Klaviyo Hello World

Overview

Minimal working example: create a profile, track an event, and query the result using the klaviyo-api Node.js SDK against a.klaviyo.com/api/*. This is the smoke test that proves your API key, SDK install, and network path all work end-to-end before you build anything real.

Prerequisites

• Completed the klaviyo-install-auth setup so credentials are in place.
• KLAVIYO_PRIVATE_KEY exported in your environment (a private API key with Profiles and Events scopes).
• klaviyo-api installed in the project (npm install klaviyo-api).
• tsx available to run the TypeScript file (npx tsx …).

Instructions

Write the code into a single hello-klaviyo.ts file, then run it with npx tsx hello-klaviyo.ts. The full script performs four things in order:

1. Create a profile — profilesApi.createProfile(...) with a JSON:API payload. The essential skeleton:

   import { ApiKeySession, ProfilesApi, ProfileEnum } from 'klaviyo-api';
   
   const session = new ApiKeySession(process.env.KLAVIYO_PRIVATE_KEY!);
   const profilesApi = new ProfilesApi(session);
   
   const profile = await profilesApi.createProfile({
     data: {
       type: ProfileEnum.Profile,
       attributes: { email: 'hello@example.com', firstName: 'Hello', lastName: 'World' },
     },
   });
   console.log('Profile created:', profile.body.data.id);
   

2. Track an event — eventsApi.createEvent(...) with a metric (created on first use) linked to the profile by email.

3. Retrieve the profile — profilesApi.getProfiles({ filter: '...' }) to confirm the write landed.

4. Run the combined script — npx tsx hello-klaviyo.ts.

For the complete step-by-step code (all payloads with camelCase and JSON:API detail), see the full walkthrough. For the single combined runnable script and variations, see worked examples.

Output

Running the combined script prints one line per operation. The profile ID is a 26-character ULID; Verified echoes the firstName read back from the API, proving the round trip succeeded:

Profile created: 01JXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Event tracked successfully
Verified: Hello

Error Handling

Error	Status	Cause	Solution
Duplicate profile	409	Email already exists	Use createOrUpdateProfile instead
Invalid email format	400	Malformed email	Validate email before sending
Missing metric name	400	Empty metric object	Always include metric.data.attributes.name
Unauthorized	401	Bad API key	Check KLAVIYO_PRIVATE_KEY env var

Examples

The canonical example is the single combined script that creates a profile, tracks an event, and reads the profile back — see the worked examples for the full file plus two common variations (idempotent upsert with createOrUpdateProfile, and a revenue event that sets value). The core shape of every call is the same JSON:API envelope:

await eventsApi.createEvent({
  data: {
    type: 'event',
    attributes: {
      metric: { data: { type: 'metric', attributes: { name: 'Hello World Test' } } },
      profile: { data: { type: 'profile', attributes: { email: 'hello@example.com' } } },
      properties: { source: 'hello-world' },
      time: new Date().toISOString(),
    },
  },
});

Key SDK Conventions

• camelCase properties: The SDK uses firstName, phoneNumber, lastName (not snake_case)
• JSON:API format: All payloads use { data: { type, attributes } } structure
• Response body: Access via response.body.data (not response.data)
• Profile identifiers: Use email, phoneNumber, or externalId to identify profiles

Resources

• Create Profile API
• Create Event API
• Get Profiles API
• klaviyo-api-node Examples

Next Steps

Proceed to klaviyo-local-dev-loop for development workflow setup, or klaviyo-core-workflow-a for profile and list management.