In this quickstart, you send a message to a channel with the Rocket.Chat REST API. All you need is a terminal with curl and a Rocket.Chat account.
Prerequisites
A Rocket.Chat workspace you can sign in to, and its URL (for example,
https://chat.example.com). If you don't have one, set up a test workspace as described in Environment.Your API credentials for that workspace — an auth token and user ID.
A channel you can post to, such as
#general.
Step 1: Get your auth tokens
Obtain your authToken and userId as described in Authenticate a REST Client — log in with your username and password, or use a personal access token. You pass these two values as headers in the next step.
Step 2: Post the message
Call the Post Message endpoint, passing your tokens as headers and the target channel and message text in the body:
curl -X POST https://<your-workspace-url>/api/v1/chat.postMessage \
-H "X-Auth-Token: your-auth-token" \
-H "X-User-Id: your-user-id" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "channel": "#general", "text": "Sample message" }'Expected result
A successful call returns the message that was created:
{
"ts": 1481748965123,
"channel": "general",
"message": {
"alias": "",
"msg": "This is a test!",
"parseUrls": true,
"groupable": false,
"ts": "2016-12-14T20:56:05.117Z",
"u": {
"_id": "y65tAmHs93aDChMWu",
"username": "graywolf336"
},
"rid": "GENERAL",
"_updatedAt": "2016-12-14T20:56:05.119Z",
"_id": "jC9chsFddTvsbFQG7"
},
"success": true
}Open the channel in your workspace — your message appears immediately.
Next steps
Add an alias, avatar, emoji, or rich attachments to your message - the Post Message reference documents every field.
Explore the other messaging endpoints in the Messaging API section.
Extend your workspace from the inside: Build Your First Apps-Engine App.
Prefer a step-by-step walkthrough in a test workspace? Start from Step 1: Register Yourself as a User.