.download_url);
const fileStream = fs.createWriteStream(filename);
await new Promise((ok, err) => res.body.pipe(fileStream).on("finish", ok).on("error", err));