Quick start

This walkthrough captures a sign-up email and follows its verification link from a browser test.

Start InboxTap

Run the server in a separate terminal:

npx inboxtap

The defaults are SMTP localhost:1025, HTTP http://localhost:8025, and recipient domain local.test.

Create an isolated inbox

Create one address for the current test. The client discovers the server domain and adds a random suffix to the alias, so parallel tests do not read one another's messages.

import { InboxTapClient } from "inboxtap/client";

const inboxTap = new InboxTapClient();
const inbox = await inboxTap.createInbox({ alias: "signup" });

An address looks like signup-f2a737d0-d1e@local.test. It does not need to be registered with the server before use.

Trigger the email

Pass inbox.address through the same application flow a user follows:

await page.getByLabel("Email").fill(inbox.address);
await page.getByRole("button", { name: "Create account" }).click();

Your application must be configured to deliver SMTP mail to InboxTap.

Await the result

Wait for a matching link and continue the browser flow:

const verificationUrl = await inbox.waitForLink({
  subject: /verify your email/i,
  contains: "/verify",
});

await page.goto(verificationUrl);

The extraction helpers return strings. Use waitForMessage() when the assertion needs the complete captured email, or messages() to inspect everything already received by the address.

const code = await inbox.waitForCode({ subject: /security code/i });
const key = await inbox.waitForMatch({ pattern: /api_key=([A-Za-z0-9_-]+)/ });

await inbox.clear();