> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.politicalcomms.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Test Project > Send test message(s). Pass `test_contacts` as an array of 1-50 objects. By default, merge fields in the message template are rendered from a sample contact in the project's contact list, not from the request; for a survey, every question renders from that same contact. With no list, tags resolve as they would for a recipient with an empty field (inline fallback, then the organization default, then the standard platform default). Any contact in `test_contacts` can instead supply `merge_values`: when present, no contact is sampled from the project's lists for that entry, every merge tag renders from the supplied values, and a tag not supplied (or supplied empty) falls back the same way an empty field would. This also drives survey follow-up question rendering, and works whether or not the project has a contact list attached. ## OpenAPI ````yaml /api-reference/openapi.json post /projects/{id}/test openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: Political Comms API summary: >- Direct-to-carrier political texting API for campaigns, PACs, advocacy organizations, fundraisers, and elected officials. description: >- Public REST API for the Political Comms platform. Surfaces include Projects (compose, test, schedule, send), Conversations (read inbound threads and reply inside them), Contact Lists (S3 import and analysis), Media Files, Organizations and hierarchy, Brands, Campaigns, Tracking Domains, Phone Numbers, Analytics, and Billing. Authentication is an API key passed in the `X-API-Key` header. Keys are generated from the dashboard at Admin → API and are prefixed `pc_live_`. All POST and PATCH endpoints that mutate state are designed to be safe to retry, with optional `Idempotency-Key` headers for stronger guarantees. Rate limit is 600 requests per minute per key (bursts up to 600, refilling at 10 per second, the same for every scope; the `X-RateLimit-Limit` header reports your key's exact limit, and `Retry-After` on a 429 is the seconds until your next request is allowed). Webhooks emit `message.sent`, `message.delivered`, `message.failed`, `message.replied`, and `link.clicked` events. Payloads are HMAC-signed; validate the signature before trusting any payload. A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server is available at https://docs.politicalcomms.com/mcp for AI agents that need to search the documentation programmatically. The developer hub at https://politicalcomms.com/developers/ has quickstart examples in cURL, raw HTTP, and Python. version: 1.4.1 termsOfService: https://politicalcomms.com/terms/ contact: name: Political Comms Support email: support@politicalcomms.com url: https://docs.politicalcomms.com license: name: Proprietary url: https://politicalcomms.com/terms/ x-logo: url: https://politicalcomms.com/images/brand/pcomms-logo-left-of-text.png altText: Political Comms backgroundColor: '#ffffff' href: https://politicalcomms.com/ x-mcp: url: https://docs.politicalcomms.com/mcp discovery_url: https://docs.politicalcomms.com/.well-known/mcp transport: http auth: none tools: - search_political_comms - query_docs_filesystem_political_comms - submit_feedback servers: - url: https://api.politicalcomms.com/v1 description: Production security: - ApiKeyAuth: [] tags: - name: Projects description: Create, edit, test, schedule, and inspect projects. - name: Conversations description: >- Read inbound threads and reply inside them from the same number. Conversations are created by project sends; the API never starts one. - name: Phone Numbers description: List phone numbers across 10DLC campaigns and toll-free verifications. - name: Toll-Free Verifications description: >- List toll-free verifications (carrier registrations) across your organization hierarchy. - name: Brands description: List brands across your organization hierarchy. - name: 10DLC Campaigns description: >- List 10DLC campaigns (carrier registrations) across your organization hierarchy. - name: Email Campaigns description: >- Create, schedule, and report on email campaigns. Pause, resume, and test sends are deliverability decisions a human makes while watching a send, and live in the dashboard. - name: Email Templates description: Create and read saved email templates. - name: Email Senders description: >- Read the sender identities (From addresses) on your verified domains. Identities carry the physical mailing address and paid-for-by disclaimer, so they are created and edited in the dashboard. - name: Email Suppressions description: >- Read, add, and lift suppressions in bulk. This is the primitive for keeping your own opt-out record in sync with ours. - name: Contact Lists description: List, import, and analyze contact lists. - name: Email Lists description: >- Create email lists, read their contacts, and bulk-upsert or import addresses. To stop mailing someone use Email Suppressions, which survives a re-import. - name: Media Files description: List, import, and fetch media files. - name: Sending Domains description: >- Read the sending domains in your organization and the DNS records to publish. Domains are added in the dashboard: DNS is published by hand, so creation is not part of the API. - name: Tracking Domains description: >- List active link-tracking domains. Use the returned ids as `link_tracking_domain_id` on project create/update. - name: Organizations description: List descendant organizations and hierarchy. - name: Billing description: Usage and billing data across your organization. - name: Analytics description: Message statistics and delivery performance. paths: /projects/{id}/test: post: tags: - Projects summary: Test Project description: >- Send test message(s). Pass `test_contacts` as an array of 1-50 objects. By default, merge fields in the message template are rendered from a sample contact in the project's contact list, not from the request; for a survey, every question renders from that same contact. With no list, tags resolve as they would for a recipient with an empty field (inline fallback, then the organization default, then the standard platform default). Any contact in `test_contacts` can instead supply `merge_values`: when present, no contact is sampled from the project's lists for that entry, every merge tag renders from the supplied values, and a tag not supplied (or supplied empty) falls back the same way an empty field would. This also drives survey follow-up question rendering, and works whether or not the project has a contact list attached. operationId: testProject parameters: - $ref: '#/components/parameters/IdPath' - $ref: '#/components/parameters/IdempotencyKeyHeader' requestBody: required: true content: application/json: schema: type: object required: - test_contacts properties: test_contacts: type: array minItems: 1 maxItems: 50 items: type: object required: - phone properties: phone: type: string pattern: ^\+1[2-9]\d{9}$ description: US/Canada number in E.164 format, e.g. +15555550100. merge_values: type: object additionalProperties: type: string maxLength: 1000 maxProperties: 50 propertyNames: pattern: ^[a-zA-Z0-9_]{1,64}$ description: >- Optional, keyed by merge-tag name (case-sensitive). When present, this contact is not sampled from the project's lists: every merge tag renders from these values instead, and a tag left out (or given an empty value) falls back the same way an empty field would for a real recipient (inline fallback, then the organization default, then the standard platform default). The link-tracking merge field also resolves from these values; a supplied `tracking_url` is ignored since it is a system placeholder. For a survey project, every follow-up question renders from these same values. example: test_contacts: - phone: '+15555550100' - phone: '+12074323729' merge_values: first_name: hunter voter_id: '123456' responses: '202': description: Test messages accepted and queued for delivery. content: application/json: schema: type: object properties: success: type: boolean data: type: object properties: project_id: type: string status: type: string test_messages: type: array items: type: object properties: test_message_id: type: string sent_to: type: string description: Masked recipient number, e.g. +1555****100. additionalProperties: true additionalProperties: true required: - success - data additionalProperties: true example: success: true data: project_id: 8a3f5c7e-2d91-4b64-ae08-6f1c9d3e7b52 status: awaiting_test test_messages: - test_message_id: 01J1F8B2ZC4D5E6F7G8H9J0K1M sent_to: +1555****100 '400': $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest' '401': $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized' '403': $ref: '#/components/responses/Forbidden' '404': $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound' '429': $ref: '#/components/responses/RateLimited' '500': $ref: '#/components/responses/InternalError' components: parameters: IdPath: name: id in: path required: true description: Resource ID schema: type: string IdempotencyKeyHeader: name: Idempotency-Key in: header required: false schema: type: string minLength: 16 maxLength: 200 description: >- Optional idempotency key: a unique string of 16-200 printable ASCII characters (a UUID is recommended). Retrying the write with the same key within 24 hours returns the stored response of the first call with an `X-Idempotent-Replayed: true` response header instead of executing it again. Reusing a key with a different request body returns `422` (`IDEMPOTENCY_MISMATCH`); a duplicate sent while the first call is still running returns `409` with a `Retry-After` header. Keys are scoped per endpoint and organization. responses: BadRequest: description: >- Invalid request (validation failure, malformed parameters, or a request the resource state does not allow). content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' example: error: Validation failed code: VALIDATION_ERROR correlationId: 030bf857-922f-4b82-8fca-c5b0769c1590 details: - field: organization_id message: Invalid UUID code: invalid_format Unauthorized: description: Missing, malformed, revoked, or expired API key. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/AuthErrorResponse' example: error: API key required message: Please provide an API key in the X-API-Key header Forbidden: description: >- The API key lacks the required permission scope, or the requested resource belongs to an organization outside the key's hierarchy. content: application/json: schema: oneOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/AuthErrorResponse' - $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' examples: missingScope: summary: Key lacks the required permission scope value: error: Insufficient permissions message: >- This API key does not have the required permissions: public:read orgAccessDenied: summary: Resource outside the key's organization hierarchy value: error: >- Access denied: You do not have permission to access this organization's data code: ORG_ACCESS_DENIED correlationId: de038205-7c9c-4d4a-99bc-d7275a52f07e NotFound: description: Resource not found or not visible to this API key. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' example: error: Project not found code: PROJECT_NOT_FOUND correlationId: de038205-7c9c-4d4a-99bc-d7275a52f07e RateLimited: description: Rate limit exceeded. Check the Retry-After header. headers: Retry-After: description: Seconds until the window resets. schema: type: integer content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/RateLimitErrorResponse' example: success: false error: Rate limit exceeded message: Maximum 600 requests per 60 seconds code: RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED statusCode: 429 retryAfter: 3 InternalError: description: Unexpected server error. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' example: error: An unexpected error occurred. Please try again later. code: INTERNAL_ERROR correlationId: de038205-7c9c-4d4a-99bc-d7275a52f07e schemas: ErrorResponse: type: object properties: error: type: string description: Human-readable error message. code: type: string description: >- Machine-readable error code, e.g. VALIDATION_ERROR, ORG_ACCESS_DENIED, PROJECT_NOT_FOUND. correlationId: type: string description: Request correlation ID; include it in support requests. details: type: - array - object description: >- Present on some errors. For VALIDATION_ERROR, an array of { field, message, code } with one entry per rejected field (field is the dotted path); an object for other codes (e.g. insufficient-balance shortfall). required: - error - code additionalProperties: true description: >- Standard error body produced by the API error handler for 4xx/5xx responses. AuthErrorResponse: type: object properties: error: type: string description: Short error summary. message: type: string description: Human-readable detail. required: - error - message additionalProperties: true description: >- Error body returned by the API-key authentication layer (401 and permission 403s). RateLimitErrorResponse: type: object properties: success: type: boolean enum: - false error: type: string message: type: string code: type: string enum: - RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED statusCode: type: integer enum: - 429 retryAfter: type: integer description: >- Seconds until the rate-limit window resets. Also sent as the Retry-After header. required: - success - error - code - statusCode - retryAfter additionalProperties: true securitySchemes: ApiKeyAuth: type: apiKey in: header name: X-API-Key description: >- Authenticate every request by passing your API key in the X-API-Key header. Keys are scoped to your organization hierarchy. ```` This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.