Sending

Connect Africa's Talking

Three fields, sixty seconds. Once your AT credentials are in, every SMS sent through Nudgel goes through your AT account at your AT rates.

Before you start

An Africa's Talking account
An API key from your AT dashboard (Settings → API Key)
Your AT username (shown at the top of the AT dashboard)
Optionally: an approved sender ID (a 3–11 character alphanumeric string customers see as the From)

Add the provider

Go to Settings → Providers in your dashboard
Click Add a provider
Pick Africa's Talking
Give it a label (e.g. "AT production")
Fill in the fields:

Field	Where to find it
`username`	Top of your AT dashboard. Use `sandbox` for the sandbox account.
`sender_id`	An approved alphanumeric sender ID. Optional — defaults to AT shared shortcodes.
`region`	`KE` · `UG` · `TZ` · `NG` · `ZA` · `GH` · `MW` · `RW` · `ZM` · or `sandbox`
`api_key`	AT dashboard → Settings → API Key. Encrypted before it leaves the form.

ENCRYPTED ON SUBMIT

Your API key is encrypted with a key generated specifically for your tenant before it touches our database. We can't read it; nobody else on your account can see the value once it's saved.

Send your first SMS

From the dashboard:

Go to Compose
SMS is auto-selected (it's the only channel you have a provider for)
Type a recipient in E.164 format (+254722000000)
Type a body
Click Send now

Within a second you'll see a green confirmation with the message id. Click see in delivery log to watch the status update from queued → sent → delivered.

From the API:

curl

curl -X POST https://api-raven-cloud.autotribes.app/v1/messages \
  -H "X-Raven-Key: rk_live_a3f7b2c1_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "channel": "sms",
    "to": "+254722000000",
    "body": "Hi Ada, welcome to Acme Co."
  }'

Sandbox vs live

Always test with the AT sandbox first. Set username tosandbox and region to sandbox. Sends go through the full pipeline but never bill you and never reach a real phone. Switch to your live username once you've verified the integration.

Sender IDs

AT requires sender IDs to be pre-approved per country. Apply through the AT dashboard (Settings → Sender IDs). Approval takes 1–3 business days in Kenya, longer elsewhere. Until approved, leave the sender_id field empty — AT will use a shared shortcode.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Most likely cause
Message status stuck at `queued`	Worker isn't picking up jobs. Check Redis is reachable.
Status `failed` with "Insufficient balance"	Top up your AT account.
Status `failed` with "Invalid sender_id"	Sender ID not approved for that region. Leave blank to use AT shared shortcodes.
Status `failed` with "Authentication"	Wrong API key — generate a new one in the AT dashboard and update the provider.
Status `failed` with "invalid number"	Number isn't in E.164. Add the `+` and country code.