> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.theroyalglow.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Notifications & Email

> How Royal Glow reaches customers and staff — transactional email via Resend, marketing email via Brevo, React Email templates, and browser Web Push notifications.

# Notifications & Email

<Info>
  **In one line:** Royal Glow reaches people through **email** (the durable
  record — Resend for transactional, Brevo for marketing) and **Web Push** (the
  instant nudge). All three are guarded extension points: with a key absent the
  send is a no-op that logs and returns cleanly.
</Info>

Royal Glow keeps people informed through two channels: **email** (the durable
record — confirmations, invoices, reminders, offers) and **Web Push** (the
instant nudge that lands on a phone or laptop even when the site is closed).
This page covers how each is wired up and which service handles what.

<Info>
  Email and push are **guarded extension points**. Each helper reads its keys
  directly behind a truthy guard — Resend behind `RESEND_API_KEY`, Brevo behind
  `BREVO_API_KEY`, and Web Push behind the VAPID keys. With a key absent, the
  send is a no-op that logs and returns cleanly, so the app builds and runs with
  no email or push configured.
</Info>

## Why two email services

Because authentication is Google OAuth only, the app sends **zero auth emails** —
no password resets, no magic links. Every email is a business event. Those split
naturally into two very different infrastructure problems, so they use two
services.

| Concern                | Transactional             | Marketing              |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------- | ---------------------- |
| Volume                 | Low, 1-to-1               | High, 1-to-many        |
| Speed                  | Instant delivery critical | Scheduled / batched    |
| Attachments            | Yes (PDF invoices)        | No                     |
| Unsubscribe management | Not required              | **Legally required**   |
| Deliverability focus   | Individual inbox          | Bulk sender reputation |

## Email providers

**Resend** handles transactional mail; **Brevo** handles marketing. The split is
strict — invoices and confirmations never go through the marketing pipeline, and
promotional blasts never go through the transactional one.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Resend — transactional">
    Resend is built for instant, reliable 1-to-1 delivery, has first-class support
    for PDF attachments (invoices), and integrates natively with React Email. Its
    free tier — **3,000 emails/month, 100/day** — covers the entire launch phase.
    All transactional mail is sent `from` `hello@theroyalglow.in`.

    | Email                                      | Triggered by                                  |
    | ------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------- |
    | Welcome / onboarding                       | Onboarding completed                          |
    | Booking confirmation (pending)             | Booking created                               |
    | Booking approved / rejected                | Receptionist confirms or rejects              |
    | Appointment reminder (24h / 1h)            | Scheduled reminder job                        |
    | Invoice — service                          | Booking moves to `completed` (+ PDF)          |
    | Invoice — membership purchase / session    | Membership created / session recorded (+ PDF) |
    | Membership expiry reminder (30d / 7d / 1d) | Daily expiry job                              |
    | Membership expired                         | Auto-expire job                               |
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Brevo — marketing">
    Brevo is built for bulk sending to subscriber lists and, critically, manages
    **unsubscribe automatically** — a legal requirement for marketing email under
    CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and India's DPDP Act. Its free tier is **300 emails/day with
    unlimited contacts**.

    | Email                             | Triggered by                      |
    | --------------------------------- | --------------------------------- |
    | Post-service follow-up            | 2 days after a completed booking  |
    | Re-engagement (inactive 60+ days) | Brevo automation                  |
    | Seasonal / festival offer         | Manual campaign                   |
    | New offer announcement            | Owner publishes an offer          |
    | Membership renewal nudge          | 7 days after a membership expired |
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

<Warning>
  Marketing email requires explicit consent. A customer is only added to Brevo
  lists when they tick the marketing consent box at onboarding
  (`marketing_consent = true`). Transactional email — invoices and booking
  confirmations — is always sent and cannot be fully disabled.
</Warning>

## React Email templates

Transactional templates are built with **React Email** as typed `.tsx`
components in `packages/emails/`, styled in Royal Glow's brand. They receive
strongly typed props (money as integer **paise**, dates as **DD/MM/YYYY**) and
render to HTML at send time.

<Tree>
  <Tree.Folder name="packages/emails" defaultOpen>
    <Tree.File name="welcome.tsx — Onboarding complete" />

    <Tree.File name="booking-confirmation.tsx — Booking pending" />

    <Tree.File name="booking-approved.tsx — Confirmed: staff, pricing, calendar" />

    <Tree.File name="booking-rejected.tsx — Rejected: reason + rebook CTA" />

    <Tree.File name="appointment-reminder.tsx — 24h / 1h reminder" />

    <Tree.File name="invoice-service.tsx — Service invoice (Salon + SPA non-member)" />

    <Tree.File name="invoice-membership-purchase.tsx — Membership enrolment invoice" />

    <Tree.File name="invoice-membership-session.tsx — ₹0 session confirmation" />

    <Tree.File name="membership-expiry-reminder.tsx — 30d / 7d / 1d expiry warning" />

    <Tree.File name="membership-expired.tsx — Expired: renewal CTA" />

    <Tree.File name="membership-hours-update.tsx — Periodic hours-remaining nudge" />
  </Tree.Folder>
</Tree>

A typical send generates the invoice PDF, then hands the React component and the
attachment to Resend:

```ts theme={null}
await resend.emails.send({
  from: 'Royal Glow <hello@theroyalglow.in>',
  to: customer.email,
  subject: `Hey ${customer.firstName}, your Royal Glow receipt is ready.`,
  react: InvoiceServiceEmail(props),
  attachments: [{
    filename: `RoyalGlow-Invoice-${invoice.invoiceNumber}.pdf`,
    content: pdfBuffer,
  }],
})
```

<Info>
  Brevo marketing emails do **not** use React Email. They are designed in
  Brevo's drag-and-drop editor and managed entirely in the Brevo dashboard, so
  marketing content can change without a deploy.
</Info>

## Web Push notifications

Web Push delivers a short, tappable alert to a customer's device — booking
confirmed, reminder due, gems earned — even when the tab is closed. It uses the
browser's native Push API and the VAPID protocol; no third-party push vendor is
involved.

### Subscription flow

<Steps>
  <Step title="Permission">
    The browser's native prompt is shown *after* the customer's first successful
    booking, not on first load.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Subscribe">
    Once granted, the service worker calls
    `pushManager.subscribe({ userVisibleOnly: true, applicationServerKey: VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY })`,
    returning a `PushSubscription`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Store">
    The client posts it to `POST /api/push/subscribe`, which upserts a row in the
    `push_subscription` table keyed by `endpoint` and bound to the signed-in user.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Send">
    When an event fires, the server fetches the user's subscriptions and the
    `web-push` library signs and delivers the payload; the service worker shows the
    notification.
  </Step>
</Steps>

### Storage

`POST /api/push/subscribe` persists the subscription serialised by the browser's
`PushManager`:

| Name          | Type     | Required | Description                       |
| ------------- | -------- | -------- | --------------------------------- |
| `endpoint`    | `string` | Yes      | Push service URL — the upsert key |
| `keys.p256dh` | `string` | Yes      | Client public key                 |
| `keys.auth`   | `string` | Yes      | Client auth secret                |
| `userId`      | `string` | Yes      | Bound to the session user         |

`DELETE /api/push/subscribe` soft-unsubscribes by deactivating the row for a
given endpoint. Both routes are session-scoped, so one user can never touch
another's subscriptions. See the
[Notifications & Realtime API](/docs/api-reference/notifications) for the full
request and response contracts.

<Info>
  Web Push is gated on the **VAPID keys** (`VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY` /
  `VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY`). When they are absent, subscription and delivery no-op and
  log — the booking still succeeds, it simply sends no push. Reminder jobs always
  check the customer's preferences before sending, and skip a booking that is no
  longer confirmed.
</Info>

## Related links

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Notifications & Realtime API" href="/docs/api-reference/notifications">
    POST /api/push/subscribe and the in-app notification feed.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Realtime (Ably)" href="/docs/realtime">
    Live in-page updates — the instant counterpart to push.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Background Jobs" href="/docs/background-jobs">
    The scheduled jobs that trigger reminders and marketing email.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Jobs API" href="/docs/api-reference/jobs">
    The job endpoints that send reminders and follow-ups.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Environment Variables" href="/docs/environment-variables">
    Resend, Brevo, and VAPID keys.
  </Card>
</Columns>


## Related topics

- [Notifications](/content/docs/features/notifications.md)
- [Realtime (Ably)](/content/docs/realtime.md)
- [Billing & Invoicing](/content/docs/features/billing-invoicing.md)
- [Staff Scheduling & Leave](/content/docs/features/scheduling-leave.md)
- [Overview](/content/docs/index.md)